Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I have a physically-disabled friend who loves painting 40k minis but his hand cramps after a short while painting, and it hurts for the rest of the day. He's managed to power through and paint a nice-looking death guard army despite this, but I feel he could do a lot more if he just had the right tools. His birthday is coming up, and I've talked to him about maybe getting him an airbrush.

So dakka hivemind, what airbrushes would you recommend? Also, is this a bad idea for someone sensitive to spray-primer? Alternately, are there any paintbrush sets that you'd recommend for someone with severe hand cramps?

What part of the spray primer are they sensitive to? You can thin paints down with just water to run through the airbrush, so all you're really spraying out is paint and water.

Regarding the airbrush, it depends on how much you're willing to spend. I'm a huge proponent of the Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CR+, but that's in the $400-$500 range. Even their lower-level Evolution is in the $300 range, although I think if you're going to spend the money, I'd say they're well worth the money.

I know Badger, Paasche and Iwata have mid and lower price-ranged entries, but I'm not entirely familiar with their product lines.

Is an airbrush going to be any better on his hand? If anything I'd say it has the potential to be worse...

You get trigger activated airbrushes that might be more cramp-friendly, but they may be more expensive again.

Yeah I think the double action of the airbrush triggers, beigg quite intensive on your finger and forearm tendons probably isn't going to help really. It's hard going. Have you considered things like painting handles, brush grips (?) if they exist, or other things to possibly make painting easier

Aha, I was under the impression airbrushes were a simple thing, like just a button-push. I'll drop by my local art supplies store over lunch, see if they have anything.

You can buy single action airbrushes but they're only really good for basecoating and getting first stage highlights down on larger models. The detail work still needs a brush and dual-action brushes give you an added tool.

If he's after fast painting, single action is pretty decent as it's literally point and shoot.

Yeah the double action triggers require you to apply pressure both downwards, and forwards to control the spray, and developing the technique is quite a skill, requiring fine motor control and can be quite strenuous on the forearms and fingers.

It depends entirely on how his hand cramps up though. Using an airbrush would still save a lot of time over traditional brush painting on larger models, so it might be OK. You don't have to put much pressure on it, but after a 2-3 hour airbrushing session, then yea your hand starts to get a little tired from pressing the button.

That 2-3 hour airbrush session though is like 4x faster than brush painting, so it's still possible it would be less cramp-inducing for your buddy.

Nobody's addressed the elephant in the room so far, so I will.

CLEANING THE DAMN AIRBRUSH.

This is easily the longest, most involved and strenuous on the hand part of airbrushing, blasting water and cleaner through it multiple times to clean out leftover paint. Especially if you use paints not designed for airbrushes and you're fiddling around trying to find the right dilution (yay, clogs). I'm sure some of the airbrush veterans who do tons of effects might disagree, but I'm far less ambitious with my airbrush (basecoats, zenithals and some blends) and I spent a crapton of time and effort cleaning the beast.

Citadel contrast paints are out next month. Buy him a set of those.

Also, examine his painting technique. If he's cramping that badly, he's holding the brush too hard and probably moving the brush with his fingers, where a lot of painting can be done from the wrist while holding the brush quite loosely, between the fore and middle fingers rather than gripping it light a pen.

Here you are friend my "this is what you should get If you are serious about trying an airbrush"

Airbrush is one of those things that you get what you pay for. I have been using them for some 3 of years now and love them, they are a totally different beast than the brush and give different looks for sure. The list below will get you everything you need to get a basic good starting set up. The Patriot 105 is a killer starter brush, that will work for basing armies and doing simple highlights quick. You will need to play around with paint until you find out what mixture works for your brush. Generally I shoot at around 17~20 psi with paints and 30 with washes, but this all stuff you need to experiment with. One thing about airbrushes is you can't just load it and get the results you want, a lot of it is getting the feel for it and finding out what mixes work

http://a.co/6LEOASF

As mentioned cleaning can be a pain but DO NOT USE WIRE BRUSHES TO CLEAN THEM! I can't stress that enough. Those wire cleaning brushes are trash and will destroy your airbrush. Many airbrushes rely on tight fitting pieces that prevent air from.going into places it should not. By scrapping with the wire brushes you are breaking that seal of metal on metal and will wreck your brush.

Cleaning I very easy, all you need is water and alcohol.
Once you are done do the following

1. Dump the pot into the waste, fill pot with water, dump and wipe

2. Fill pot with water and spray it out into waste

3. Fill pot with water spray into paper towel until damp, with the needle pulled back, press the wet towel against the tip and blow. This create a back flow and pushes out any dried stuck bits. Dump out the contents right away

4. Fill with water one last time, spray a bit and dump out

At this point you are ready to switch to a different shade or color or colo all together, IE to a darker or brighter green for example or to a blue. Below is what to do if you want to switch to white or a off white, and or storage for long term

5. Fill with alcohol and repeat steps 1-4, this is for going to whites/Grey's or short term a few weeks storage

6 for deep cleaning after step 5 pull the needle out, put alcohol in yourpalm and pull the needle through your palm, not puahing it through. Also place the nosel, cap, and crown into a small bowl filled with running alcohol and let soak for a few minutes

7. Put alcohol in the pot and use the pink applicators in my list, or q tipa, to scrub the inside of the pot and the goove the needle sit in.

That is for long term, several months of no use or if you have a clog