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Hey everyone,

I would like to upgrade from my current NEO airbrush. I have had it for a year and after experimenting with several brands of paint, thinner, flow aid and air pressure combinations I cannot get the NEO to do any fine work without almost instantly clogging. It’s fine for base coating but that’s about it.

My main interest is 15mm WW2 minis and doing the intricate German camouflage patterns with the NEO is incredibly difficult.

Has anyone had any luck doing this type of work with the Iwata Eclipse or the Badger Patriot series? I’d like to keep it in the $200-$250 Canuckistani Dollars if possible

Thanks!

...Canuckistani... that is hilarious!!!

I do not know about the Badger series, but have had a badger or two in my life. My current extra fine detail brush is in the Iwata Eclipse range, I believe, but has a smaller cup. In any case, once you get your paint thinned properly, it does the finest work I have ever seen. However, I simply cannot get acrylic paint to work well at all and only use enamel/thinner-based paints or inks and never have a clog problem.

Acrylic being water based along with the pigment, vehicle, carrier ratio requires a thicker nozzle, period. I can take normal enamel paints (I usually use flat paints) and add 20% mineral spirits and run it through my Iwata with the smallest nozzle and never an issue. Spirits atomize much finer than water. And, believe it or not, clean-up is easier for me, since mineral spirits will clean dried enamel. Water will not clean up dried acrylic!

However, trying to do camo on a 15mm mini is crazy tiny detail!!!

Thanks MDSW

I did give enamels a thought as well but I’m concerned about stinking up the house. I have an unfinished room in the basement with a door but the furnace is in there. Anything I spray goes right through the vents when the thing kicks on (which is frequent in wintertime Ontario).

One must always consider the tenuous peace that exists between a hobbyist and his or her spouse

I used a Badger Sotar 20/20, using Vallejo paints, to do some forest camo on some Team Yankee West German tanks. I don't know what the Sotar 20/20 goes for in Canuckistan, but its got a small cup and fine needles, definitely a nice brush for detail work.

Although I tried to use it on my Titanicus models to do some very fine work, and couldn't get it to cooperate (maybe beginners luck). Hope that helps.

If you decide to go that route, various Sotar sets go for $100-160 on Amazon, in US dollars. That'd be roughly 130-210 Canuckistani kopeks in the conversion - well within budget, but also without accounting for shipping to the Great White North. It's definitely intended as a detail brush - small color cup and the fine needle/nozzle is 0.2mm, I believe. Don't recall the measurements on the larger ones, but they are available. Sotar parts aren't particularly cheap, but Badger is generally good at ensuring the availability of parts and repair service.

As an admittedly less than expert airbrush painter, I do have difficulty getting superfine lines using paints like VMC/VGC/GW. Alcohol-based acrylics (Tamiya), enamels, and lacquers - basically anything using a thinner with lower surface tension that flashes of faster - should allow you to spray finer patterns more easily and consistently. When I eventually get to projects that require such details, that's my plan of attack, for what little it's worth.