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I am looking into purchasing an air brush. I have the CItadel brand and it works decently but I hate having to buy propellant.

Are there any good, HIGH QUALITY air brushes that dont require propellant?

What do you all use?

Thanks,
Lopis

Depends on what your price range is

you can get a decent setup for around 100-200

but if you want a real set up it can go way past that quickly

200 dollar range is acceptable.

What brands would you suggest? Do they require that I buy a separate compressor?

Im pretty new to the airbrush bit. Any brand or item suggestions would be helpful.

Been researching them but there is just so much to choose from and a lot of specs I just don't understand.

Thanks

I personally use Badger renegade krome
http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/barekr2in1.html
and i have no issue with it.

Generally all you need is a duel action and gravity fed
and a compressor that has a decent regulator and a moister trap and a tank being recommended as well.

Thats a sweet looking spray gun. Do you use one of their compressors as well? Which?

Thanks for all your input!

A junky harbor freight hobby compressor that came with a regulator and moister trap.

Its actually not that bad and doesn't have a problem holding pressure (no pulsing ether)

you shouldn't go cheap though on a compressor, http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/d3000.html
something like this is a decent iirc

I see. So looks like about 300 to get started. For a decent setup.

Not cheap.. lol who woulda guessed huh? Ah well. I really think I could produce much higher quality work with the airbrush.

Apreciate your help man!

Theres a fair few decent airbrush brands around. Some notable ones include;

Iwata
Badger
Paasche
Harder & Steenbeck
Develbiss (generally these guys are a big spray gun company, but they do an airbrush)

I really like Harder & Steenbeck. The engineering that has gone into my Evolution Silverline is sublime!
Cannot fault the thing.

Its a good idea to consider what spare parts are available to you. Eventually you will need to replace something from wear and tear. Pick your brush based on what shops you can find that do spares with reasonable postage to you.

In the UK, Everythingairbrush.com do a fairly large selection of brushes, spares and parts. Might be worth having a look at the selection even though your from usa? To give you an idea of what your looking for.

http://www.everythingairbrush.com/

i picked up a new compressor and 2 airbrushes (cheap brand) from ebay for £90 new.

the compressor has a moisture trap and a tank, the airbrushes were clearly cheap but for learning the basics they were worth having since i broke one through not really knowing how to clean properly, if that had been an expensive airbrush i would have been upset.

not that i have the basics down and am trying to improve further i am looking into upgrading the airbrush, the compressor will probably be used for a long time tho.

if you shop around you can find some good cheap brands that will make a great step up before you shell out a fortune.

Shaxx wrote:
i picked up a new compressor and 2 airbrushes (cheap brand) from ebay for £90 new.

the compressor has a moisture trap and a tank, the airbrushes were clearly cheap but for learning the basics they were worth having since i broke one through not really knowing how to clean properly, if that had been an expensive airbrush i would have been upset.

not that i have the basics down and am trying to improve further i am looking into upgrading the airbrush, the compressor will probably be used for a long time tho.

if you shop around you can find some good cheap brands that will make a great step up before you shell out a fortune.

I second this. You’re going to be taking apart your airbrush to clean, cleaning it badly at first, and painting pretty bad while learning the basics anyway. Its better to learn with something which costs £10 rather than £100. Additionally, this set up usually comes with 2, both dual action with different feed methods so you can decide which feed methods you prefer, which is important when buying a expensive brush.

I've not actually had any major problems with the cheapy ones, bit of spitting at first but was unrelated to the quality of the airbrush. I am looking to upgrade soon, but like Shaxx I’m probably going to use the compressor until (if it) it pops.

Edit: You should also take into account the price of paints. Last night I ordered a few brushes, a 72 Model Air paint set, Thinner and Cleaner which I totaled £172 from Wayland. Obviously it is not necessary to buy 72 paints off the bat, but gives you an idea. Also take into account the fact during the life of an airbrush you will have to replace parts. (On a expensive airbrush anyway, cheaper ones are more just throwaway)

Is it worth it? My point of view yes defiantly.

Edit2: BTW any of these will seem amazing next to your current set up. I believe the Citadel brand is a spray gun, not an airbrush?The major difference being the Spray gun dow not work differently to say a spray can of paint. Dual action airbrushing (Dual action being important in anything you buy, or it might as well be another spray gun) is controlling the air and liquid flow at the same time, which makes mean you can have high air and paint flow (normal spraying/ basing) or less paint application per spray etc etc. Its a massive difference.

 Desubot wrote:
I personally use Badger renegade krome
http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/barekr2in1.html
and i have no issue with it.

Generally all you need is a duel action and gravity fed
and a compressor that has a decent regulator and a moister trap and a tank being recommended as well.

While I have not used the Renegade Krome personally, I have two collegues who do awesome work and swear by the thing.

I may not vouch for it but I vouch for them.

Good choice and affordable. I might even get one next year.

It's all good advice here. If you've got arthritis, like me, a pistol-type grip may help - something like this http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/tritium-tg-airbrush-combo-kit.html.

But that's a frightfully pricey piece of kit, though.

I learned on a cheaply china knock off of what looks like an iwata. I'm glad too because I broke one of the cheapies during maintenance (usually paint tip comes off but not on it) and bent the crap out of the other brushes needle.

I've upgraded to a sotar 20/20 and the difference is night and day, but the needles and paint tips for that thing run upwards of $30 each and so I would not suggest it to start.

I have a proper 6gallon pancake compressor with a moisture trap added and a hacked hose to fit my brushes. It cost about as much as a fancy airbrush comp bug it does other things too.

Wow there have been a lot of replies over the night time! Thank you so much!

So what I am hearing is not to drop about $300 on a new setup but instead buy a cheaper airbrush that comes with a compressor that I can use later after I replace the airbrush with something better?

Ill check out Ebay to see what I can find. Still any suggestions on cheap-o brands would be nice too.

Thanks again all!

Lopis


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Found a few examples here. What do you all think of these? All around $100 on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-3-Airbrush-Kit-6-Primary-Colors-Air-Compressor-Dual-Action-Createx-Hobby-Set-/390593716868?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5af1332284

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MASTER-AIRBRUSH-Gravity-Dual-Action-KIT-SET-Air-Compressor-Spray-Createx-Paint-/190749076540?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c6987ec3c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-3-Airbrush-Kit-6-Primary-Colors-Air-Compressor-Dual-Action-Createx-Hobby-Set-/320807478352?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab19da450

The last one is the one I find most intriguing but again, I have no idea what im looking at.

Lol starting to get the keywords though! These are all dual action and the compressors they come with have a water trap.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Possibly a good tip of you end up getting your compressor separate is to use the 40% off coupon at Michaels or hobby lobby. A cheap set on eBay may still be the best bet, though thecoupon is ggood for people who like to walk into a store to buy stuff.

I am always down to get my new toys right then and there. But I just moved to a small town so shipping is prolly gonna be the way to go.

DId you check out those links I posted? All master brand, but much cheaper than the 300 bucks I was planning on dropping.

The compressor would be good for a while right? Change out the airbrush after I break/learn enough from it?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another question I realized:

Do I need to use airbrush paints for these? Or can I use my citadel and vallejo paints?

The cheap brand i used to start out with was labled 'finespray', again nothing particularly wrong with it. But I will say that the build quality of hte finespray, versus my Harder & Steenbeck is so massive that i can say that your likely to break the cheap one, while unlikely to break the pricey one in so many ways (obviously all airbrushes are prone to needle or tip damage)

Even something as simple as the way the nozzle fits to the brush; On my cheap brush it uses the most irritating teeny weeny thread with a teeny weeny o-ring to seal it.... utter crap tbh!
The H&S piece just slots into the air cap, which screws on using a much more use friendly sized thread. the seal is ptfe and is less prone to solvent damage because of this.
The nozzle may well cost 5times as much for the H&S brush... but it also doesnt break nearly ten times as often.
Swings and roundabouts! theres some things that will really mess up any airbrush. One common one is to use a poor cleaning chemical and damage all the chrome plating.
Vinegar corrodes chrome, and is present in most glass cleaners as a surfactant - glass cleaners get used to thin paints...your supposed to use automotive glass cleaners as these will be vinegar free to save any chrome on the car's trim.

Paints; well airbrush specific paints are nice and all, but not necessary. Any (well almost) paints can be thinnned to be sprayed.
I spray citadel paints often, thinning with Liquitex Airbrush Medium - very fluid acrylic binder that will reduce viscosity of paints without damaging the acrylic film's tension (actually in many cases it will improve it as Liquitex products are genuinly pretty top notch)

The airbrush specific paints... do perform differently though;
If you try your hand at freehand airbrushing on hard surfaces... maybe a custom car panel ... then you will learn about the things you can pull off with an airbrush using allsorts of paints; opaque, semi opaque, transparent, candys, metallics, pearlescents, irridescants, lacquers....
Did you know that an airbrush is capable of pulling a brush stroke of comparible width to its nozzle size?
Its not an easy task, and requires 'over thinned' paints. ... Tbh you'd struggle to find any acrylics thin enough, with strong enough pigmentation for achieving this kind of work. Liquitex professional acrylic inks are the best I've come across before hitting water born, urethane and celluslose paints which all can get much thinner than water based acrylics and still have a huge pigment density.

This is something that wont be overly useful for models, unless yovue got a big tank or something to freehand the sides of....most infantry models will not have a place suitable to do it on.
to that end, i'd say its unworth shelling out for airbrush specific paints in the acrylic category. Theyre not doing anything special for you besides giving you less paint for your money (its thinned out so some of its volume is now thinners)... that said... some peoples time is incredibly valuable and it might be well worth the saved minutes of thinning paint before you start to have a selection premixed up. (nothing stopping you buying some bottles and premixing your own)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-3-5-Gravity-Dual-Action-AIRBRUSH-KIT-Tank-Air-Compressor-Hobby-Cake-Tattoo-/140996036979?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d404c973

This is a lot like the kit i got when i got my first set up.

The tank i was recommended because it wont cause the compressor to over heat as much and you dont get much pulsing ( i have nothing to compare with so i dont know how much of a problem this is)

I still think if you are used to the games workshop flamer spray gun then you should start cheap. a real airbrush is a whole different kettle of fish and i am almost certain you will break something when you fist try to clean or maintain it.
I broke one airbrush just by over tightening the nozzle (if its not tight enough it wont spray properly) and i have since never made that mistake again.
Once you have made the mistakes on a cheap bit of kit and learnt how to get the most from an airbrush you could upgrade the airbrush and keep the compressor until it finally dies.

I plan on upgrading to something similar to this soon but im not 100% sure

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harder-Steenbeck-EVOLUTION-SILVERLINE-fPc-AIRBRUSH-/190853784756?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c6fc5a4b4

Shaxx wrote:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-3-5-Gravity-Dual-Action-AIRBRUSH-KIT-Tank-Air-Compressor-Hobby-Cake-Tattoo-/140996036979?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d404c973


I broke one airbrush just by over tightening the nozzle (if its not tight enough it wont spray properly) and i have since never made that mistake again.
Once you have made the mistakes on a cheap bit of kit and learnt how to get the most from an airbrush you could upgrade the airbrush and keep the compressor until it finally dies.

I plan on upgrading to something similar to this soon but im not 100% sure

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harder-Steenbeck-EVOLUTION-SILVERLINE-fPc-AIRBRUSH-/190853784756?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c6fc5a4b4

That H&S brush you linked, does not have the same design fault your describing there; the nozzle doesnt have a thread, it just sits inside the air cap, which only needs finger tightening.
Seriously having a good quality airbrush makes ten million percent difference to its user friendlyiness... thats not so say you get what you pay for though. Some of the high priced ones are just as crap as the cheap ones, falling victim to the same basic design flaws (such as the tiny nozzle thread you.. and a million other people broke).