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I'm sure this gets asked all the time but...what would be a decent airbrush and compressor to buy? I've never used one before but I would like to learn.

Watch this video on airbrushes then come back and ask the question.

You can thank me later. Seriously. This should be mandatory viewing for airbrush novices.

+1 to that sentiment.

The only contradiction i'd add is what he says about airbrush cleaning kits. While he's bang on about the tip, the actual piping to the tip, especially if you're using jars, *does* benefit from good pipe cleaners, especially if, as you will, they get left out to dry by accident at some point.

As for airbrush models i've been using the entry Harder and Steenbeck for about 6 months now over my cheap Chinese jobs, and the only reason I notice a difference is because my compressor got dramatically upgraded. Using a good airbrush with a bad compressor is not even remotely comparable to using a bad airbrush on a good compressor - the ability to provide constant and controllable airflow will make even cheap stuff capable of great things. As such i'll echo what I remember him saying; the compressor matters more than the airbrush.

Regarding the compressor, then, I use a Bambi BB8 which is super daft crazy expensive, and worth every penny. The commision airbrusher I know uses the Sparmax TC-620X and swears by it.

I'm an airbrush noob, but I tried about 5 after doing months of research. Information out there is mostly subjective, or the "spend $700 or go home" variety.
After all my trial and error I found that a badger krome on amazon is a very good price vs quality. You also get several advanced functions you might miss with something cheaper.

I have a $20 PointZero airbrush and cheap compressor from Amazon. They work pretty well, although the trigger on the airbrush gets stuck in the down position and I have to manually push it up with my finger when I want it to stop blasting air. It's not a huge deal, but I imagine that is the kind of thing you'll avoid with a nicer model.

 malamis wrote:
+1 to that sentiment.

The only contradiction i'd add is what he says about airbrush cleaning kits. While he's bang on about the tip, the actual piping to the tip, especially if you're using jars, *does* benefit from good pipe cleaners, especially if, as you will, they get left out to dry by accident at some point.

As for airbrush models i've been using the entry Harder and Steenbeck for about 6 months now over my cheap Chinese jobs, and the only reason I notice a difference is because my compressor got dramatically upgraded. Using a good airbrush with a bad compressor is not even remotely comparable to using a bad airbrush on a good compressor - the ability to provide constant and controllable airflow will make even cheap stuff capable of great things. As such i'll echo what I remember him saying; the compressor matters more than the airbrush.

I haven't watched the video, I was going to but holy hell it's an hour and a half. Seriously what happened to the long lost art of writing

A compressor only needs to be as good as it needs to be. If it can supply the pressure and flow rate you need at that point the only other thing that can be a problem is stuff downstream of the compressor, ie. pressure regulator and lack of moisture traps.

Technically you can get away with something that is low on the flow rate if you have a tank, you might just occasionally have to wait for the tank to refill.... but ideally you just make sure the compressor has the flowrate you need (which for airbrushing is not much anyway).

To that end I'll say I wouldn't buy anything less than 1/6 hp. I've used a 1/6 hp compressor and I think it's the least amount of power I'd be happy living with. If you're using mini spray guns rather than airbrushes you need more than that, but most wargame hobbyists I've met stick to airbrushes (the mini spray gun would be great if you paint a lot of Forge World Titans and other very large models which have lots of flat space like model cars and planes).

There is a bunch of really cheap compressors that don't come with regulators, they're just super cheap and use a bleed valve - personally I'd avoid those as the pressure control on them can be fiddly and often they aren't powerful enough (even though they're oftened packaged with cheap crappy airbrushes).

Regarding the compressor, then, I use a Bambi BB8 which is super daft crazy expensive, and worth every penny. The commision airbrusher I know uses the Sparmax TC-620X and swears by it.

Holy hell those are expensive. If you're trying to scare people away from airbrushing that's a good way to do it You absolutely do not need something like that.

Honestly if you get a cheap compressor with a tank and enough power, it should be fine. If it has a tank then the quality of air coming out of it should only be dependent on the quality of the regulator and filters you have downstream of the tank.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
haven't watched the video, I was going to but holy hell it's an hour and a half. Seriously what happened to the long lost art of writing

1.5 hours of speaking would be about 11,000 words, or about 23 pages (single spaced 500 words/page). It's Ken Schlotfeldt, the father of the modern airbrush. He has been in the airbrush business for over 30 years. His father started Badger airbrush. The amount of knowledge in this video is amazing. He lays out the facts, and yeah, he plugs his own business, but he also tells you why his air brushes are different from Iwata, Pasche, and Neo. He talks about care, maintenance, cleaning, and fixing your air brush. He talks about the kinds of paint to use, how to mix them, and what pressure to spray at. That video is worth every second, and to pass it up just because it's 1.5 hours long is short changing yourself.

Combine that video with this post from MajorTom11 and it's all you need for air brushing.

 Tamwulf wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
haven't watched the video, I was going to but holy hell it's an hour and a half. Seriously what happened to the long lost art of writing

1.5 hours of speaking would be about 11,000 words.

Is that supposed to scare me? Sorry I should have said "what happened to the long lost art of reading AND writing" 11,000 words would be about 10-15 pages if it were written as a technical document. If it's written down it'll take me a few minutes to get the gist of it, a few more minutes for me to extract the major discussion points and then I can hone in on what I care about. It's something I can do in a lunch break at work vs a video which to watch will consume my day's worth of free hobby time.

It is a bit of a gripe of mine that in this wonderful age where information is so easy to share people choose videos to share that information; one of the least efficient methods of absorbing that information.

But my apologies, I didn't mean to say the video doesn't have good information, it's just on the topic of going cheap for a compressor I had specific information I wanted to share but didn't have the hour and a half free time to check if that information was relevant to the video that was being discussed.

IMO you can absolutely go cheap on a compressor as long as it meets the minimum specifications required for airbrushing (flow rate and pressure, even flow rate is a secondary consideration if it comes with a tank). Not to say there isn't good reasons to buy a more expensive one (like noise and build quality) but it's absolutely an area you can save money if you're just starting out.

If your main interest in an airbrush is just priming and basecoating 500 orks in a reasonable timeframe, then about anything will do. Get a cheap crappy Masters brush/compressor combo off amazon or eBay and a spare brush when the first one breaks. You’ll learn the basics just practicing with that while putting down paint, and by the time you feel confident in what you’re doing you can move on to something better for actual airbrush painting.

 Badablack wrote:
If your main interest in an airbrush is just priming and basecoating 500 orks in a reasonable timeframe, then about anything will do. Get a cheap crappy Masters brush/compressor combo off amazon or eBay and a spare brush when the first one breaks. You’ll learn the basics just practicing with that while putting down paint, and by the time you feel confident in what you’re doing you can move on to something better for actual airbrush painting.

This. Exactly what I did for about 2 years until finding out that "holy crud airbrushing is awesome". To that end the specific model I used is this, and with it I did some of my best publicly regarded paintjobs - quite a feat since I genuinely dislike the painting side of the hobby.

Drawback to that model is that it's a. FREAKING LOUD for something so small, b. doesn't really have much useful control for fine painting (which isn't an issue if you're mass base/under coating) and c. isn't strong enough to blast cleaner out reliably once it's clogged.


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AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I haven't watched the video, I was going to but holy hell it's an hour and a half. Seriously what happened to the long lost art of writing

When I watched it about 7 months ago I was airbrushing. After a point some of his demonstrations were so game changing I just sat and stared, then tried them out then and there. 4 days later I bought the Bambi XD

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

A compressor only needs to be as good as it needs to be. If it can supply the pressure and flow rate you need at that point the only other thing that can be a problem is stuff downstream of the compressor, ie. pressure regulator and lack of moisture traps.

Now this is what he goes on about and where newbs will have issues; 'good as it needs to be' is very coarse grained. If you're only doing basecoating, and you live alone, the Voilamart above is perfect. If you're doing shading, you'd need the tank and filter at an absolute minimum as having the compressor spit on your model, just as you're finished, is a fast track for it out the window.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

To that end I'll say I wouldn't buy anything less than 1/6 hp. I've used a 1/6 hp compressor and I think it's the least amount of power I'd be happy living with. If you're using mini spray guns rather than airbrushes you need more than that, but most wargame hobbyists I've met stick to airbrushes (the mini spray gun would be great if you paint a lot of Forge World Titans and other very large models which have lots of flat space like model cars and planes).

Actually....

The spraygun really would only be good for the base/undercoats; the titans are sufficiently detail dense that the fine precision is appreciated immediately, especially when dealing with the plating "rims". My and said other airbrusher's experience with them is that doing NMM rims without the fine point airbrush would send one quite mad. Truly flat surfaces like the Vulture perhaps, but even then - having micro control does phenomenal things with little effort for camo.

Holy hell those are expensive. If you're trying to scare people away from airbrushing that's a good way to do it You absolutely do not need something like that.

Absolutely correct; only when you're at the stage that a. airbrush = awesome and b. current compressor= out the window, would that be remotely justifiable. These high end models just have so many of the potentially fiddly stuff *built in* and integrated that it makes sitting down to an airbrush session a joy, instead of a chore.

Highjacking this thread, since the last reply was a couple weeks ago and I am going in the broadly same direction.

So, from what I gathered here, in the linked video and some introductory articles, I think I got it narrowed down to the following options:

Iwata Revolution BR
Badger Renegade Krome
Harder-Steenbeck Evolution 2 in 1

So, my question would be: Is there anything distinctly speaking against any of the named options? Is there some absolute reason to consider another option, say H-S Infinity or Badger Velocity (or any other you'd like to name)?

Any of those should be high-quality options which are more than suitable for painting miniatures.

I grabbed a Badger Airbrush and compressor probably 10 years go. It's a mid (or low?) price airbrush. It felt expensive at the time, but I know there are others than cost alot more. Variable paint flow, but not variable air flow.

I don't think it would be very good for actually detailing smaller minis without a variable air-flow though.

Its still kicking and I use it for basecoats and highlights on larger models - amongst alot of other non-mini uses.

The first thing I ever used was those cheap-o plastic ones with a can-o-air. 100% garbage.