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.

Hi to all,

I'm buying my first airbrush and wonder was looking at Iwata, H&S (Harder and Steenbeck) and Badger.

Have got very minimal airbrush experience, using a badger crescendo years ago.
Pricing is a concern, my budget is bout 130 USD excluding compressor.

I live out in Asia, the Iwata distributor in my country closed his store years ago. H&S has a distributor here. A local air store carries badger. Support for spare parts is available, albeit costly.

Browsing online forums and websites, I narrowed down to the Badger Patriot, H&S Ultra and the Iwata Eclipse.
Am trying to make up my mind on which to choose. Could any kind airbrush user give me some advice on which I should choose?

Please do a quick forum search for Airbrush Advice and you will find an insane amount of help and discussion,

This topic comes up several times per week, if not daily.

Airbrush cleaner is a need, as cleaning the brush with sinple water is time-consuming and annoying.

I don't know anything about the badger so can't help you there. I have a different model of Iwata and would definitely recommend it but it sounds as though getting hold of one might be an issue for you? Regarding the H&S I'd have a search on the internet as I did consider them but found some reviews saying they were quite fiddly to clean properly which put me off! If you can get somewhere to try a few different ones that would be a massive help otherwise google is probably your friend here!

My first AB was the Iwata Eclipse and I still love it.

I also have the H&S two-in-one which is particularly nice for very small details but generally speaking I've found it's just easier to leave the very small details to a standard brush, as it takes so much tweaking of the paint consistency and psi level to get the really small paint streams.

I don't own any badgers. If you want to go very economy - check out the Neo (made for Iwata in Asia)... it's perfectly suited to our purposes and cheap, with less fiddly parts to clean.

I've been airbrushing for about 6 months. I've had a few brushes and my go to is a $50 one I bought at an auto shop in a pinch. For me reliable and easy to clean trumps brand. If you can control it then gravity fed, dual action is all that matters.

Just buy whatever you want and get into it.

I have been airbrushing for almost 2 years. I have used 3 different brushes, the Badger 105 Patriot is my favorite beating out 2 other brushes that cost twice as much (one being the Eclipse) .