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G'day all,

Just wondering if anyone has experience, opinions or recommendations on wide pattern airbrushes or small spray guns for models?

I've heard people recommend the Iwata RG3, G5 and LPH50.... but I really can't justify spending that much money on a new airbrush/spray gun ($250+, I have other things I'd like to buy first for that sort of money!).

Both of my current airbrushes are just too narrow in their spray for larger surfaces. I have a Runway 13 airbrush with the 0.35mm tip really only happily sprays up to about half an inch wide, any further away and the finish starts to become grainy, I can add drying retarder which helps reduce that but it's still not great and even far away I don't get a very wide pattern. I have a 0.7mm nozzle for it as well, and that flows a lot more paint but the pattern only gets marginally larger. My cheapo Chinese brush has a wider pattern, I can get up to an inch or so, maybe an inch and a half but that's pushing the limits of a grainy finish.

That's just too narrow for painting larger surfaces. I think I need something that will cover up to a 2-3 inch area in a single pass without a problem. Much less and I'm making too many passes, much more and I'll probably be wasting paint.

Any ideas? I'm tempted to just grab a cheap $30AUD touch upi spray gun from the local auto parts store, but that looks might be a bit too big and in the video it says you need 50lpm and my compressor only does up to 23lpm (though with a 3L tank, so I might get a few seconds spraying? I dunno).

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Blackridge-Air-Spray-Gun-Touch-Up-100mL.aspx?pid=340075#Recommendations

What do you want to use it for? Tanks or terrain?

My 0.3mm airbrush does a great job for vehicles, especially when the paint is thinned down well. I've even airbrushed skyboxes for photos without it taking too much time.

I believe a 0.7mm should blast through an airbrush load of paint pretty fast.

DeVillbiss offer a good range of controllable wider spray guns.

I use a Paasche Talon with a 0.68mm needle. There's a fan head, too, that comes in the 3 needle kit, but I've never used it, as 0.68 is big enough for everything I do other than priming terrain boards, which I still use rattle cans for.

If you run it at 25-30 psi, lots of paint goes in a big area GW Building sized models (a la Cities of Death) and basecoating terrain tiles goes pretty quick for me -- I basecoat on all 6 of the Realm of Battle city tiles, with more than a half-dozen colors, in a single night with the paasche.

Harbor Freight has a cheap single action wide bottom fed Airbrush for dirt cheap and decent for terrain and stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/34-and-3-oz-airbrush-kit-62294.html

Quick-change set as well:
http://www.harborfreight.com/quick-change-airbrush-kit-93506.html (cant testify to fidelity)

Klaus von Groehm wrote:What do you want to use it for? Tanks or terrain?

My 0.3mm airbrush does a great job for vehicles, especially when the paint is thinned down well. I've even airbrushed skyboxes for photos without it taking too much time.

Tanks, larger vehicles (1/25 cars, 1/32 to 1/72 aircraft).

Buttery Commissar wrote:DeVillbiss offer a good range of controllable wider spray guns.

I'll have a look, cheers. The first one I saw, the DeVillbiss Compact Mini, was over $400, maybe they have some other stuff

Maybe cheaper spray guns are just junk, I dunno, I was hoping I could find people who had tried them.

I believe a 0.7mm should blast through an airbrush load of paint pretty fast.

Talys wrote:I use a Paasche Talon with a 0.68mm needle. There's a fan head, too, that comes in the 3 needle kit, but I've never used it, as 0.68 is big enough for everything I do other than priming terrain boards, which I still use rattle cans for.

If you run it at 25-30 psi, lots of paint goes in a big area GW Building sized models (a la Cities of Death) and basecoating terrain tiles goes pretty quick for me -- I basecoat on all 6 of the Realm of Battle city tiles, with more than a half-dozen colors, in a single night with the paasche.

The problem I have with the 0.7mm in my airbrush is the cone isn't large enough. It blows through the paint, yes, it dumps a massive load of paint on to the model, but because the cone is only marginally wider than my 0.35 nozzle I either maintain the same spraying distance (flooding the area unless I move like lightning) or move the airbrush further away (spraying a larger area, but too much air ends up in the mix and the finish comes out grainy because the paint is starting to dry in the air). I know you can get spray guns with a 0.5mm nozzle that will cover area better than a regular airbrush with a 0.7mm nozzle... it's just up until now all the recommendations I've received are for $250+ spray guns

The graininess isn't really a problem on terrain or tanks which are going to be matte or satin, even most my aircraft don't look too bad with a satin finish (though could be better!). But on cars with a gloss finish or aircraft with a bare metallic finish you need a smooth finish otherwise it looks horrible.

The Paasche talon with the fan attachment sounds interesting. I might look in to that as well, though in past experience Paasche has been overpriced in Australia, so it might not be a great option.

Zgecko666 wrote:Harbor Freight has a cheap single action wide bottom fed Airbrush for dirt cheap and decent for terrain and stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/34-and-3-oz-airbrush-kit-62294.html

Quick-change set as well:
http://www.harborfreight.com/quick-change-airbrush-kit-93506.html (cant testify to fidelity)

Sounds interesting, though we don't have harbour freight over here.

Thanks for the input from everyone

You can get a cheapo single function Badger brush with bottom feed for about £15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Badger-Spray-Set-Single-Action-External-Mix-Bottom/dp/B0006MZPLG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453796930&sr=8-3&keywords=badger+airbrush

 Kilkrazy wrote:
You can get a cheapo single function Badger brush with bottom feed for about £15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Badger-Spray-Set-Single-Action-External-Mix-Bottom/dp/B0006MZPLG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453796930&sr=8-3&keywords=badger+airbrush

Have you tried it?

I know there's also the Testors/Aztek external mix, the Humbrol external mix and the Citadel one. The only one I've really heard about was the Citadel one and peoples' opinion on that seemed to be that it was worse than a spray can

http://www.humbrol.com/us-en/shop/brushes-airbrush/all-purpose-airbrush.html

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/aztek/airbrush/external-mix-airbrush

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
You can get a cheapo single function Badger brush with bottom feed for about £15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Badger-Spray-Set-Single-Action-External-Mix-Bottom/dp/B0006MZPLG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453796930&sr=8-3&keywords=badger+airbrush

Have you tried it?

I know there's also the Testors/Aztek external mix, the Humbrol external mix and the Citadel one. The only one I've really heard about was the Citadel one and peoples' opinion on that seemed to be that it was worse than a spray can

http://www.humbrol.com/us-en/shop/brushes-airbrush/all-purpose-airbrush.html

http://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/aztek/airbrush/external-mix-airbrush

I haven't tried those style ( I prefer the needle to be inline with the air flow) but I do have this and I find its quite good at laying down 2in thick lines and I didn't need to be moving at the speed of light. Not as cheap but still effective.

Badger 350 Single Action Bottom Feed

How about a large spray pattern airbrush;

http://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/BD-138-AIRBRUSH-57645.html

or a mini spraygun;

http://www.paints4trade.com/professional-hvlp-mini-gravity-spray-gun-257079-p.asp?gclid=CJb_6rrVx8oCFcluGwodNUcJmQ#fo_c=888&fo_k=f9ac741f118762e03f3fd9169cdf599d&fo_s=gplauk

 Talys wrote:
I use a Paasche Talon with a 0.68mm needle. There's a fan head, too, that comes in the 3 needle kit, but I've never used it, as 0.68 is big enough for everything I do other than priming terrain boards, which I still use rattle cans for.

If you run it at 25-30 psi, lots of paint goes in a big area GW Building sized models (a la Cities of Death) and basecoating terrain tiles goes pretty quick for me -- I basecoat on all 6 of the Realm of Battle city tiles, with more than a half-dozen colors, in a single night with the paasche.

Looks like Amazon will ship the Paasche Talon to Australia these days. So maybe that's not a bad idea. From what I've heard the fan tip is good for a 2-3 inch pattern, which is about what I want.

What do you think of the Talon in general? Have you compared it to more expensive brushes like Iwata and H&S? I was kinda of hoping to get something high end for my next AB purchase rather than another cheapish "starter" brush.

I have heard people getting bent needles out of the box with the Talon and a couple of reviews mentioned the 0.7mm nozzle had a leaky thread (bubbles in the paint cup).

Badger sells a cheap bottom feed brush at craft stores, like $30.I use it for priming.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
You can get a cheapo single function Badger brush with bottom feed for about £15.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Badger-Spray-Set-Single-Action-External-Mix-Bottom/dp/B0006MZPLG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1453796930&sr=8-3&keywords=badger+airbrush

What can you say about this airbrush, how long will it work?

About 4 years, going by the date that post was put up.

Thread is being locked due to thread necromancy.