What Is An Airbrush & Buying Advice
November 2, 2014 by warzan
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![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
This is just what I’ve been waiting for! I think you sold me on the Eclipse.
Ah… the information starts here!
Great video, guys; just enough info to fill the gaps in my knowledge without going overboard.
My Xmas letter to Santa is definitely going to have the word “Iwata” on it somewhere.
Now we will look at other airbrush brands over the coming weeks, but I have been asking around a number of airbrushing professionals (outside of miniatures) and all have said that Iwata is their chosen brand of airbrush.
I will however be returning to the whole choice of gravity vs suction fed, so if your not in a hurry for an air brush, it may be worth waiting for that, as it think our industries focus on the gravity fed system might not be as ideal as we think, but stay tuned for that as we learn more.
Same with the car spraying industry, I have friends that swear by gravity fed, while others love bottle fed. Its all a matter of preference at the end of the day, but it seems few people have lots of experience with both systems because once they get used to one they wont try out the other.
I’m actually not far off ( as in buying this week or the next ) an airbrush setup and while Iwata make some blooming nice airbrushes, ( although it’s worth noting they don’t make the Neo, they just designed it. ) I have to say that personally i’m going with Harder and Steenbeck brush.
Harder and Steenback are easier to maintain, you don’t have to use a silly wrench thing to remove ( and potentially bust ) the nozzle. And with the exception of the Ultra, all of the needles and parts are interchangable between the different models.
Also, the it’s worth pointing out, the main difference with gravity feed vs syphon feed is that syphon feed brushes need a heck of a lot of paint for them to work which makes them not very practical for miniatures as they only need a small bit of paint.
You might need to mix more that’s true, but my feeling at the moment is you actually waste less 🙂
Like I said we’re looking into it:)
Not convinced about that myself. :-p
Will be interesting to see your results. 🙂
I have a Harder and Steenbeck Infinity, but the cheaper ones work just as well. Can’t fault them, you can strip them down without a single tool being needed, they are very reliable (6 years mines been going) and aside from new needles every so often (£12) I’ve replaced the seals twice (£6 for a pack, havent used them all yet). Iowata are great too, but I like the removable cups on the H&S brushes, makes cleaning them a lot easier.
I agree, today’s cheaper ones, mainly the Chinese ones have come a looonggg way since back in the day. The only difference between my Iwata HP-CS and 5$ Chinese is the thinness of lines and the fineness of the mist with low pressure, but for miniatures these two things are not really needed as much.
I’ve got a cheap AB at the moment, so I’m not in a hurry for a new one, but it would be nice to get one that works the way they’re supposed to; it will be nice to see what you think of different brands.
I’m not convinced by the suction fed idea, just because I always thought of it as a mass spraying system, working on three or four models at a time doesn’t seem to worth it to me.
Depends if you use airbrushing on your terrain…
Gah, without warning! 😉
Great video! I loved the review of the components and actual demonstrations of how it affects spray. I was disheartened that there was no weekender, excited to hear about your new addition to the family, and now extremely grateful to find this video uploaded on a Sunday morning! Thanks for this!
Excellent video!
I am already looking forward to the next one.
Are you going to cover the health & safety part of airbrushing?
F.x. Do you need a mask to avoid breathing in the paint particles, or is a fan enough?
And if a fan is needed, how do you avoid it affecting the spray?
PS. I know Brian is a smart guy, but spelling his name Brain in the first line of the description may be a bit much 😉
Yes we’re gonna look at the H&S aspects and work out how you would do your own risk assessment and what your options are 🙂
Try these web sites
http://www.hse.gov.uk/respiratory-protective-equipment/basics.htm
http://www.hse.gov.uk/asthma/bakers.htm
I don’t want to freak people out but the best way to go would be to wear a mask as anything breathed in is bad for your lungs / health be it paint dust or chemicals so its better to be safe than sorry.
This would be the most cost affective type mask as you can renew the filters as required.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazooli-Cartridge-Painting-Chemical-Respirator/dp/B00I8BJRBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415049230&sr=8-1&keywords=partical+masks
Ideally you want to use a spray booth but If you don’t have room for a spray booth then personally i’d use a mask. ( A proper one with vapour/partical filters as opposed to the cheap painter and decorator type. ) I don’t think a fan would do much other than dry the paint and blow it about a bit. ( Though I could be wrong. )
A lot of people you see on youtube etc, don’t seem to use masks or spray booths but where health is concerned I wouldn’t take the risk. Paint leaving an airbrush is being atomised and some of it bounces off the model to float about in the air and I really wouldn’t want to breath that in. Especially not the Tamiya stuff which is noxious to begin with. This is why I would also make sure to do it in a place with plenty of ventilation.
Also. I should point out that I don’t actually have an airbrush set up yet. ( Though I will soon. ) I have however been doing a lot of research and this is what I’ve picked up.
I’m still looking forward to the BoW take on things though. It’s always good to have extra refferences for things.
A very good video liked the look of the pistol type gun but the trigger looks to small for my big clumpy hands. lol
Yeah.. for £15-20 you can pick up a decent 3M half face mask with filters. So for that price, I say, why take the risk by not getting one? 😉
Fantastic video, very very helpful.
A look into the other brands would be helpful but I can understand why your sticking with the popular and reputable branch
One thing to bare in mind… Anarchy Models actually sell Iwata airbrushes so they’re naturally going to be a little biased. lol :-p
As I said above, I have been double checking this with others (including those nog in our industry) Iwata have always come out top of the list, so at this stage until we have tried and compared it looks like the best recommendation we can make (where you only spend once)
If it’s nozzle/valve removal your interested in, I have been told not to touch them. But I do understand that some folk will want to switch out the valve/needle combo perhaps for a smaller variety.
You’ve been told not to touch the nozzle..?
Er you kind of have to if you want to clean and maintain the airbrush properly.
Just to make sure we’re on the same page here:
I’m talking about the little valve (often brass) that the needle interacts with to create the seal etc.
I’m told these are very delicate and will clean fine with the flush trough of the cleaning agent and shouldn’t be touched unless you need to.
I think a glossary of terms will go on our list to help make sure we identify things correctly, as I’m not 100% confident on it at the moment.
Nope that’s exactly the bit I was meaning. And yes they are very delicate. Which is why a lot of people love the Harder and Steenbecks. They just drop in and self center with no need for a mini wrench thing to get them in place.
Every cleaning video that i’ve seen and forum i’ve been on has them removed for cleaning so you can get into all the nooks with a cleaning brush. There are even special pointed nozzle cleaners for cleaning out the inside of them in particular.
You don’t have to do a full on strip down clean when you change colour but to not do so after you’ve finished for the day is just inviting things to go wrong.
But as I said previous. I don’t actually have an airbrush yet so what do I know. 🙂
Actually. I just remembered something that’s a bit off on a tangent but might be of interest to you…
Flory models reviewed the Iwata cleaning kit in last weeks news show…
http://youtu.be/vUo2s4yY_A8
Crap. Forgot to say. It starts at 17:50. ( Though I could have sworn I asked youtube to start at that point. )
Most of the time a good flush through with cleaner will do the job but at times a strip down will be required as paint will slowly build up inside the gun plus giving the gun a good clean now and again will prolong the life of the gun.
When cleaning the gun always use materials that don’t scratch the parts as that will prevent parts sealing leading to air / paint leeks.
I said this on another thread, but thought it fits here too – I have 2 airbrushes an Iwata Neo and a Badger 105, and have found the Badger to be vastly superior. I spend more time trying to resolve issues with the Neo than actually painting with it. The Badger on the other hand produces very nice results with less than half the effort required from the Neo! 😀
great info thank you 🙂
Good video 😉
The best companies are Iwata and Harder&Steenbeck, I use Evolution Al Plus, Infinity and Iwata HP-B PlUS, good airbrushes 🙂
@giraldez as a man who knows his way round an airbrush, is it (1) possible to paint a typical 28mm mini with only an airbrush & (2) feasible to paint this way or is the hybrid approach (airbrush and brush) the most effective method?
I’m really struggling to get fine enough lines from the airbrush (mostly down to inexperience and not enough skill and practice yet) for it to really work well for me to detail a miniature.
Its all in the needle size. the 0.15mm that comes with the Harder and Steenbeck Infinity along with thin paint makes getting thin lines very easy. Iwata do similar, but as far as I know, you cant change between need sizes on a model, you buy a 0.15 airbrush, whereas with H&S you can change the whole needle set for a different size if you want, say a 0.4 mm for doing terrain.
it depends…. you can paint a 28mm BUT you have to finish the paintjob with brush
for example, you can paint a face with airbrush and then you define this one with brush or if you paint an armour you’ve to paint the edges with brush,etc…
The best method is the combination airbrush + brush.
In my painting book I explain how to paint miniatures with this method.
The secret is practice, practice and practice and also,very important,you’ve good stuff, Vallejo paints and Iwata or H&S airbrushes.
Are you thinning the Vallejo Airs more down or are you using them right out of the bottle?
I started my airbrush experience over the weekend and was successful at thinning down the regular Vallejo paints. But I’am wondering if it’s easier to adjust the color flow with the air colors.
I add some drops of Vallejo thinner, I prefer it 🙂
Great video! I have been using an airbrush for a few months now and didn’t know what the funny looking glass cylinder was for! Hope you cover mixing paint and how to deal to clogging the airbrush which is the bain of my life!!! Maybe using the glass cylinder now might help…
The series is just what I need, my plan was to attend a course, interesting if you get some options about whether this is worthwhole
Very informative, could have done with this years ago!
So since this video series was mentioned, I’ve been looking at the Badger Patriot – which I’ve heard is a good brush, and it falls in about the $100 range – the Iwata Eclipse for about $150; Thoughts?
Also, what are the thoughts on used airbrushes? I noticed that aside from scale modelers, make-up artists use these airbrushes and you can find a good number of used Iwata models for sale from cosmetic school students at the end of the year (they need them for class but find they have little interest in either the school or using airbrushes for application) I’ve found an Iwata eclipse on sale from this source as well as some HP-Cs and Revolutions CRs – am I asking for problems buying used? (I suppose I mean to say, how rugged or delicate are these things)
this is turning out to be a very good series of vids, it’s always good to go back to basics, cheers Warren, Brain comes across as a really good bloke honest in his opinion….yes? i know that Anarchy models use Iwata so Brain may push towards Iwata but to be truthful when it comes to the ‘top brands’ Iwata, Harder and Steenbeck, Badger, Paasche, etc there’s not much in it, they ALL make great Airbrushes and it really comes back to personal preference and they all cover a range from ‘mid’ to ‘high’ price. When buying YOU really need to ask yourself what are you going to do with it? do you just want to use it for priming? basecoating? shading? applying washes? Gloss/Matt coating? and a major question? how often are you going to use it? once a year! then don’t buy that £200+ airbrush! that’s a lot of money sitting idle, for me i have a Neo for Iwata that as given good service but as played up at times but my favorite is my VEDA WD130E £16 ‘chinese special’ its been great, it really is down to what you realistically expect to do with it? there is noting ‘Mystical’ about airbrushing, it’s only a tool and you need the right tool for the right job, it’s patience’s and practice.
Great timing with these videos as I just ordered an iwata last week for my first go at airbrushing. Really looking forward to learning along with these videos. Also glad to hear you will look at compressors, as I dont know much about them so the advice will be useful!
Very interesting and enjoyable. Good rapport and Q&A between Warren and Brian.
Great video, the advice you gave was almost exactly what I was given a few years ago and I ended up with an iwata eclipse and a tank compressor.
I don’t know if anyone has some advice on cleaning, I have been told an ultra sonic bath is good for cleaning the cap and needle at the end of the day, is it ok to put those in it?
Hey everyone! thanks for all the nice comments glad you liked it. looking forward to doing more vids with the BoW guys 🙂
It mentions about our new kickstarter at the top, thought you all might like to now its gone live!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/805848592/anarchy-models-hs-stencils-flexible-and-fully-re-u
Perfect timing, i even finally signed up to backstage thanks to this article! I’m waiting on delivery of 6 assorted Rubicon tanks and 4 warlord hanomags and I’ve been looking in confusion at airbrushes and compressors. Depressingly I was looking to spend £75 on both the airbrush and the compressor in total… sad panda…. I’m now so scared I’m gonna have to paint em the old fashioned way!
Welcome aboard @ozzyuk
I wouldn’t lose heart mate, some here in the community are working away happily with a Chinese import called ‘Veda’
Now we haven’t tried them, we cannot verify if they are actually any good, and cannot vouch for the reliability or even sincerity of members that post about them.
But here is a link to have a look over: http://www.bartsharp.co.uk/home/product-category/airbrush-compressors-complete-kits-starter-airbrush-kits-recommended-airbrush-compressor-iwata-compressor/
Some points to note:
Buy a cheap import from china: my concern would be support and spare parts (would you know if it wasn’t working correctly?)
Buy a second hand one: my concern is you don’t know how well it’s been cared for (delicate parts in there) and if you have to buy replacement parts, you could end up wiping out the savings.
A good airbrush, cared for correctly could last you twenty years!
We will try some of these imports once we are a little more experienced to actually put the tithe test! 🙂
Thanks, I’ll be watching this series with keen interest!
Warren, i think i might be one of the community your talking about here mate, before my VEDA i used and still use a NEO for IWATA which like other members on here have found to be not as reliable as i had thought, the NEO is NOT made by IWATA it’s made by another company for iwata? and when you look deeper the build quality is not as good as a branded iwata, i have found the veda to be more reliable, it works for me, has I’ve said before it’s personal choice, I’ve found what works for me, yes it as it moments! but having used airbrushes before i got back into modelling they all have there moments! i don’t work for Bartsharp Ltd but you may think i’ve been pushing veda a bit too much? as you now seem to question my reliability and sincerity?
I wouldn’t say that bluesun2517, I think Warren has just seen my statement of confusion and the the price range I was looking at and offered an option – giving a caveat that neither he nor any of Da Beasts (
Have personal experience. I’m sure if any thoughts of dodginess or shenanigans were afoot a link wouldn’t have been offered.
Now where in the ether did this half of my reply disappear to? 🙂
To be clear, I only said I can’t vouch for your sincerity or reliability (as I don’t know you personally)
If I questioned either, I wouldn’t have even posted the link 🙂
cheers for the reply Warren and @ozzyuk , veda will never replace the top brands, Chinese imports do have a bad rep?………….and buying one could put people off airbrushing, and that’s not what this series is trying to achieve, i just think veda may be one of the better ones? ……and you can get spares! anything i post on here is my personal opinion and not my sponsors………………..joking! only joking!
Great show guys, I’m still using an Aztek airbrush, it was a pressie from my late wife. Really easy to clean and has various nozzles, I have had a look at the Iwata Eclipse range and if I wanted to upgrade that’s the one I’d go for.
I feel that all this talk about costly airbrush and complicated setups is part of the shadow of fear that covers airbrushing and stops people from having a go. Yes is great for basing miniatures and doing the larger portion of color but this is what a starter should be doing.
1. 40 liter+ Tank compressor with regulator (must have) built in water trap even better. The bigger the tank the less times you have to fill it, 50 liters at 40 Psi is about 2 hours painting with cold tank air before needing small top up. Handy tool to have around. Jigsaw, nail gun, duster, sander all great tools to use it with and can help make terrain and all sorts of stuff If you want. Nothing super fancy, compressors are generally break and throw out these days.
2. Cheap dual action (Pref dual action gravity feed) airbrush.
you can pick up 5 star review ones from Ali express for super cheap.
3. Cheap Createx starter set (The masters of airbrush paints) you gets heaps for small price
start with opaque and remember what ever comes out of an airbrush is inherently translucent due to the thin coats and what become opaque unless a thick or multiple coats is applied.
http://www.createxcolors.com/
4. Water
5. Buy a cheap a A3 Canvis and go nutz having fun spraying color at it. Draw smiley faces, rainbows, Skulls, tags, your name, anything fill the canvas!. Much fun, Wow therapeutic.
Use stencils, try a french curve for paint fire.
LIGHTNING!
here’s the 1st thing you should have a go at super easy sick looking lighting!
Super Easy, I pulled this off in my 1st go and it was awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ufWLASXHw&list=UUrEcXzZy-ECTdAxoPgOssZA
For great starter vids start here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrvR_DJHVJvYhLiQVjq4e8Q
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrEcXzZy-ECTdAxoPgOssZA
For 40k Miniature tutorials both free and subscription ones
http://www.wargamingzone.com/ or his youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/Buypainted/videos
Over looked mistakes for learners.
PSI Control, airbrush artist use a range all the way from 60psi+ ( I blast out Vallejo air undiluted straight from the bottle with 60psi no issues, great flat coats) all the way down to 15psi for super thin lines, the compressor is = important to the brush
siphon feed brushes normally need higher psi to make them worth it hence why they get a bad rep sometimes, T-shirt artist use siphon feed, they work in the right hands. But gravity is better in general for starters.
Just like painting with a brush your first go don’t expect a miracle its going to take practice.
How ever it doesn’t take much maybe even 5 hours practice to be able to impress yourself.
Making your money back, got friends that play war games, offer to base their miniatures for a cheap fee or the 1st case color, you will make your money back over time and they get nice based miniatures for cheaper than if they had done it themselves.
Think about it.
For Real Men who want to show off
If later on you get into this and get a better airbrush and a ‘at brush’ pressure control
Learn to apply makeup with it, this goes down so well with the ladies.
For all those special events, Dance night, Halloween mask, Temporary Tattoos done by stencils (easy), Home made gift TV shirts free drawn or stenciled.
Airbrushing has always been something that is over looked most of the videos on youtube only have about 10k views, it needs more love.
A personal thanks to Beast of War for taking the time the grow this awesome thing.
Ì have a Harder and Steenbeck CX1 ( low end model) and works real fine, 2 sets of needles 0.2 and 0.4 mm and both work great,
Real easy to clean and fast, i realy like my CX1, and for modelling you do not need any “better” more expansive one.
Good stuff! I’ve recently bought some airbrush stuff (got the Neo for Iwata), air compressor with a moisture trap, but I wasn’t aware of the air hose moisture trap, so I’ll be looking at getting one of those.
I wish I’d seen this a year ago. Would have saved me some harsh lessons. Looking forward to the rest.
Great to see more airbrushing content on BoW! As a ‘Fairly’ experienced airbrusher I’m always happy to see more people getting into using an amazing tool for the job.
As for brand choice, I’ve always found Iwata a little on the expensive side for what you get, for example, the custom micron that Brian mentioned costs nearly double what the equivalent Harder and Steenbeck Infinity CR Plus costs with a similar needle/nozzle setup.
Giraldez is a H&S user, but he is (I believe) sponsored by them so that will obviously sway his choices a little. He used to use an evolution and has recently moved to an evolution AL Plus.
For an entry level but very good quality airbrush I would be looking at the Ultra from H&S. It uses the same needle/nozzle as their more expensive brushes without all of the bells and whistles. They are made in germany and are really well put together bits of kit.
Badger are the other choice, but as an american brand that is manufactured in the states, they are typically quite expensive to buy here, and are even harder to find spares for.
There are plenty of Chinese clones of all of the above (esp Iwata) on ebay, but the QC isn’t brilliant so expect headaches if you go down that route.
I have bought from Everything Airbrush on a number of occasions and found brilliant every time.
Sorry just spotted I mentioned the ultra uses the same needle/nozze as the rest, it is just the needle that is shared, the nozzles are slightly different
I picked up an airbrush for myself back in August once I finally had watched enough videos online of folks doing pre-shading on models and the effects that you can get from it. I got an iwata NEO from my local Hobby Lobby (which guys, if you have one near you, you can get a perpetual 40% off with a coupon on their android/iphone app) and after working with it a week just wasn’t really impressed with it. I had some of the same noob problems that I’m sure everyone does with clogged nozzles, thick paint, etc. but after some airflow issues with it I returned it and decided to re-evaluate. I found the below video after discovering the YouTube channel from the Wargame Consortium (who also has tons of airbrush starting vids and is well worth an evenings worth of time watching them) and it’s got some good nuggets in it:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChB9tRBzwbR35OBP2e9HhKw
It’s by one of the guys that owns Badger and it’s apparently from a con somewhere, and many of the things he discusses are directly tuned toward what we as hobbyists here would use the brushes for.
I then went out and picked up an Iwata Eclipse from HobbyLobby and swore to take my time with it and not get frustrated. I also went on vacation toward the late end of September and when to a beach area where I was able to strike up conversations with the guys and gals that do shirts, etc. with airbrushes for a living (or at least a good side job). We had great discussions on pressure, paint, etc.
For example, they don’t worry about clogs most of the time because they’re shooting air at 60-80 psi which will blow a miniature right off your table, not to mention give you spiders (paint runners off your spray area like the guys here got on plastic when shooting alot of paint out up close) for days. The fabric that they are painting on also lets them get by with such insane pressure.
I’m still very much a noob but here’s a couple of things that have run true so far:
1) Everyone that gets into this is going to do things differently. Whether it’s how you thin your paint, what pressure you paint at or what brand of brush you prefer, each artist will find their own sweet spot in all of it that makes them happy and gives them the results that they want. The key is to experiment until you find it and don’t get discouraged. As Warren said in the video, they key to anything is practice.
2) At lower pressures, 15psi to 20psi, you’re likely to want to thin your paint some. There is no specific method to do this; it’s all personal preference. Water is fine for acrylics, while some may swear by Windex, window cleaner, etc. or Liquitex Airbrush Medium as the thinner of choice. The place this starts to get picky is in the drying time in the brush and on the model. Airbrush paint, especially thinned paint, dries pretty quickly. If you thin it with an alcohol based medium, it’s going to dry even faster thanks to that agent. Airbrush Medium will add a little flow control (helps try to suspend the drying time somewhat) while water will do pretty much what you’re used to with brush painting from a dry time perspective.
I’d encourage you to try a variety of methods to see what you like and gives you the results you want. Again, there’s no textbook way to do this.
3) Even if an airbrush paint is pre-formulated for an airbrush (Vallejo Model Air, Badger Minitaire, etc.) don’t be surprised if you have to thin it more. Depending on a lot of things, from pressure to a particular batch of paint coming from the factory, it may not give you that perfect, silky feel right out of the bottle. I’ve used (so far) Createx, Createx Wicked, Badger Minitaire and one other no name brand and even though they’re all pre-formulated I can promise you they’re not the same.
I’ve taken to doing this: You can get plastic storage bottles with a big dropper spout at your local Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Micheal’s, etc. (not sure of the equivalents across the pond). I move my paint from the stock bottles into these, which typically are a little bigger than what a stock bottle will hold. That gives me room to add whatever additive I want and keeps me from having to do small batches. Also, head down to a local bait shop and look for fishing weights that are about a two bb size. I drop one of those in the bottles to use as an agitator. I used to love the reaper paints that put the pewter skulls in their pots for that reason but I don’t know if they do that any more. I use a gravity feed cup and these bottles just give me much more control over portions as opposed to some of the stock bottles.
4) Don’t even start out looking at a model right off. Grab a piece of box, old terrain, old models or whatever and just go to town and play. See what your new toy can do. Alot of the airbrush sites out there will provide starter exercises to help you understand how to do lines, fades and dagger strokes, but there’s no substitute for experimenting and seeing not only what mistakes you make but also figuring out how you made them.
I really look forward to the rest of this series and thanks Beasts for working this into your repertoire. Seeing you guys use these techniques in the Hobby Lab are also a HUGE help.
Oh, and check out the Badger Ghost Tints. You’ll be AMAZED if you like to do pre-shading. It’s at about 5:30 in the below vid. Also a great little 4 part series and is what pushed me over the hump to try airbrushing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY0hoZA8lhs
I personally use a Badger Patriot 105. Definitely recommend that model if you’re in the states. If you can make it to GenCon or another con that Badger attends, you can pick up any of their products for a really good price (cheaper than online). Also, Ken (the owner) is just about the nicest dude around. Not only is he knowledgeable about the industry and obviously his own products, but I’ve seen him actually defend Iwata and H&S when someone talked trash about them at his booth.
The Patriot is a great all around airbrush. Super easy to use and clean. The default needle is great for basecoats and “block” painting, and they sell other needle kits if you want to get smaller.
Here’s some tips I learned that helped me immensely.
1. Use a needle lubricant before every session. This really helps with tip dry.
2. Tip dry is the devil. Get a moist paper towel and constantly be cleaning your needle tip!
3. If you clean often, water will do the job just fine. Windex will get the rest.
4. Les Bursley’s airbrush thinner recipe is fantastic and uses ingredients you probably already have at your paint station.
5. Vallejo Surface Primer is the best airbrush primer I’ve tried. It comes in a bunch of colors and comes in large sizes like 200ml for a good price.
I cannot stress how important Josh’s number 1 point is but I’ll try.
USE NEEDLE LUBRICANT!!!!
USE NEEDLE LUBRICANT!!!!
USE NEEDLE LUBRICANT!!!!
USE NEEDLE LUBRICANT!!!!
No seriously, find some and use it. It will stop one of the most irratating issues to all new airbrush users – Tip Dry! As you put paint and air through the airbrush paint will dry on the tip of the needle causing weird sray patterns and splatter before clogging up all together. This stuff all but eliminates the problem for a good few hours of airbrushing from one application.
I have badger ragdab needle lube and it works flawlessly.
I’ve got a Veda, works brilliantly. Especially considering I’m using it to pushing emulsion thinned with water and fairy liquid through it. I’ll be upgrading to a siphon feed next, purely because I won’t have to keep adding paint into the cup and I can just crack on.
Oh guys …. I’m in the same boat as @warzan. I have tried airbrushing on and off over the years, trying to teach myself with disastrous results. Seriously thinking of picking up a Badger Patriot 105 (here in the US) and giving it another go. Seeing this video series really convinced me to give it another shot. I feel like Warren and I have hung out earlier in life and made the same Airbrush mistakes for the same reasons.
Thanks for enlightening us!!
That has got me interested I thought to you had to be a granmaster to attempt it will be checking out the other videos on this.
Cheers.
I really appreciate the help with hobby skills and techniques. This bit on Airbrushes is a perfect example of what I want to see. I am stuck at brushing right now. Cost and time preventing me from fully diving into the hobby at a higher price point – 40k, AoS, airbrushing and other items will have to wait for me. However, getting familiar with airbrushing so when I have the money and time to get stuck in, I can with confidence.
For airbrushing, do you need a ventilation hood to paint indoors? What about face masks?