Airbrush survey

[UKRay]

There are so many airbrushes and compressors on the market that it is very hard for a newbie like me to decide which one to go for. Help me guys - watcha got and how well does it work.

I need a mid-to-high range airbrush for dyes and finishes - would your setup work for me? What makes it good and what makes you mad about it? What would you rather have?

Ray

[MADMAX22]

I dont have one now but back in the day when I use to do airbrushing I loved my badger, badger has variouse levels of airbrushes but are pretty nice.

Theres a few brands badger, pasche, and Iwatas that I would consider if I was getting another one but Ive allways dealt with those three and they all have a very good following.

The standard double action badger that works pretty good is a the 150, get it as a kit and it will last a long time for ya but there are alot to choose from.

Biggest thing is make sure you compressor has a small tank and a filter, atleast the older compressors if you didnt have a tank would give you a pulsation which even if small would still cause issues with fine detail work. May not be the case anymore.

[CitizenKate]

I need a mid-to-high range airbrush for dyes and finishes - would your setup work for me? What makes it good and what makes you mad about it? What would you rather have?

It depends a little on what kind of spraying you want to do, Ray. If you're just going to spray on washes or wide patterns (like you would if you were shading the edges of a piece of leather), a single-action sprayer or siphon-feed double-action airbrush will probably do.

Single vs. Double Action:

Single-action is the cheapest, and easiest to operate - just point and shoot, and you can control the size of the spray pattern somewhat by varying the distance of the spray from your work. Double-action gives you more control of the spray as you're spraying, without having to stop spraying to make adjustments, but takes a little practice to get used to how the trigger works.

If you plan to do some really intricate airbrushing, a gravity-feed double-action airbrush will give you ultimate control, and allow you to go from a 3-inch spray pattern down to a spray the width of a pencil tip in one seamless action, but not without some practice and edumacation (i.e., book larnin').

Siphon feed vs gravity feed:

Siphon feed is very handy, because you can just swap out color cups to change colors. With gravity feed, you have to empty and clean the cup when changing colors, and sometimes have to also clean out the spray path before adding the next color. The trade-off there is convenience vs. control.

That being said, I have two sprayers. One is an el-cheapo single-action Harbor Freight special that I use for spraying on finishes. Excellent way to put on finish! Super hassle-free. My other is a Badger double-action gravity feed, which I've used on hundreds of projects since 2003. I do all kinds of airbrushing with it, so the versatility is great. But changing colors is a bit of a hassle at times, so if you don't need to be able to spray fine lines, do yourself a favor and get a siphon feed if you go with double-action.

I don't usually recommend one brand or another. I've tried Paasche, Iwata, and Badger, and they're all fine. I do like the Iwata, but have never liked it enough to pay the high price for it.

My compressor is just a plain, old 135psi shop compressor I picked up on sale at the local Sears store for $75, with a moisture trap installed. If you don't like a noisy compressor, that's the advantage of paying more for one that is designed for airbrushing. They are quite a bit more expensive, though. Aside from that, air is air, and as far as driving an airbrush, one source of air is like any other.

Hope this helps... Can you tell us a little more about what you're interested in doing?

Kate

[cem]

I use an Aztek seen here http://www.testors.com/product/136949/A7778/_/Ultimate_Metal_Airbrush_Set its both a single & double action and siphon & gravity feed. It works a bit different though in that the needle is built into the nozzle which you change for different spray sizes. I originally bought it for spraying my stop motion animation puppets which were made of silicone and you could only use a silicone paint mixture to paint them with.

The other airbrush I had a cheap badger I think used to clog up with the mixture but the Aztec was fine I've only dragged it out once for leatherwork as I don't have the room to set up it all the time at the moment. But I was happy with how it performed with leather and will be using it more often once I've got a dedicated work room. One thing I like about it is it flushes colour really quickly as the only place the dye can go is through the nozzle the rest of it is sealed off.

They do two versions of the one I have a resin and a metal one, I did have the resin one to begin with but found it too light and the balance would be thrown off when you plugged in the siphon bottles so I sold that and got the metal one, which is alot nicer to hold.

It is a bit different to what others are using here but will give you something else to look at.

I didn't buy it from Testors though I got mine from http://www.micromark.com/AZTEK-METAL-AIRBRUSH-SET,8271.html

Cheers,

Clair

[UKRay]

Thanks for your contribution Max and Clair. Most useful especially the bit about balance - I hadn't even considered that.

Kate, It took me a while to work out what I want to achieve, but here goes:

• I want to be able to spray an even 'wash' of colour onto veg tan leather,
  
• I then want to be able to add a dark border that gradually fades to the base colour (mainly on bags, pouches and game boards)
  
• I want to spray masks with exciting colours (okay, I know that one is a bit woolly but think about Leatheroo's amazing airbrushed masks and you will quickly understand what I mean).
  
• I want to get that level of 'transparency' you can't achieve using a rag or sponge to apply dye.
  

Having done all that I'd like to apply finish to my projects - although I don't know which finishes work best with an airbrush.

I did wonder if a compressor that could have two brushes connected at the same time might be a good time saver... but what do I know? Does anyone do this?

Ray

[Hilly]

Hi Ray.

I've been using this Iwata gravity feed for years. I used to do a lot of airbrushing on bikes, and before that, I dabbled in some portraiture. It's a great little airbrush for extrememely fine detail. It would work really well for stuff like game boards and small items. For larger pieces, and for general dying on medium to larger projects, I use an HVLP gun. I find it makes short work of dying larger pieces, such as cases and bags, albums, etc. It sprays evenly, without as much overspray as a normal big spray gun, and you can spray smallish amounts of dye. You can get HVLP guns in siphon or gravity feed.

As with any airbrush, I ALWAYS have at least one, and usually two moisture traps on the air line. It can sure ruin your day when a big spit of water comes shooting out of the end of your brush, and goobers up your paint/dye job! I also use a good quality regulator on the air line.

Now that I think of it, I have about 100 bottles of Medea artist paints that might work well on leather... Gonna have to try them out since they aren't doing any good sitting in a container....

[CitizenKate]

Kate, It took me a while to work out what I want to achieve, but here goes:

• I want to be able to spray an even 'wash' of colour onto veg tan leather,

• I then want to be able to add a dark border that gradually fades to the base colour (mainly on bags, pouches and game boards)

• I want to spray masks with exciting colours (okay, I know that one is a bit woolly but think about Leatheroo's amazing airbrushed masks and you will quickly understand what I mean).

• I want to get that level of 'transparency' you can't achieve using a rag or sponge to apply dye.

There are numerous topics where 'Roo has discussed her airbrushes of choice.

...I use an Iwata HP plus...love.love.love it..

I have had a few airbrushes over the years but this is my favorite. It has fantastic control..from wide spray to very fine lines.. For covering a large area i use a paasche VL..great for bigger jobs but doesnt have the fine control of the Iwata.

Having done all that I'd like to apply finish to my projects - although I don't know which finishes work best with an airbrush.

I have sprayed all types of acrylic finishes (the *shenes and Resolene) and liquid wax finishes (Bee-Natural is my favorite). Tan-kote would probably work, but I haven't had a chance to test that theory. It is a little heavier than the other finishes.

I did wonder if a compressor that could have two brushes connected at the same time might be a good time saver... but what do I know? Does anyone do this?

I think there is an attachment that lets you split your air hose between two air tools. Or you can just fit your hose with a quick-coupler, and you can quickly change between different air tools.

Also, don't forget to get a respirator, and consider ventilation in your work space. You do not want to be breathing the overspray.

Kate

[UKRay]

I do appreciate all your help, people. And thanks for puling all those quotes together and answering them all too, Kate - wish I knew how to do that!

Okay - it looks like a double action, syphon feed brush and a collection of 2oz paint/stain pots will sort me out. I'll also need a compressor, airline and some filters - is there anything I've forgotten? What size needle do I need?

I do like the look of the Iwata brushes and although they aren't the cheapest, they come with a healthy set of recommendations. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any simple way of understanding the maker's coding. This seems like a fairly standard problem with lots of airbrush manufacturers. I suspect it is because, as a beginner, I haven't learned airbrush language yet.

The Iwata HP-BC Plus airbrush seems to fit my needs (what do you think?) but I've also noticed some huge price discrepancies. One supplier on eBay is almost half the price of the others. Okay they are selling from Macau, but is this likely to be a problem if the goods are branded?

Ray

[UKRay]

How long does the compressor hose need to be - or is this only obvious when you have ordered a hose that is too short?

Ray

[ks1911]

How long does the compressor hose need to be - or is this only obvious when you have ordered a hose that is too short?

Ray

Ray, that about sums up the hose length question. Really it all depends on how far away you want to get from the compressor.

I'm a real newbie with airbrushes, but I bought an Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS after doing quite abit research online. I really like the siphon feed which lets you just change out the bottles. The airbrush itself is very smooth operating and has some weight to it, which just feels nice to me. I don't think you can really go wrong with an Iwata or for that matter a Badger or Paasche.

Edited November 5, 2009 by ks1911