Air brush/sprayer suggestions?

[tarthrin]

Hey all,

My painter friend let me use his spray gun over the weekend and now I am in love with it. I put a base coat on a couple tanks and 2 dozen infantry that would have taken me weeks to paint a single coat by hand.

I want to get one for myself now. Anyone have any suggestions on brand/model of a spray gun or air brush kit?

Also, I will need an air compressor with it, I am a bit more confident about picking one of those on my own though. Something quiet enough for apartment use.

Any suggestions would be great!

*edit: I think I understand the basic difference between spray gun and air brush. I mostly want it for spraying base coats of one color on a model. Some sort of dual action brush would be nice in case I want to try anything fancier than that.

[spiralingcadaver]

You're going to pay a lot more for a quiet compressor, from what I can tell, and a dual action (rather than single action) trigger is worth it for the control.

From what I understand the biggest difference between an air brush and a spray gun is the level of control you have, so I bet that something along the lines of GW's spray gun would be plenty, if all you're doing is basecoating.

[kturock]

yahoo groups has a list serve for air brush painting.
It has members from all of the air brush companies to anwser questions about products or problems.

Most of the members are modelers; trains and airplanes predominately, but they can tell you the good, bad and otherwise of most every brand and model.
Theres always someone available to answer questions about paint, needles, pressures, cleaning and anything else you can think of.

Sometimes there are even people selling them cheap, or where to buy the cheap.

I joined when I thought about buying an air brush.

[tarthrin]

... and a dual action (rather than single action) trigger is worth it for the control.

That was my thinking, as well as being able to do fancier stuff than base coating if the mood strikes me.

yahoo groups has a list serve for air brush painting.

That is a stellar idea sir.

[ancientsociety]

Whatever you do, don't make the mistake I made and buy the TCP Global brand of brushes and compressors (they're on Amazon too). Do some research first.

[tarthrin]

I joined the yahoo group, so we'll see what they say.

Also, I just found a Coleman Powermate Air Brush Kit for $3 ($12 including shipping)

http://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/Col ... /p661.html

I can't find any reviews on it, so it may not even be worth the $12...

[kturock]

Have you asked the yahoo group?

I haven't seen the question come through my email.

They can tell youif it's a good deal, what to look & look out for.

[tarthrin]

Hmm, maybe I joined the wrong yahoo group? "traintools"

I just searched for air brush in the group area.

[kturock]

maybe it's because you looked for in the area.

they airbrush group has members from all over the world.

[EDIT]
hmm or maybe not.

I'll see what i can find. I don't have any old emails from the list.

[EDIT 2]

wow, i seached air brush forums and there are lots.

[jul]

Hi,

Depends on how you want to use the airbrush, for basecoat, the GW spray gun is good, although you can find similar products for cheaper (badger...). If you want to use it for painting shadows, highlights, details...i'll go for something more reliable. Harder Steenbeck does some pretty nice airbrushes with a good ratio quality/price (still counts around 200$ just for the airbrush), then you can go with Iwata smartjet compressor or similar (again plan on spending 150$ for a compressor).
The compressor is as important as the airbrush, so a good airbrush with a average compressor will get you average results. There's plenty fo tutorials on line. not sure if i can post the links here as some are on commercial websites, but send me a PM and i'll get you that. Same thing for shopping, some stores are better than others...

at the end, it all depends on the use you want do

[MagickalMemories]

Links for informative purposes are fine. Especially when they are applicable to the topic at hand and don't tread on the toes of any of our advertisers.
Please, feel free to post the links publicly.

Eric

[tarthrin]

So the traintools guys also said go for it (the $3 on sale model) so I did.
I got it in the mail and it actually looks decent. I would say at least as good in quality as the GW one.

I still need an air compressor but I can't decide if I want to go with a super quiet tankless hobby one or just a standard 1-5 ga loud air compressor...

Anyone interested in pictures of the kit?

[kturock]

i just got a message from the group i was talking about.

here's the address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ModelAirbrush

[tarthrin]

Thanks again kturock.