RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

So, I've spotted a cheap airbrush. What do you think about it?

https://www.pagro.at/pme-airbrush-mit-k ... r-set.html

The video is in english. Hope it works for painting tanks and not just cakes, lol.

Best advice is to save your hard earned & invest in the best airbrush you can afford and then get a decent compressor to go with it.
Buy cheap and you are likely to scrap it once you realise its limitations.

I only use Iwata airbrushes and i have 3.
There are other quality makes (Badger, Pasche, Harder & Steenbeck etc), and all should give good results with practice (lots).

Iwata Neo TRN2 (0.5 Needle)
Iwata Eclipse HP-CS (0.5 Needle)
Iwata High Performance HP-C + (0.3 Needle)

I use these with a Sparmax TC610 compressor.
https://www.everythingairbrush.com/spar ... -tank.html

There is no point in spoiling a model with a crappy airbrush.

Cheers
Tim

Hi
I use a airbrush bought from E-bay for £15.99 It stainless steel Body for easy cleaning and comes in a blue plastic case with a clear top and 0.2,0.3 and 0.5mm needles and a 1.8m braided hose my mate( who uses a Ajax) was that impressed with it he has now bought the same for himself.
He (and as Tim has said ) both say the compressor is the main component and it is best to buy the best you can afford in order to get a smooth airflow.
The airbrush is all about mixing the paint to the right consistency and practice, practise and practise.
I was a complete novice myself but after a couple of days practising find it nice and relatively easy to use now.

Swamprat33 wrote:Best advice is to save your hard earned & invest in the best airbrush you can afford and then get a decent compressor to go with it.
Buy cheap and you are likely to scrap it once you realise its limitations.

I only use Iwata airbrushes and i have 3.
There are other quality makes (Badger, Pasche, Harder & Steenbeck etc), and all should give good results with practice (lots).

Iwata Neo TRN2 (0.5 Needle)
Iwata Eclipse HP-CS (0.5 Needle)
Iwata High Performance HP-C + (0.3 Needle)

I use these with a Sparmax TC610 compressor.
https://www.everythingairbrush.com/spar ... -tank.html

There is no point in spoiling a model with a crappy airbrush.

Cheers
Tim

The best advice you'll ever get right there.

The only thing I'd add is not only a cheap AB a complete waste of money, it's even worse since your experience with it will likely put you off the airbrushing as something too hard to learn.

I have to say for painting tanks I've used a £20 Chinese knock off and the £50 compressor I got 5 years ago and I've been happy. The compressors on its last leg now but was fine for most of its life. The down side of the cheap airbrush was it wasn't precise enough for figure painting but I've managed all manner of camo, modulation and weathering with it.

That being said I will upgrade to something better as I do feel a little at times I'm fighting the equipment rather than lacking the skills.

Thanks guys, I will leave that airbrush on the shelf, and will start to save some cash.

Rad, if you ask me, swamprat listed the perfect airbrush for you, the Iwata HP-CS. That's the same one I use, and it's really the only airbrush you'll have to buy. I also got the fancy handle for it with quick flush and constant flow adjustment (makes it behave like a single action for large areas), and I can't see myself ever having to buy another airbrush. I've used a lot of other brands in the past, like Testors, pasche (sp?) and badger, and I still use the testors single action for spraying future, but since I bought the Iwata it's the only airbrush i paint with and the rest sit in the drawer. You should be able to get one for about $120 USD and it will be one of the best investments you'll ever make.

Oh yeah, I've been using a $40 Harbor Freight pancake compressor for the past five years now with no problem. IMO, the key there is to get a quality regulator with a good water trap.

I've been using an AB airbrush for the past eight years, with an Ebay compressor. It's been excellent.

https://www.everythingairbrush.com/airb ... brush.html

All spares are available, though I have only ever bought one new needle. It has a fully adjustable airflow on the brush body, so it can be adjusted for detailed work regardless of what the compressor is set at.

The one thing that has more effect on the finished result than anything else is the dilution of the paint, get that right and it's a breeze. The rest is just practicing techniques and how to get the effect that you want on the model. Compressors that don't have a tank like the cheapie ones will run down the pressure if the airbrush trigger is held down for more than a few seconds, so to maintain pressure just use short bursts of around 3 seconds. Invest in some airbrush cleaner as well, an internally spotless airbrush always gives better results.

Every once in a while disconnect the hose and leave it to dry out, as even with the water trap on the compressor some will still get out, and it collects in the hose.

And never forget the ability of a paintbrush, sponge etc, there are some thing that an airbrush simply cannot do as well!

I have ended up with my 3 airbrushes because i do a lot of airbrushing of tanks & aircraft in different scales.
The TRN2 is good for doing the base coat on my 1/6 scale and also the 1/16 scale tanks.
The other 2 are used for finer work and the 0.3 needle allows me to do German 3 colour camo with 1mm fine lines on 15mm (1:100) scale tanks.

The Sparmax compressor i have can power 2 airbrushes at the same time if needed and all my airbrushes are fitted with a quick release coupling.

Tim