Ok, this is a bit disingenuous. I’ve been an airbrusher for a while. Regular readers will know I lost all of my hobby possessions a couple of years ago. That included my airbrushes and compressor. Now that my circumstances have changed, I’m starting to airbrush all over again. This is a short story of how you can get into starting to airbrush relatively inexpensively.
Starting to airbrush and me
It took me a long time to get an airbrush originally. I painted my entire EC army with a hairy brush:
but since taking the plunge I can really see the benefits. My airbrushing requirements will still likely be limited to fairly agricultural jobs:
- Pre priming
- Priming (especially zenithal priming)
- Basecoating
- Varnishing
but maybe I’ll try and expand the repertoire a bit for my current projects. But, effectively, even if I never use it for more than this list, it’s a huge time saver and a great tool to have. It does mean, also, that I’m not really in the market for a 0.15mm nozzle super brush – I won’t be doing any freehand with it that’s for sure
Brexit and covid and incompetence
Through no fault of theirs, my favourite online gaming store (Element Games) have been unable to send me the really posh airbrush and compressor set up I’ve ordered. I think it’s a Brexit / Covid thing. My parcel got stuck in customs twice then returned to the UK. So, back in the UK right now I have a lovely Iwata airbrush and compressor waiting for me. But I need to be starting to airbrush right now…and a little bit of luck has come my way. I was passing a newsagents in town recently and my eye was drawn to some kits in the window. Turns out this isn’t a newsagent with some scale model kits as a side hustle. It’s a model shop that sells newspapers – hurrah!
So what’s the score?
My new local model shop sells everything I need for starting to airbrush so I’ve loaded up. There’s a lot of overlap with the stuff I’ve had sent to the UK from Element but that’s ok, I’ll worry about that as a future problem. The thing I’m really here to tell you about first off is the airbrush and compressor I’ve bought:
At £140, this compressor is less than half the cost of the Iwata model I’ve ordered. I’ve never used a tank compressor before (this one is 3L). I’ve always had an ‘always on,’ compressor. It’s never bothered me before so it’ll be interesting to see the difference. Similarly the airbrush was very reasonably priced (£35 – about 1/3 of the Iwata brush I’ve ordered).
Starting to airbrush with the new kit
Straight out of the box the compressor needed some work. Every joint in the line from the tank to the brush leaked, but liberal application of PTFE (I think it’s called Teflon tape in the US) and that’s no longer a problem. I will say now that using the tank compressor over an ‘always on,’ model made no difference in terms of performance from what I could tell. I’ve never noticed any pulsing from the ‘always on,’ so that was never an issue. I like the fact that the tank means the compressor is quieter but I did find myself getting startled when the motor restarted as the pressure dropped. Overall, I neither prefer or have an issue with the compressor and for £140 that makes it great value in my eyes.
The airbrush was the real star for me though. AK is a big brand so I didn’t expect it to be garbage at all but I did expect to feel a difference between this and the more expensive brushes I’ve owned in the past. Actually, no. Now I will say that I don’t get clogged brushes or dry tip because I use super thin paint (and you should too, here are some recipes). So I can’t tell you whether this brush is more or less prone to those problems.
What I can tell you is that the cup is plenty big enough, there’s tension in the trigger so you get lots of feel from it and it seems to be very well made. It’s dual action and gravity fed – the two big things that are important to start with (it’s beyond the scope of this little piece to tell you what that means, either look it up or trust me; you want a brush that’s dual action and gravity fed).
Priming
I’ve primed the Ogor mounts so far and I’m very pleased with the results:
I’ve also gone a lot further than this with a military model kit (apologies, I know this isn’t what this blog is for):
There are a few airbrushed steps with this model so far:
- It was pre primed
- Then it was zenithal primed
- So that it could be basecoated in the green
- The camouflage (brown and black) was freehanded over the green
- It was gloss varnished so that the decals could be applied.
There are a couple more airbrush steps (I’ll gloss varnish again before I weather it then I’ll matte varnish on top of that to take the shine off before I do the last details with a brush.
So, if you want to know how to do a basic colour laydown with an airbrush (especially priming) then have a look at this. If you want to know if you can get into starting to airbrush with this, relatively modest, set up – it’s a big yes from me!
Comments and queries always welcome.