Is this worth a punt?

[alexh]

As title - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=150872714276 - I'm finally going to invest in an airbrush and compressor and wondering if this will be a good buy.

[Aurelius 12]

Well it looks like a reasonable starting kit. I got my compressor in a sale for £35 so it depends how much the price goes up to for the whole kit. Noise and size may be worth considering depending on where you paint. I got mine from here:
http://www.everythingairbrush.com/acatalog/AS_Series.html


My brush is a very similar design to the one in the picture and is perfectly passable- if I wanted to do some exceedingly fine work I'd invest in a better brush, but I mostly use it for basing, block colour on vehicles and batch painting.
Something like the double action precision brushes on this page.
http://www.everythingairbrush.com/acatalog/Gravity_Feed.html

So yeah if you're looking to get into airbrushes you could certainly do worse. This plus a reasonable brush should get you off to a good start. I would definitely recommend getting some bottles of proper airbrush cleaner. As with all tools the more care you take the more you get out of them.

[alexh]

Thanks for the advice Aurelius. As it's my birthday, the wife has let me bid on a more expensive set comprising of a piston compressor with tank and 2 airbrushes (1 single and 1 double action).

[Aurelius 12]

Double action is great- the fact you can control both the air pressure and the paint flow gives it a little more versatility. That said I've never used a single action brush.

One point about double action brushes is that you usually push down for air and draw back for paint. When you disassemble it for cleaning some brushes have a nasty habit of going ping when you remove the needle. My advice (not that you asked for it) is to use some masking tape to tape down the trigger and keep it in place till you're done and can reassemble the brush.

Anywho, good luck and happy birthday!

[alexh]

Thanks again Aurelius, I ended up getting the one in the link after all as the other one jumped too high in the last seconds. I'm now eagerly awaiting the postie.

[DangerousBrian]

Well, i dont want to curb your enthusiasm into starting airbrushing, especially as you have already bought it,

but i think you may have issues with the compressor.

i'll leave it at that unless you ask me to go into why.


DB
.

[alexh]

Well, i dont want to curb your enthusiasm into starting airbrushing, especially as you have already bought it,

but i think you may have issues with the compressor.

i'll leave it at that unless you ask me to go into why.


DB
.

Please elaborate.

[DangerousBrian]

Please elaborate.

Hey

Well, i have to say i have not actually used that compressor, so feel free to ignore me if you like, but going by the stats shown, i dont think its going to have a good enough airflow.

the Max pressure on the compressor is 15psi. as its super tiny, and has no tank, its unlikely to stay at 15psi for long. I expect its working pressure (which is where the pressure stays constant while spraying continuously) to be alot less.

the airbrush is listed as MINIMUM working presure 15psi. so you may find it stops working well or at all if the pressure drops too low, especially if you are shooting paint that isnt super thin.

My hunch is that is probably made with painting womens nails in mind, where only short, small pettern bursts are needed.

Also, if you are looking to basecoat things, generally being able to up the pressure to 50 psi or so works best or you have a small pattern and it takes ages or doesnt cover terribly well/evenly.


Now, i do HOPE i'm wrong and it all works great.

DB.

[Elfaen]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRBRUSH-K...#ht_4805wt_762 this is what I use, for the exact reasons above. Apologies for coming to the thread too late! I like to paint @ 30-50 psi for base-coating, and 20-30 for detail. A kit like this comes with all you'd need.