First airbrush and compressor - kit?

Werewolf said:
I tend to use a Scott half mask with particulate and vapour protection, it's probably overkill for the airbrush but when using the spraycans it does help (having said that our graphicair spraybooth is strong enough it's generally not bad even without).
I suspect your other half should be ok across the room with airbrushing if you've got the extractor running:)

IIRC you can get facemasks fairly cheaply with replaceable filter carts, the Scott ones are about £15 for the mask then £15 for the filters, in theory with the vapour protection filters you're meant to change them every 6 months.
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Cheers for this.

I was thinking of getting a 3M mask with replaceable filters. I'll use the airbrush and booth really infrequently (I paint models for fun, rather than armies so I tend to pick something up once every month or two), so I'm sure sealing the mask in a tub will give me months of use. I was more concerned for the other half as I don't want to unfairly risk her wellbeing.

I have it all in my cart now and just deciding if the near £300 bill is worth it or not! :p
 
If you haven't ordered it yet, I'd probably pay the little extra to get the compressor version with a tank, it makes for a smoother spray (IIRC with those ones it's about £20-30 extra).

One way to look at the airbrush is as a long term investment, if you're like me you'll find you start using it for things you'd not really thought of (undercoating models for example), and it does tend to make doing larger squads a lot easier.
 
I got all the stuff I wanted for Christmas which was nice! I have my extractor booth thing and some other bits and bobs coming tomorrow so hopefully should be able to set it up and have a play.

Unfortunately the H&S airbrush arrived with the 0.2mm needle bent as the end cap was off the brush during shipping. The 0.4 is fine but I have emailed the company to ask what they want me to do - I don’t want to just bend it back as I have not the first clue about airbrushing and won’t be able to tell if I’ve done a good enough job. I don’t really want to use the other needle either in case they want the whole set back and they’re closed until the 9th! :rolleyes:

I got a clone airbrush with the compressor though (literally about £6 more with it included) so I will have a play with that.

Thansks for the advice by the way guys the H&S looks like a really nice bit of engineering, looking forward to spraying a few model car bits with it. I’m going to probably 3D print and prime up a few bits before I get to painting any model kits as I’m sure there’s quite a learning curve.
 
How did that happen? Doesn't the H&S ship in a special box which prevents movement. Moreover, when I got my 2in1 the needle was shipped in a separate container.
 
Werewolf said:
If you haven't ordered it yet, I'd probably pay the little extra to get the compressor version with a tank, it makes for a smoother spray (IIRC with those ones it's about £20-30 extra).

One way to look at the airbrush is as a long term investment, if you're like me you'll find you start using it for things you'd not really thought of (undercoating models for example), and it does tend to make doing larger squads a lot easier.
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I decided against a compressor with a tank - I was pushing my budget out because I want to airbrush indoors and an extractor was needed. But I have ordered what was in my basket in the thread before. The brush and compressor are here - just waiting on the booth
 
depending on your application you are going to probably regret not getting a compressor with a tank. The purpose of the tank is to ensure that you don't get any air pulsing as the compressor pushes air as this can cause some very strange effects at the business end of the airbrush leading to poor finishing, paint spattering etc. The tank ensures you get smooth air delivery as the air is compressed into the tank and when supply gets low the compressor kicks in again.

If you have got a particularly whinny or screechy compressor it's going to grate on you instantly as the compressor will be rolling all the time while you are spraying and some of the low rent compressors make horrible unnatural noises which if you are in a room with your other half she might not appreciate either.
 
wildman said:
depending on your application you are going to probably regret not getting a compressor with a tank. The purpose of the tank is to ensure that you don't get any air pulsing as the compressor pushes air as this can cause some very strange effects at the business end of the airbrush leading to poor finishing, paint spattering etc. The tank ensures you get smooth air delivery as the air is compressed into the tank and when supply gets low the compressor kicks in again.

If you have got a particularly whinny or screechy compressor it's going to grate on you instantly as the compressor will be rolling all the time while you are spraying and some of the low rent compressors make horrible unnatural noises which if you are in a room with your other half she might not appreciate either.
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I appreciate that, I'm hoping it'll be fine for my needs. I won;t be spraying a tonne at first - mostly for priming and zenithal highlights - along with a model airplane or two
 
montymint said:
I appreciate that, I'm hoping it'll be fine for my needs. I won;t be spraying a tonne at first - mostly for priming and zenithal highlights - along with a model airplane or two
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Hi I bought the small no tank version a long time ago and it is really poor at maintaining even flow I was going to get the same one again with a 3l tank but they were about £120 which seemed a lot so i looked around and found a large 24 litre oil free compressor from amazon for £60 it is very loud by comparison but it fills the tank full in about 3 minutes and I got an inline filter to remove water and also adaptors so I could use it with my airbrushes and including the filter and hoses and adaptors and bits it was still cheaper than the 3l tank compressor).

the 24 litre compressor can deliver a lot more air so you have to set the flow down using the regulator but fill the tank full and it lasts hours before I need to refill it and it also makes it easier to clean out the airbrush when I'm finished which I find is the most important thing.

the most important thing if you would do it this was is to make sure it is an oil free compressor because oiled compressors will seep some oil into the tank and without a good enough filter a little oil will make it into your airbrush and mess up your paint.
 
PardonTheWait said:
I got all the stuff I wanted for Christmas which was nice! I have my extractor booth thing and some other bits and bobs coming tomorrow so hopefully should be able to set it up and have a play.

Unfortunately the H&S airbrush arrived with the 0.2mm needle bent as the end cap was off the brush during shipping. The 0.4 is fine but I have emailed the company to ask what they want me to do - I don’t want to just bend it back as I have not the first clue about airbrushing and won’t be able to tell if I’ve done a good enough job. I don’t really want to use the other needle either in case they want the whole set back and they’re closed until the 9th! :rolleyes:

I got a clone airbrush with the compressor though (literally about £6 more with it included) so I will have a play with that.

Thansks for the advice by the way guys the H&S looks like a really nice bit of engineering, looking forward to spraying a few model car bits with it. I’m going to probably 3D print and prime up a few bits before I get to painting any model kits as I’m sure there’s quite a learning curve.
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Some of the clone airbrushes are really good it depends on the finish I got one included that was a bit poor finish and I bought a Spraymaster Precision ABR-1002 for about £15 which was okay but the finish inside the cup was a bit poor so I later got an Iwata clone for £19 and that airbrush is fantastic so I got 5 replacement needles and tips for a fiver but I also use some really fine wet and dry 3000 grit or finer to polish/sharpen the tip and I have had them around 8 years now and they are still working just fine

as other have mentioned the use of a mask or booth or better still both is a commonly overlooked part of spray painting and if you are using a mask its best to make sure it has the correct type of filter because I have seen so many people using 3m masks with replaceable filters but they are using filters for wood fibre particles which do almost nothing to filter out paint or solvents and the types of masks that do filter out the bad stuff usually only last a month or two before the activated carbon stops working because it is saturated by then ^^ it gets expensive, but its much better than having respiratory problems down the line.
 
Raising this one again but 0.2 or 0.4mm needle for 28mm minis and things like tanks and knights?
 
0.4mm is good for base coating and priming. I use 0.4 for priming, base coats and varnishing at the end. 0.2mm is good for details but this will depend entirely on what kind of paint you use and how you thin it. Some paints use quite coarse pigments and you might have trouble with blockages on the smaller needle size. I use a combination of Citadel and vallejo game colour. I thin using a vallejo thinners with added flow improver (winsor and newton), Retarder (winsor and newton) and have never had a blockage on either of those paint brands.

Citadel air is pretty decent and you can almost use it direct out of the bottle, although I add a few drops of my homemade mix to prevent dry tip. Vallejo paints thin really well so i don't bother buying the game colour air I just thin the usual game colour range myself.

if you are using Tamiya invest in Tamiya's own X-20 thinners

0.4mm gets most use from me as I have not hand primed or base coated any model since getting my airbrushes. Most of the detail I hand paint apart from on large models / vehicles (40K dreads, rhino, land speeder, storm talon gunships etc)

I should take a few photo's when i can find my camera again as i finished those vehicles months ago and they were done exclusively using an airbrush appart from the weathering at the end.

A couple of years a go I did some WW2 tanks and ther were all airbrushed, apart from the weathering you can see the pictures in my flickr gallery in the sig, That will give you an idea of what you can get with an airbrush. The 2 40K minis displayed in there were also most airbrushed apart from the really fine details and gold trims
 
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