Budget airbrush and compressor.
Discussion
I haven't made a model in like 30 years, I've got a fair old stash though! I'm currently busting my arse off delivering shopping, I want to start making a few, I feel it will help me chill out before bed and also on my days off, I am not looking at dr_gn or robemcdonald etc extremely high standards! I just need a cheap airbrush and compressor for not a lot of money that will do a half decent job! Cheers.
I’m not qualified in the slightest to answer this but this is what I would do.
Buy any of the cheap kits on Amazon, preferably one with a separate air tank.
It really looks like they all use basically the same compressor.
Give it a go and if you are keen then do a bit or research, spend a bit of money and buy better airbrushes.
I’m quite happy to be corrected if this is rubbish
Buy any of the cheap kits on Amazon, preferably one with a separate air tank.
It really looks like they all use basically the same compressor.
Give it a go and if you are keen then do a bit or research, spend a bit of money and buy better airbrushes.
I’m quite happy to be corrected if this is rubbish
Cheap compressors seem to be fairly reliable but may lack a bit of finesse. I bought a £60 jobby from Aldi about ten years ago. It works really well but is very noisy when filling the air storage tank.
For £100 or above these days you could get a lovey, quiet and lightweight compressor that would be less anti-social.
As far as airbrushes go, cheap usually means less reliable and more troublesome to maintain - and maybe a shorter life.
Personally, I would not go down the cheap airbrush option and again would start at the £100 level and go for one of the well known names - such as Iwata , Sparmax or Harder and Steenbeck. I have had an H&S for around ten years now and it has been pretty reliable and easy to use in that time.
I think you could get a very good airbrush and compressor set up for around £200.
For £100 or above these days you could get a lovey, quiet and lightweight compressor that would be less anti-social.
As far as airbrushes go, cheap usually means less reliable and more troublesome to maintain - and maybe a shorter life.
Personally, I would not go down the cheap airbrush option and again would start at the £100 level and go for one of the well known names - such as Iwata , Sparmax or Harder and Steenbeck. I have had an H&S for around ten years now and it has been pretty reliable and easy to use in that time.
I think you could get a very good airbrush and compressor set up for around £200.
Having had a few cheap airbrushes, I've come to the conclusion that they are just not worth the aggro - constant clogging , uneven spray , blobs , splatters , struggle with some paints but work with others for no obvious reason, the innards are machined roughly so the paint sticks and doesn't flow nicely and it's a pain to clean it, then a rubber washer breaks and you can't get a replacement....it was just an endless list of problems.
In the end I gave up and bought an Iwata Neo for £100 (connected to my cheap AliExpress small tanked compressor) and have had no problems and have actually enjoyed airbrushing every since.
I would suggest anyone do the same and avoid the cheap ones that sound so tempting, because there is a reason they are cheap. Yes I'm sure some people can make a cheap airbrush work, but I couldn't on any of the 3 I had, and they just removed all the enjoyment from it.
In the end I gave up and bought an Iwata Neo for £100 (connected to my cheap AliExpress small tanked compressor) and have had no problems and have actually enjoyed airbrushing every since.
I would suggest anyone do the same and avoid the cheap ones that sound so tempting, because there is a reason they are cheap. Yes I'm sure some people can make a cheap airbrush work, but I couldn't on any of the 3 I had, and they just removed all the enjoyment from it.
I bought a second hand one off eBay to see if It was for me then after six months I was reasonable at it.
I then bought this one from amazon
It was £86 at the time but it’s a generic compressor but is fine. The airbrush is “ok” but I use a sparmax 0.3mm airbrush as a go to.
It takes plenty of practice and all the myths about stripping your airbrush after every use are rubbish. I would suggest using Tamiya acrylic and levelling thinner to start as it is very forgiving.
I then bought this one from amazon
It was £86 at the time but it’s a generic compressor but is fine. The airbrush is “ok” but I use a sparmax 0.3mm airbrush as a go to.
It takes plenty of practice and all the myths about stripping your airbrush after every use are rubbish. I would suggest using Tamiya acrylic and levelling thinner to start as it is very forgiving.
klunkT5 said:
dr_gn said:
I'm surprised there's not a sticky for this subject - it seems to get asked every couple of weeks; same with modelling tools and kits for beginners. Same answers, same conflicting viewpoints over and over and over again.
Apologies if i annoyed you, Cheers.As predicted you’ve now got people saying cheap ones are OK, others saying it’s not worth it. Nobody actually answered your question either. But hey ho.
This is the way of the internet. It will never change.
OP you havent annoyed us, we just find it strange you think we will say anything different from the 1000s of similar threads on the internet that Google throws up.
No one here is any more experienced than what you will find on the net. In fact you will find these same people have probably given the same advice 100s of times on facebook and modelling forums.
Basically spend what you can afford. Skill and ability to learn counts for far more than money spent.
Personally I use and AS186 clone and a s
tty airbrush and I can do this.
So, what you spend does not determine your results.
And if you clean your brush properly it will last forever, whatever the cost.
OP you havent annoyed us, we just find it strange you think we will say anything different from the 1000s of similar threads on the internet that Google throws up.
No one here is any more experienced than what you will find on the net. In fact you will find these same people have probably given the same advice 100s of times on facebook and modelling forums.
Basically spend what you can afford. Skill and ability to learn counts for far more than money spent.
Personally I use and AS186 clone and a s
tty airbrush and I can do this.So, what you spend does not determine your results.
And if you clean your brush properly it will last forever, whatever the cost.
To some degree what you spend does determine the results, at least for most people. A cheap airbrush that doesn't atomise the paint properly and splatters or clogs a lot will produce much worse results than spending a bit more on a decent one, which sprays neatly every single time. Yes some people can make a cheap one work, but if you're not that person, and chances are you're not, you've just wasted money on something that will only give you fairly poor results and will probably end up in the bin. That's where all my cheap airbrushes are, I would have spent less overall if I'd just paid a bit more up front for a good one, and would likely have better models to show for it too.
I wouldn't consider a £100 Iwata to be that much of a financial step up from a £20 to £40 cheap airbrush, especially considering the model you are painting probably cost £50 or something anyway, but that small cost increase is highly likely to give you much much better results, and a lot more enjoyment also.
I wouldn't consider a £100 Iwata to be that much of a financial step up from a £20 to £40 cheap airbrush, especially considering the model you are painting probably cost £50 or something anyway, but that small cost increase is highly likely to give you much much better results, and a lot more enjoyment also.
Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 10th May 13:13
FWIW I think JimSuperSix has it right. Cheap airbrushes are cheap for a reason. Production tolerances mean that some will be good, others won't.
If you buy a 'name' airbrush, they'll pretty much all be good. What's more, if you get one from somewhere like Little Cars, the guy will test it before he sends it out. So you're starting form a known baseline.
Trouble is, if you're a beginner, and you buy an Amazon special, you'll have no idea whether it's the airbrush, or one or more of the many variables that is causing you to get a st result.
It could be wrong air pressure, contaminated air, incorrect paint thinning, lumps in the paint, a drawback of paint type (e.g acrylics drying on the needle), too much paint, too little paint, too much airflow, not enough airflow, too close to the workpiece, too far away from the workpiece, dirty airbrush, etc etc, etc, etc.
The other thing is what you want to do with it. If it's just area painting like a 1:24 car body, then that is easier to do and more tolerant of a st airbrush than if you want to do things like pre-shading of panel lines and exhaust staining on small scale models. For that you need extremely fine control of flow and perfect atomisation. Even with a quality airbrush it can be difficult to get all the variables spot-on.
At the end of the day, there really is no point in effectively asking advice on which crap airbrush to buy, beacause even the same types and makes will have far more production variations than more expensive ones. Someone might get a good one, the next person might get a st one.
If you buy a 'name' airbrush, they'll pretty much all be good. What's more, if you get one from somewhere like Little Cars, the guy will test it before he sends it out. So you're starting form a known baseline.
Trouble is, if you're a beginner, and you buy an Amazon special, you'll have no idea whether it's the airbrush, or one or more of the many variables that is causing you to get a s
t result. It could be wrong air pressure, contaminated air, incorrect paint thinning, lumps in the paint, a drawback of paint type (e.g acrylics drying on the needle), too much paint, too little paint, too much airflow, not enough airflow, too close to the workpiece, too far away from the workpiece, dirty airbrush, etc etc, etc, etc.
The other thing is what you want to do with it. If it's just area painting like a 1:24 car body, then that is easier to do and more tolerant of a s
t airbrush than if you want to do things like pre-shading of panel lines and exhaust staining on small scale models. For that you need extremely fine control of flow and perfect atomisation. Even with a quality airbrush it can be difficult to get all the variables spot-on.At the end of the day, there really is no point in effectively asking advice on which crap airbrush to buy, beacause even the same types and makes will have far more production variations than more expensive ones. Someone might get a good one, the next person might get a s
t one.klunkT5 said:
Thanks for taking the time to reply guy's, Good advice, Cheers.
No worries. BTW I mentioned Little Cars - but I think they are now here:https://www.modellingtools.co.uk/airbrush--compres...
They only sell tried and tested products.
If you decide to go with them, ask for Paul - he will give you all the advice you need.
Second Little-Cars/ Modelling Tools - excellent service and advice. They are regulars at many model shows - although that's rather academic at the moment as all model shows up until the end of July (at least) have been cancelled.
Personally, I don't expect any model shows to take place before 2021 now.
Personally, I don't expect any model shows to take place before 2021 now.
Problem with airbrushing is your initial outlay is quite expensive, because you want both the compressor and the airbrush, though once you have your kit, it will last many years of course, but do you want to spend £200 to find out you just don't like airbrushing?
I got back into modelling last year, first time since I was a child. And last year was my first time ever trying an airbrush. From all that I read on the internet, I concluded that I need to get a compressor rather than relying on pressurised air canisters, and I need a dual action airbrush, so that ruled out the real budget ones like the Humbrol all purpose airbrush.
I ended up buying the Gocheer kit, which comes with three different size needles, a dual action airbrush (i.e. you get to control the flow rate of the paint as well as turn the air on or off), barrel and nozzle cleaners, and a compressor with adjustable pressure..... but no pressure gauge. Basically I have no idea what pressure I'm using. It adjusts between nothing and something....
It's done OK for me, I must say. Good enough (for me) for the 10 models I've finished so far, not difficult to clean, and gives a finish I'm happy with over reasonably large areas. I don't use it for fine lines. Either I'm not up to it or the airbrush isn't. I can get around that with masking but I have no idea how much better a good airbrush will be.
In summary, it's easy enough to use to not be a pain, and gives a good enough finish for me to use rather than a hairy brush. So as a package, it is good enough for me.
Currently £68 on Amazon for the kit.
So yes, I would recommend this as an affordable way to get started but bear in mind I have no idea what difference a high quality airbrush will make over this. Those who have moved from budget to quality have all said its worth it. Can get an Iwata CN or Harder and Steenback Ultra D for £90ish on Amazon. And at that price I may just add the other £30 when I can and go for a good product from a known company rather than their base products.That will be my next move, followed by a compressor with bottle and gauge (another £90) but at least now I can spread that out and still enjoy airbrushing my models and be happy with my results.
If you do go that way, I hope your experience is similar.
I got back into modelling last year, first time since I was a child. And last year was my first time ever trying an airbrush. From all that I read on the internet, I concluded that I need to get a compressor rather than relying on pressurised air canisters, and I need a dual action airbrush, so that ruled out the real budget ones like the Humbrol all purpose airbrush.
I ended up buying the Gocheer kit, which comes with three different size needles, a dual action airbrush (i.e. you get to control the flow rate of the paint as well as turn the air on or off), barrel and nozzle cleaners, and a compressor with adjustable pressure..... but no pressure gauge. Basically I have no idea what pressure I'm using. It adjusts between nothing and something....
It's done OK for me, I must say. Good enough (for me) for the 10 models I've finished so far, not difficult to clean, and gives a finish I'm happy with over reasonably large areas. I don't use it for fine lines. Either I'm not up to it or the airbrush isn't. I can get around that with masking but I have no idea how much better a good airbrush will be.
In summary, it's easy enough to use to not be a pain, and gives a good enough finish for me to use rather than a hairy brush. So as a package, it is good enough for me.
Currently £68 on Amazon for the kit.
So yes, I would recommend this as an affordable way to get started but bear in mind I have no idea what difference a high quality airbrush will make over this. Those who have moved from budget to quality have all said its worth it. Can get an Iwata CN or Harder and Steenback Ultra D for £90ish on Amazon. And at that price I may just add the other £30 when I can and go for a good product from a known company rather than their base products.That will be my next move, followed by a compressor with bottle and gauge (another £90) but at least now I can spread that out and still enjoy airbrushing my models and be happy with my results.
If you do go that way, I hope your experience is similar.
kiseca said:
Problem with airbrushing is your initial outlay is quite expensive, because you want both the compressor and the airbrush, though once you have your kit, it will last many years of course, but do you want to spend £200 to find out you just don't like airbrushing?
This is exactly the problem with these threads 
...what stops you spending £68, finding out you don't like airbrushing, but the reason you don't like it turns out to be because you only spent £68?dr_gn said:
kiseca said:
Problem with airbrushing is your initial outlay is quite expensive, because you want both the compressor and the airbrush, though once you have your kit, it will last many years of course, but do you want to spend £200 to find out you just don't like airbrushing?
This is exactly the problem with these threads ...what stops you spending £68, finding out you don't like airbrushing, but the reason you don't like it turns out to be because you only spent £68?It’s exactly the same as any hobby, sport or pastime. Who is willing to spend a lot of money if they don’t like it/can’t do it. I get your point that you can be disappointed with a cheap setup, but if you don’t try you’ll never know. Who has tried to do everything and nailed it straight away. It’s practice, perseverance and dedication. When you achieve a good result it feels good as what a hobby is supposed to to do.
My generic compressor with tank is perfect for now. I did upgrade my airbrush to a sparmax that’s it. If you enjoy something you will look to upgrade.
A lot of modelling forum members use the exact compressor as me and win competitions with their models. I still have a lot to learn but I know I have the equipment to do it with.
That’s my experience and I know why a lot of modellers are put off it by the perceived expense.
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