Aztek/Testors airbrushes question

I'm a Badger man, and own four of them: 200-20 single action siphon, 150 dual action siphon and two 100LG (Medium and Fine). All of them are excellent airbrushes.

While I have no personal experience with Aztek, I have heard many tales of woe. Most of which were backed up by excellent warrenty and customer service. Still, not having your airbrush while it is being fixed for free isn't that good of a deal. And so I avoided them.

Keilau and Abarne have offered some excellent advice. Iwata, Badger and Paasche are the three top brands in the US, and for very good reasons. I would use any of them with expectations of fine quality and workmanship. That does not necessarily translate into MY ability to produce fine quality! As Keilau mentioned, it's the hands and not the tool that produces the results. Still, a well balanced hammer tends to nail straight, and it certainly doesn't hurt to have the best tools available!

Check around your area to see who stocks what. Access to spare parts (needles do get bent, and o-rings and other small parts are subject to the carpet monster and wear and tear) is probably equally as important as the airbrush's ability to perform. So if your LHS stocks Paashce parts, get a Paasche, and so on.

Badger has their new Renegade series of ABs out now, and a new R1V-Velocity would make a fine addition to my toolbox!

<Honey, I know I have four airbrushes, but you've heard the old saying "fifth one makes the charm!" haven't you? What's that? It's the third one that does that? Really? Well, wouldn't five be even more charming? WHACK! OWW, okay okay, maybe not so charming!>

If you do use the Search feature you can find a lot of threads on the very subject.

I have an AztekA430.  It seemed to work OK the few times I used it, and any problems that I had, I ascribed to my own lack of skill rather than any deficiency on the part of the Aztek.  Then one day it stopped working, this despite my having rigorously followed all cleaning and care instructions, so I sent it back to Testor's for warranty replacement. 

During the three-week reapir turnaround, I picked up a Badger 200NH which is a single action variant of their Anthem 155 double action model.  I found the Badger far easier to use, (although that may be due to it beaing single action).  I found that cleanup was no more difficult than with the Aztek and in many respects the Badger is actually easier to clean up.  The paint quality in terms of overall paint finish and fine line control on the Badger was always as good or better than that of the Aztek.  After my Aztek was returned, I connected it to my compressor just once just to verify that it was indeed fixed (or replaced, I don't know which), but I have never used it since. During the interveing years, the Badger has proven to be more reliable as well.

A year or two later, I started using acrylics paints, and decided to get a second brush, and for that I opted for the venerable Paasche H.  I think all my comments about the Badger compared to the Aztek apply equally with respect to the Paasche compared to the Aztek.

Reliablity issues aside, Azteks are usually quite a bit more money than conventional airbrushes and don't really provide and real advantage.  Their main marketing line is that they are easier to clean, which is total rubbish.  Ultimately, I do feel that my original decision to buy an Aztek was indeed a mistake.

On the other hand, since you have one, and you like it, use it and enjoy it.  Until it dies, and there's no guarantee that it will do so, there's no reason to switch.  But if it does die, remember that there are a lot of better alternatives out there.

Andy

This was what were said in 2004 and this year, 2008.

Yes, I know that Bret Green did wonderful works with the Aztec AB. I owned one Aztec 4709 before. However, finally, it is the "airbrusher" not the airbrush that makes the biggest difference.