is this airbrush okay for a beginner?

Actually it is a pretty good airbrush. I buy all of my airbrush stuff from TCP off ebay. They are very easy to deal with and you can call them for any item or question and they will help! Great warranties too. That is a double action I believe. Just a slight learning curve, but not too hard. Plus as you improve you will have a nice airbrush for a long time. They have great deals on compressors too! Hope you enjoy it.

Travis

I agree about the polishing. A well polished needle, whatever brand makes for a better airbrushing experience. It reduces the overspray, and today, when acrylics are becoming the standard, it reduces tip dry as well. And it´s something that everybody can do themselves.

The Iwata Eclipse is a real winner. For the money, I would say it´s one of the best airbrushes out there. Excellent for the beginner, and good as an all round airbrush for the experienced user. Only real competition is the Grex XG or H&S Evolution.

I had one of those chinese Micron clones, and it worked decent. As you say, it´s a bit bad in the tolerances, but it sprayed good. Try the real thing if you can aford one. They are lovely, especially the Olympos built ones. I have had several Iwata Microns, but the Olymposes are smoother than anything else. For the modeller, the Iwata CM-C or Olympos MP-200C are the best choices when it comes to Microns, but probably they are too pricey for most modellers.

Everybody can do whatever they want. I´m just trying to keep people from doing the most common mistake with double actions, and that is to open for the paint before the air, or to end with paint still open. This will indefinbly lead to spitting or other problem due to exessive build up of paint. A side effect is that it´s a lot less likely that people just let go, and let the spring return the needle forward. Doing that, and yes, I´ve seen it done in demonstrations many times, will sooner or later crack the nozzle. Maybe not a great deal on a Badger or a Paasche, but quite painful on a Micron...

denstore

 The only thing thats important about double actions is that you should always keep the air running. I´ve heard airbrush artists insist that it should be like a mantra, or a second nature to keep the air going. I´ve even heard of artists that remove the spring for the airvalve, so that the air will be going from the moment that you turn on the compressor. The air should be constant, and started as soon as you have put paint into the cup.

I totally disagree. There is absolutely no reason to keep the air on constantly when you use a DA airbrush.

denstore

Kosmonot wrote:

The Master is a Taiwan made private label airbrush made for Tri-City Paint (TCP global).  It is from the same factory as the PEAK from Bear Air. 

May I ask where you found this info? Because all I´ve managed to find out about PEAK is that they are made for Bear Air by Fuso Seiko in Japan. Fuso Seiko also makes Richpen, and if you check out their line of airbrushes, a couple of the PEAKs are very similar to the Richpens. The C-5 is identical except for the back handle, down to the nozzle and needle to the Richpen Apollo 113C. The X-5 is a Richpen Spectra 033 with 0.5mm nozzle setup and plastic cup. I´ve owned the C-5, and compared it to my Richpen, and they where almost identical down to the toolmarks.

I´ve owned a couple of Master airbrushes, as well as a lot of Fuso Seiko made airbrushes, and the differences are usually very noticable, IMHO. Not that the Master series are that bad, but they generally don´t stand up to the japanese made Fuso airbrushes when it comes to tolerances.  

As for answering the original post about a beginners airbrush, most double action airbrushes with a 0.3mm nozzle are good. Double actions are not harder to master than single actions IMHO, and today not even the price is a reason for going with the singles. I would even insist that if properly learned and used, there´s nothing that is more complicated with a DA airbrush, and you will have a lot less trouble. The only thing thats important about double actions is that you should always keep the air running. I´ve heard airbrush artists insist that it should be like a mantra, or a second nature to keep the air going. I´ve even heard of artists that remove the spring for the airvalve, so that the air will be going from the moment that you turn on the compressor. The air should be constant, and started as soon as you have put paint into the cup. If you do, you will have less spitting and clogging than with SA airbrushes, and you won´t have the hassle of relearning when you in the future decide to buy a DA airbrush.

denstore, welcome to the forum and thank you for the very informative post. Were you able to get BearAir to verify that Fuso Seiko in Japan makes the Peak airbrush for them? Peak was one of the very early house brand on the market and got a solid reputation of its quality. I noticed that the FSM editors like to use a picture of a Peak airbrush as back drop for many of their airbrush articles. Interesting.

I have several airbrushs including an Iwata HP-CS, an American made double action, gravity feed and a made-in-China Micron clone. The Iwata is no doubt my favorite. The control is very smooth, yet tight, giving me a sense of precision. The Amercican made is tight, but not very smooth. The clone is smooth, but feels loose. They all work well in modeling, but have different characteristics.

Some expert (Aaron Skinner, FSM, Dec 2009, page 18) believes that a smooth needle finish is important. He polished a Peak C-5. How does the needle of the Peak AB compare to others? Among the 3 ABs mentioned above, the Iwata needle has a much more "polished" finish than the other.

Kosmonot wrote:

The Master is a Taiwan made private label airbrush made for Tri-City Paint (TCP global).  It is from the same factory as the PEAK from Bear Air. 

May I ask where you found this info? Because all I´ve managed to find out about PEAK is that they are made for Bear Air by Fuso Seiko in Japan. Fuso Seiko also makes Richpen, and if you check out their line of airbrushes, a couple of the PEAKs are very similar to the Richpens. The C-5 is identical except for the back handle, down to the nozzle and needle to the Richpen Apollo 113C. The X-5 is a Richpen Spectra 033 with 0.5mm nozzle setup and plastic cup. I´ve owned the C-5, and compared it to my Richpen, and they where almost identical down to the toolmarks.

I´ve owned a couple of Master airbrushes, as well as a lot of Fuso Seiko made airbrushes, and the differences are usually very noticable, IMHO. Not that the Master series are that bad, but they generally don´t stand up to the japanese made Fuso airbrushes when it comes to tolerances.  

As for answering the original post about a beginners airbrush, most double action airbrushes with a 0.3mm nozzle are good. Double actions are not harder to master than single actions IMHO, and today not even the price is a reason for going with the singles. I would even insist that if properly learned and used, there´s nothing that is more complicated with a DA airbrush, and you will have a lot less trouble. The only thing thats important about double actions is that you should always keep the air running. I´ve heard airbrush artists insist that it should be like a mantra, or a second nature to keep the air going. I´ve even heard of artists that remove the spring for the airvalve, so that the air will be going from the moment that you turn on the compressor. The air should be constant, and started as soon as you have put paint into the cup. If you do, you will have less spitting and clogging than with SA airbrushes, and you won´t have the hassle of relearning when you in the future decide to buy a DA airbrush.

Wingman_kz, next time you get your text italicized, use "Ctrl-A" to select all, "Ctrl-I" to italicize/unitalicize. Or you can mouse left click-drag to select and push the "I" button on the editing menu of the post.

Look at it like this, an experienced painter can make just about anything work, a beginner needs all the help they can get. There's enough frustration(can be) involved with learning how to airbrush without having to diagnose a possibly faulty brush. And if you need parts, even a needle or tip, you know a name brand is gonna work.

PS...Sorry for the text, can't seem to change it back...

plastickjunkie

I'd rather stick with Badger.

I agree. Get the 105 Patriot for $73.50 here:

http://dixieart.com/Badger_Airbrush_Main.html

 

I'd rather stick with Badger. I have a 150 that I bought back in the early 80's and is still going strong. I just purchased a Renegade Velocity with the ultra fine tip for extra fine detailing. Got it for $93 with free delivery from  TC Graphics.

The Master is a Taiwan made private label airbrush made for Tri-City Paint (TCP global).  It is from the same factory as the PEAK from Bear Air.  These seem to work OK initially, but the spare parts if needed seem to be a crap shoot as to whether or not they'll work in your particualr airbrush.  The tolerances on the Taiwanese made parts seem to run quite a bit looser than brands like Badger (USA) or Iwata (Japan) - so the spare parts reliability and alignment quality tends be lacking comparably.  If price point is your concern, I'd suggest you shop around for a Badger Patriot.  I got one at Nationals and love it (if you gotta few bucks more get a Renegade Velocity, I love it even more).  I've never had a prob with Spare parts for my Badgers, which I get at my local hobby shop, and I've never had to use Badger's ervice - but I hear it is very responsive.  Plus Badger is still made in the USA, which I'm a fan of also

I purchased a 1104 double action airbrush kit from Airbrush City that seems to be the same as the S68. While I would not use this for portrait painting or automotive detailing, it seems to work just fine for all my modeling purposes. It comes with only one 0.3mm fine nozzle. Since the general opinion seems to be that a 0.35mm nozzle is the best for everything except large area coverage, it works good for me. For large area coverage, I use a Badger 350 single action.

 

 

The Badger 100LG from Dixie Art is $72 delivered in the lower 48. Comes with a lifetime warranty.

Keilau, side feds are no different to clean than siphon fed, which confirms your suspicion. That being said, siphon (and side) fed AB aren't that difficult to clean, takes about one minute longer.

jimbot58 wrote:

Not familiar with the brand, but looks like it has all around versibility. Has different nozzles and needles, and they say they stock parts for it. That would be important as seals and other parts do wear out and need repair.

I would agree that readily available spare parts and their associated cost is an important consideration. Some house brand airbrushs are very well made today and sounds like good buy on paper until the SHIPPING cost of spares and the wait making it a mockery.

The Master brand airbrush from TCPglobal offer a lot of features at very reasonable price. But most modeler are not artist and do not need all the features. We usually use the medium nozzle/needle (or fine if it is a Badger) of 0.3-0.5 mm size for all modeling works. Changing nozzle on a regular basis is not practical and NOT recommended. Personally, I prefer Iwata because I can walk into a Hobby Lobby and get spares dirt cheap. Most local hobby shop stock spare for Badger and Paasche. At around $70, the Iwata Revolution HP-CR, Badger Patriot and Paasche Talon all received good feedback on this forum.

I do not have a side-fed airbrush, but I suspect that it is NOT as convenient to clean as a gravity feed.

Not familiar with the brand, but looks like it has all around versibility. Has different nozzles and needles, and they say they stock parts for it. That would be important as seals and other parts do wear out and need repair. My only comment is that the double action takes a bit for a beginer to learn as you press down to start the airflow and pull back to start paint. It does look as though you can preset the paint flow with the knob at the back so pressing down on the trigger will start the air and paint together. I also like the feture of it being convertable between top and bottom feed. Bottom or siphon feed uses more paint as you usually have to mix more paint than you need to make it pull properly, but good when covering large jobs like the entire surface of a kit. Top or gravity feed is good when you only need to paint a small area. Be sure to practice alot before tackling your model.