Thoughts on the Aztek A470?

I love my Aztek airbrush, super easy to use and easy to clean.

I just had mine replaced free after 12 years, the trigger went click and I lost double action but it still worked. 

I love it, it was my first of many brands and could not part with it. I still say it's the easiest to clean up.

Mick.

15 years and some 250 1/72 vehicles,ships & planes as well as 3 A470's I got a badger 155 and only regret I didn't get a good airbrush sooner. Got the A470 to work but the amount of effort was ridiculas. I've taken the body apart 100 times but never relizied how poorly it was made until my dog bit the air valve during a teardown. That valve which will fail is just a rubber tube with the metal spring loaded rod pushing down to stop the airflow. The difference between a quaility S.S. airbrush and aztec is quality and simply ease of use and cleaning as well as performance.

I know this is an old thread.. but I wanted to add to the discussion. I've been modelling for 20 years.. with Aztec's all the time. I know people either love them or hate them..

I have had no problems with mine at all. I almost always use acrylics.. that probably makes cleanup of the AB much easier! (In general though I dont know why people use enamels - what a pain). One thing about them which is great.. I just keep an eye-dropper of acrylic thinners and I can spray one colour and be spraying the next in about a minute, washing the paint cup in water and just drying it using a cloth. Before packing up I simply squirt some thinners directly into the paint port and hold down the air flow for about three seconds.

I only infrequently change the nozzle to inspect and clean behind the nozzle seat. Its rarely necessary for me to do that.

The design is ingeniously clever.. and changable nozzles works well too. I can get very fine lines.. and have produced some fine models using them. These problems people face may be caused by screwing the nozzles in too tight, and maybe the nozzle seat has become damaged in some way (or obstructed by paint). This causes an air leak between the air source and the paint cup, which means air escapes out through the paint cup and no paint will flow. I have actually had this happen with mine at one time, you get air bubbling in the paint cup. The other potential cause is the needle gets jammed in the nozzle, you can tell this though when you pull back you can still see the needle protruding. It can be unstuck by carefully pressing the needle back using the red plastic nozzle tool. This can be caused by paint blockage in the nozzle itself. Just need to understand how these work and avoid any issues.

I am looking at buying a Grex now.. Although Im fine with the Aztek's.. I want to try something else. They look pretty fancy so I'll be able to actually compare the different types once I get one.

I use an AZTEK for fine lines and details, and a PEAK for base coats and general spraying.  I'mon my 2nd AZTEK, and the one I use now i the one with the metal handle.  I really like it.

I only use acrylics, and have no problem.  AZTEK nozzzles are a breeze to clean.

I wanted to thank you all for your input.  You have given me a lot to think about and other options to explore.

So there you go...some people swear by them, and a lot swear through, over and into them.

By the way, El Taino, love the Arctic Agressor.  Hope mine turns out half as well.

My first AB was a single action Testors/Aztek, next step was a double action and went for the A470 which was literally my 1st double action AB. After many years of use, it has been at Testors only once.  I decided to add the metal body A7778. About 3 weeks ago, I had an accident with it. Dropped it on the floor and the Tan nozzle took the blast. The head nozzle had some play in it so I decided to send it in. I decided to send the A470 to take advantage of the shipping and have them do an internal cleaning. Not because it was in need of, but just because I wanted. As usual, no questions asked.

I sent the AB's wrapped with paper, they sent them back in new cloth pouches. They both looked like the never had been used before. Meanwhile I kept working on my models with the Badger and Talon. I couldn't see the day of getting my Azteks back from Illinois. I was tired of cleaning needles and minuscule parts plus the smell of LT in my work area. With the nozzle system and being an Acrylic user, its all cleaned with running warm water and I'm all set to the next color. Saves me lots of my limited modeling time. If I had to start from 0 again, I wouldn't hesitate to get another AZTEK.

I had a Paasche H for years and did not like it. I upgraded to a Aztek 470 after seeing all the Brent Green videos, but decided that I couldn't do what Brent did with the Aztek. I got rid of the Aztec (in a month) and got an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS and had been very happy with it since.

The Iwata came with a 0.35 mm nozzle as standard. It can spray fine lines to fairly wide pattern for a larger model. A single nozzle does 99% of the job very well. I found the Aztek multiple nozzle inconvenient.

The difference of airbrushes are NOT in needle taper or tip diameter in microns. It is about the handling, control and easy of cleaning. It is about the enjoyment of your hobby. And the quality of construction of an airbrush has a strong influence on how an airbrush works. The final choice is very personal. You will have to try it to know what you like the best.

BTW, I am a weekend modeler, use airbrush enough to know what I like. But my skill is very limited. There are many experienced airbrush users on this forum who can do wonderful work with any airbrush. And I found the Iwata I have allows me to build up skill a little faster.

The Aztek brushes generally work very well, when they work.
By and large most complaints you hear about them are not about the quality of work they do but that normally they stop working properly. Yes, normally.
Before anyone jumps on the soap box proclaiming their Aztek has been working perfectly and without fail since Moby *** was a minnow, sure, I'll agree that every so often there has to be one that works for the user for years. But for every one user that has one that works there must be 50 that have trashed them and moved on.
People preach about how to care for them, take the nozzles apart, don't take them apart, take the body apart, don't take it apart, store the nozzles in lacquer thinner, all kinds of stuff that usually contradicts someone else somewhere but all the while seeming to have identical results, an Aztek that works perfectly and is 20 years old.
A quick search (type in Aztek and grab a coffee) will find far more unhappy Aztek user  threads than the other way around.

My first ab was the old Model Master Professional model (think that's what it was called), predecessor to the Aztek name, same technology. I learned how to mix paint and use an ab with it. In the end I too was doing camo on 72nd fighters freehand. Loved it. Easy to use and clean, never gave me problems.
Out of the blue one day it stopped working. Long story short, I tried all my tricks, cleaned and cleaned, eventually bought a new tan nozzle, the one I used the most. Fought with it for a couple of weeks, getting mixed results. Wouldn't spray paint then would spatter, then stop paint again. In the end I was so disgusted with it I tossed it gladly into the trash. At the time Testors had a lifetime warranty on the thing and you were supposed to send them in and be without the ab until they fixed it or returned a new one to you. I decided that if it didn't last any longer than a few months I didn't want to be bothered with it.
My uncle bought one within a week of mine, also his first ab. His lasted longer, nearly a year, then he had identical problems and gave up on his. We both bought Paache VL's and moved on. In the years past I've read hundreds of posts with people wanting help with a malfunctioning Aztek, and in those posts I've read what seems like hundreds of other people's responses saying they had problems, tossed it and moved on.

My advice to the OP is to do some research on the Aztek and look for positive comments before you commit to one. If you read more good than bad, go for it. Otherwise, if you want to skip the research and just buy an ab and get started, walk away from the Aztek. There are far to many good ab companies out there making products that have positive feed back, just pick one. 99% of them do as good or better work than the Aztek and 99.9% of them all last longer than the Aztek.

Depending on how many kits one can build over a period of one month, once can reach an assessment  on *any* airbrush system. Most of the bad rap Aztek gets is from folks that come on board already predisposed. I have been using AZTEK for well over a decade and currently own a Paasche Talon and a Badger Velocity. There is NO airbrush task we can not do with an Aztek AB, period. One has to know the Aztek nozzle system first in order to get the max out of the system and trust me, mastering any AB takes more than a month. From fine detail to spattered nozzle for special effects, I can do absolutely everything any Paasche, Iwata or Badger can do at a fraction of the time.

Like our good comrade Hans Von Hammer would say, I don't build 1/72 unless at gun point. I can detail and free hand paint with my Aztek as I would with my Badger or Paaschee. Compared to the customer service from Paasche, Testor CM, is outstanding. These 2 models were pulled from the corner of the oblivion and painted both with Azteks free hand with the Tan and gray nozzles.

I don't want to sound incisive or abrasive, my apologies in advance. As a photography forum owner, I constantly see folks blaming their camera brand or model for their lack of skills with what they already have. Obviously is not the camera but the one behind it. Then I see them spending a few K's in the latest and the greatest to see the same ole' shaiza. Same thing pretty much happens when it comes to AB's. I've seen folks in my forum capturing breath taking images with their humble Canon XTi and Nikon D5000.

Now back to my work bench, I have to add the clear red parts and remove the canopy tape on the 1/72 Dragon Fly.

I had nothing but pain with my Aztek A470.  I thought it was just me and improper airbrush technique.  Bought an Iwata and realized it wasn't me, the A470 really was that difficult.

Now I can airbrush without getting the dreaded splats, or trying to figure out what combination paint to thinner will work this day.

Thanks for the suggestions.  I did not think it would be this hard to pick out an airbrush.

 I am trying to get back into the hobby after a 10 year break.  My first project is the Accurate Miniatures B-25B Doolittle Raider that has been sitting on my shelf during my 10 year break (I also have a AM Grumman F3F-1 and an KN E-2C Hawkeye 2000 that are new additions to the pile).

I started working on the B-25 last week with my old cheap Testors airbrush and canned air.  Needless to say, that is why I am here.  Clearly my old $30 investment is not paying off for me anymore.

There ya go, search function works wonders.

I'll toss in another candidate to complicate things more. A couple of my local friends have started using Grex AB's and swear they are the best they've tried, and they've used about everything under the sun.

I had one for about a month. Cannot get rid of it fast enough. For the money, you have much better choice from Iwata or Harder & Steenbeck. Do a search on Aztek on this forum, you will see why.