Airbrush advice

If your budget allows, an Iwata HP-CS is my suggestion. They are around $140. A very good brush. Stock comes with a .35 mm needle.

Others have great advice. The airbrush is, indeed, personal. I have a patriot, krome, HP-CS, and a badger 150. None are bad, and all have their own assets. I learned on the 150, but now it is solely a "clear coat" brush. It is a progression, with trial and error on anyone you may get. It took me 4 brushes to decide the HP-CS was the best.

The Badger Patriot F and Krome are NOT in the same class in quality. I had both.

The Badger Krome is designed with modeler in mind. It has a moderately small linear flow angle needle with excellent detail capability and yet good also for larger area coverage. The trigger action is linear and very easy to control. The needle is micro polished for precision. It is heavier and well balanced.

The Patriot 105F has a bi-cone needle of large linear flow angles. The needle is not polished. The trigger action is sensitive and needs very skilled figure to control it. It is a good budget airbrush, but not in the same league of the Krome for modeling.

The choice of airbrush is very personal. My personal experience above may not apply to master modeler with excellent figure skill.

 

 

One question to ask is; what will you be building/painting?  For larger models and not doing a lot of fine detail, I recommend the Patriot from Badger.  Easy to clean and the large cup holds a lot of paint and the needle allows for a large area and you can get in close too.

If you are going to be doing some fine work, then the Krome from Badger is awesome.  Once you realize how smooth the action is, you won't want to go back to the Patriot.

It is a matter of personal choice as others have said.  A lot like which is the best pickup truck to buy?  If you stay with the big names; H&S, Iwata, Paasche, Badger, you won't go wrong with what your budget is.  It is a tool that you will use for years, so buy up to what you can afford.  You will buy more than one trust me:)  I have three that are always ready.

John

Hi Raymond,

Your question is one that often gets a lot of personal bias and a lot of debate. That said, my personal favorite is also an H&S Evolution Silverline. But there are nice AB's available from many sources and I think it's really personal preference - does it feel right, is it comfortable to use, does it fit your needs, do you enjoy using it, do you want gravity or suction feed, detail or very broad coverage,  are parts available, etc.? H&S, Badger, Paasche, Grex, Iwata and others all make AB's suitable for our needs. Look at specs, pick one you think you'll be happy with then practice. An AB that you enjoy using and are comfortable with will make your painting much easier.

Howdy..

A good basic airbrush is the Badger 105 Patriot fine.  has a .5 mm needle great for beginners and base coats, not that great fore really  fine freehand detail work..  Price is right though, right now you can pick one up off of Amazon.com for $60.  which is about half price.  There is a superfine conversion kit that is .3 mm.

For more a more detail oriented airbrush there is the badger Krome 2 in 1.  It comes with both a .2 mm and .3mm setup.  The Krome is my personal favorite.  But it is a bit hither in price.  

I agree with Talent on all points. My airbrush of choice is the Evolution Silverline by Harder & Steenbeck. The 2 in 1 set comes with a 0.2mm and a 0.4mm needle and the nozzles for both of them. It isn't really cheap, but worth the money IMO.

It is always a good idea to opt for a gravity-fed brush because the feeding system doesn't rely on pressure which allows the airbrush to work properly even with very low pressure.

Cheers, Clemens

My personal preferences:
0.3mm needle - big enough for clearcoats and still smallenough for a bit of control
Dual action - again, more control, press down for air and pull back for paint.
Top gravity feed internal mix, ie. The ones where you put the paint in a top mounted cup, not a bottom mounted bottle.
Make sure it has a ptfe (teflon) o ring on the needle to resist laquer paint
If you can afford it dont buy a cheap £15 one off ebay. I did and it spat and dribbled like a drunk chimp. I may just have been unlucky tho.