What type of airbrush equipment to purchase.

Welcome aboard, Phil!

I think you'll find opinions on airbrushes as diverse as the folks who live on these forums. Same for paints. What brand spray paint did you use? Is there an airbrushable bottle paint made by the same brand? If so, I might try that route first, and use the thinner they advise for airbrushing.

Re: paint types---Enamels are durable but dry slowly. Acrylics dry a lot faster but are less durable. Lacquers dry fast, are durable, but have toxicity and fume issues. I use acrylics because they are less toxic (I have kids), but on occasion I will spray lacquers using a respirator, when I need a fast drying paint or clear coat that will stand up to weathering that i do on top of it.

I think you'll find proprietary thinners for the brand of paint you choose will be best for airbrushing them, but you can get away with generic chemicals such as mineral spirits or lacquer thinner for enamel and lacquer cleanup, or Windex and distilled water for acrylic cleanup.

Gravity feed airbrushes use a lot less paint per session compared to siphon feed, in my opinion. However, I've bought and used a $10 single action siphon feed airbrush from Harbor Freight with remarkable success. I'd recommend this to a beginner because it's very cheap, as opposed to buying a more expensive airbrush and getting frustrated due to a steep learning curve.

I very rarely use a paint booth. In fact, mine is collecting dust underneath my bench. I just open a window.

When I started on these forums, I did a whole lot of reading and Google-searching various topics, which helped me a lot. Also, don't forget YouTube videos. If you subscribe to the Finescale Modeler magazine, you also have access to their videos on the home page.

Good luck and again, welcome,

Chris

Welcome, Phil.

You might check out Don's Airbrush Tips.

It is a great site for newbies and advanced users alike, one that I wish I'd found years ago.

I do not use a spray booth for airbrushing either. I use a low pressure (15 for gloss) and get so little overspray I don't need the spray booth for that- I only use the booth for rattle cans.  I like a siphon feed, since I keep  bottles mixed up with paint for the colors I will be using anyway.  I just mix the paint in the airbrush bottles.

Back many years ago, I became interested in blackmithing, which can be a very expensive interest. Since I really knew nothing about the practicalities of it, and whether my interest would be of any endurance, I was naturally reluctant to spend several thousand dollars purchasing an anvil and building and equipping a forge. After all, I could try it once, decide it wasn't my cup of tea, and then have what would amount to some very pricey boat anchors. So, I bought a cheap wrought iron anvil from Harbor Freight, built my own forge out of a spare tire rim and some sheet metal, and gave it a go. Once I determined it was something I wanted to really delve into, I began over time to purchase better (and more expensive) tools and equipment.

Going from rattle can painting to airbrushing, I found myself faced with the same dilemma. So, I went on eBay and bought a cheap double action brush. I hooked it up to the air compressor I've had for many years, dialed back the air pressure and began to experiment. Once I decided the process was something I wanted to do more of, I got a slightly improved model brush and found an airbrush compressor and tank. As my prowess with an airbrush grows, I expect to improve upon these purchases.

Moral of the longwinded story, if you don't know if you'll like something or whether it will work for you, start cheap and grow into it. Just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

You can't go wrong with the above mentioned "Don's Tips"

I definitly prefer gravity fed.i have an Iwata Eclipse

Hi Phil, and welcome! I'm relatively new to airbrushing myself, and while I started off using an old Testors airbrush I don't think they make anymore, I ended up going with a Badger SOTAR 20/20, which works like a dream. I run it using a smallish air compressor (smallish for the pneumatic tools I originally bought it for, but large compared to the airbrush compressors). It has an air tank, which helps get consistency of airflow. I also bought a regulator with a moisture trap to keep water out of the 10-foot air hose with quick-disconnect fittings that make everything easy. You definitely need the moisture trap, as water in the paint system is bad news.

Others will have way better advice to offer than me, but here are a few things that I wish I'd been able to find right off the bat:

- Don't thin water-based (acrylic) paints with water. I tried that with Tamiya acrylics, and they sprayed awfully. Use a thinner (I use Tamiya's acrylic paint thinner, which is an alcohol base with a retarder in it that delays paint drying time so it doesn't dry before hitting the model's surface - which creates a dusty/gritty texture).

-I read a hundred times to thin something to the consistency of skim milk. That's great, but it was hard for me to get that consistency at first. Then I saw the recommendation of thinning with 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint (for the Tamiya products I mentioned above).

-PSI. People don't seem to like to talk about the pressure they're running. I have found that 18 PSI works great with the Tamiya paints thinned as stated above. If the paint sounds like it's sputtering or spitting, I add thinner and sometimes air pressure.

-I bought 100 eyedroppers from TCP Global for something like $15 to transfer paints. That makes them disposable, so I don't feel bad about not cleaning the ones I use with enamels and lacquers. They're really great for transferring paint and thinner to the airbrush.

Those are the things I wish people had told me right away. I've just finished my first model that I've fully airbrushed, and I am absolutely hooked. The color depth and evenness of the coating of the pain really have me sold on airbrushing everything - even things like aircraft cockpits that are easy to brush by hand.

Good luck selecting your airbrush, and be sure to show us the pics of your first model!

-BD-