I posted a few weeks ago that I would have my review of the air compressor I ordered from Airbrush City as well as a review of the paint booth I ordered. I've finally got them both. Here is the paint booth review - I'll try to get the compressor review out soon. While not a new product I'm sure there are many people like me who are currently getting back into the hobby and are researching products like this.
After much debate I decided to go with the Paasche HSSB hobby spray booth over building my own booth. A couple reasons for this: The shaded pole blower would cost about $125-150 alone, the booth w/ blower was $195 using the Buy-It Now price, or $183 if you are a patient person and bid the opening price, wait 7 days, and nobody bids against you. Shipping was $16 to my location. Buying the booth saves me from building my own - probably saved me a weekend worth of time. The booth is metal and can be collapsed for easy storage or moving - the one I would have built would have been wood and very heavy. The metal booth will be easier to clean. If something goes wrong the booth has a one year warranty - if I built one I could only blame myself for any failures!
I ordered on a Thursday and the booth arrived at the end of the following week. It turns out that the place selling these booths on eBay is the Paasche Airbrush Company itself. This is not made clear on the auction listing, although it does say the booth will be shipped direct from the manufacturer. If you pay with Paypal your receipt goes to Paasche Airbrush Company, and the paperwork that comes with the booth all shows that you are dealing directly with Paasche. This is a great deal - these booths are usually $260-300 on art supply store websites, to be able to purchase direct from the manufacturer for under $200 is a great deal. The order went smoothly, although I did have to e-mail and ask to get a tracking number.
Once the huge box arrived I opened it up and set it up in my model shop. A one page instruction sheet is included, and can also be downloaded off of Paasche's website if you want to look at them before purchase. The booth is 24" wide and about 18" high - plenty big for 1/35 armor, but if you are into big 48th scale bombers or any 32nd scale aircraft you may be a little cramped. The depth is 24" but allow another 4-6" for the blower assembly - it overhangs the back of the booth somewhat. I vented the fan to the outside using a standard 4" dryer vent and tubing - it is scary how easy it is to cut a hole in the side of your house if you want to! The noise level from the blower is no worse then a typical bathroom vent fan. I don't recall the exact CFM numbers - but standing outside next to the vent exhaust I could feel the air moving at a very strong clip! I stuck a cheap kitchen cabinet style turntable in the center to put models on for easy rotation and painting.
I haven't actually painted anything yet to judge the ability to remove fumes - but I'm confident it will be up to the task. The filter that comes with it is a two part design that could easily be replaced by using a 10"x20" (or similar) furnace filter placed over the old filter chamber, all you would need to do is fashion some simple brackets to hold it in place. The only negatives I can think of is there is no built in light and there is no power switch - you have to plug it in to start it and unplug it to stop it. The light doesn't bug me - that was easy to fix, but I'd really like to flip a switch to start the blower and not stress the plug by always plugging it in and unplugging it.