beginner ab question

What's the brand and model of the cheapie ab that you're getting? May help us judge whether it will turn up crap or not. The other concern is, if you start practicing with a crappy ab, you may develop bad habits that may hinder you in making the most of your future Badger, so please give us complete info.

there is not a whole lot you can damage severely on an airbrush to begin with unless you chunk it up side a brick wall a couple of time, and run over it with lawnmower or something. the tip and needle are the 2 main parts that will ever have to be changed most of the time, and if you handle the airbrush with care, and be gentle when inserting and extracting the needle, they will last a very, very long time. plus, there is no need to remove said parts very often, only for a major breakdown and cleaning session, which is done about 2 times a year or so..........atleast thats what i've come to do. as long as you spray the appropriate cleaning solvent through each painting session, you'll be fine.

with that said, if you have the money to purchase the badger anthem you speak of, i'd say skip wasting the 15 bucks on the cheapo and get on with some real airbrushing. you might as well buy the airbrush that you really want and get used to using it instead of purchasing one thats more than likely not gonna last long and probably scare you away from airbrushing becuase of the bad experiences/perfomance of using a cheapo airbrush. bite the bullet friend, and do yourself a favor, avoid plastic airbrushes like the plague and pursue the badger brush that you really want!! don't be afraid of it friend, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. get the airbrush, thin a little paint, pour it into the proper container that hooks to the airbrush and pull back/press down the trigger and let the lessons begin. happy airbrushing friend. later.

and the Anthem has that super quick, easy disassembly too. Check out the parts diagram for the Anthem (ignore the trigger/air assembly because you won't have to mess with those parts). There's not that much to it.

I'll jump on this bandwagon too. I was sort of scared to get a DA airbrush. They do take some practice, but hey, assuming you will one day move up to a DA, you'll have to practice with it sooner or later, why not start sooner.
The only really tricky thing is that the paint delivered/trigger movement is NOT (at least on my AB) a linear function.
As far as damage goes, I think you'd be hard pressed to do much damage to a well made airbrush, except possibly to the needle tip, unless you were outright abusive.

Al

From one beginner to another:

I am proof positive that buying the one you want is the right way to go... way back when I got back into the hobby (about 8 months ago) I bought a cheapy with the idea that if I decided modelling wasn''t for me anymore then no big waste...

Well now that I have my badger I wish I would have bought it to start with. As onyan said, I am having to unlearn a lot of things... like I don't have to pull so far back to get good paint flow, have to use lower pressures than the other one did etc...... (I am practicing camo'ing some scrap planes right now and my first few attempts are interesting looking to say the least)

As for damage read above... unless you bang the tip into the wall or lay it on your desk and unmercifully beat it with a hammer I don't think you're gonna damage it that easy... Well, that is if you clean it after each spraying as well... that probably wouldn't damage it but the frequent disassembly to clean the gunk out of the inside would give you a higher chance of bent needles etc...

get the good one.. and enjoy it!!!!!!!

ok
im just gonna get the anthem
thanks for the help

QUOTE: Originally posted by tominator ok im just gonna get the anthem thanks for the help

That's what I would do also.
Get the Anthem, ask questions about it on here, and we will try and help you out where we can.

Mike

I have an Anthem question... http://www.badger-airbrush.com/155parts.htm With that ball on the end of the needle it won't come out forward, will it? Does that ball unscrew so you could just leave it off, or do people usually chop it off with a Dremel?

No, you have to take the needle out the back with the Anthem.
Why would you want to remove the ball on the end of the needle anyhow?
If you remove it then you defeat the purpose of the airbrush's cut away handle to quickly remove the needle.

Mike

I imagine the rear cutaway would still be useful for getting the needle started with a push to the front if the the ball was not there. Plus, you could still grip it and pull it out the back without the ball, right? We talked about it in another thread how pulling the needle back to remove it drags paint through the airbrush.

Will the needle from the 200NH work in the Anthem? The 200 NH also uses retainer 51-071 and nozzle 41-004 just like the Anthem. http://www.badger-airbrush.com/200parts.htm That looks more like the needle I'd use if I had an Anthem, but the needles both have the same part number 51-048, yet the 200 NH seems to always have no ball on it.

QUOTE: Originally posted by jdavidb Plus, you could still grip it and pull it out the back without the ball, right?

Not very easily, no.

QUOTE: We talked about it in another thread how pulling the needle back to remove it drags paint through the airbrush.

That is simply not true. The PTFE needle bearing prevents paint from getting into the rear of the airbrush.

Mike