Color Cup or Siphon Bottle

for medium to large coverage I prefer the siphon bottle as I can spray without frequent refilling.

For detail and small jobs I use the color cup (read most of the time) as it allows smaller amounts of paint, less waste, easier cleanup.. AND it just sprays on better. I can shoot at lower PSI with the metal color cup which means less overspray and finer lines so I can get in closer and paint sharp with it. Oh and did I mention easier cleanup?

I can't remember the last time I used the syphon bottle. I just keep refilling that little cup, and I am happy as a clam......

in retrospect... what Crockett said!

on 1/48 aircraft I dont think I have used the siphon bottle in quite awhile... I do have an extra siphon bottle with Future in it I use to spray future but thats about it...

On my Paasche H, which is a syphon feed, I use a color cup, never a bottle. On my Iwata HP-CR, it's a gravity feed with the color cup built in as an intregal part of the AB.

Regards, Rick

I have a "Murphys spill-o-matic" color cup. I have a tendency to fill it up way too much. Then I start spraying the model. The spill-o-matic starts leaning ever so closer to horizontal. Then presto, paint all over the model. Truely an amazing contraption. I don't use the siphon bottle though, I don't think I will learn my lesson on this one Lid you say?? Whats that??

I prefer the metal cup also for modeling as the jars require a lot more paint.

Mike

I have the Badger 360 which is both gravity feed and siphon feed and a 175 also.

The 360 has a small built on color cup that I use when I just want to touch something up, or just spray a fairly small amount of paint. Its really amazing. a few of drops of paint and you can spray a small part or 2.. i've also used it at low pressures to attempt to do fine lines for camo recently.

but overall I perfer the convenience of the siphon feed because I'm less likly to spill paint on my project. I use model Master paints and I have 2 siphon lids that fit those bottles so I can thin them right in their bottles. (one i made myself and the other I got from Micro-mark) I also have a aztek 2.5 cc color cup I converted to siphon feed for those small jobs when a bottle is too much and don't want to mess with the color cup.

And as for the metal cup with the angled siphon feed that came with my 175, well i've never used that thing...

I'd say it's about 50 / 50 for me. I have a bunch of old MM and Tamiya bottles that fit my Omni 3000, and I tend to thin enough paint at one time to do the whole model. It doesn't make sense to get paint out of the bottle for the color cup on my Omni 4000 when all I have to do is screw the bottle on the 3000.

A gravity feed brush will spray reliably at a slightly lower pressure than a siphon feed brush, but not much lower. I can get below 10 psi with my 3000 and a couple of psi lower with my 4000.

I have a Paasche.
I like the cup better.
The bottle gets in the way of my fingers, and there have been quite a few times when it has fell off its place. I also don't need as much paint with the cup.

Only problem with the cup is I have only one and need to clean it frequently.

Generally, I prefer a color cup for all the reasons stated above. However, for clear coating, I use the siphon bottle method because I always keep a bottles of Future and flattened Future available. I just screw on a siphon lid and am good to go.

I use the color cup all the time... I don't know why, I just like it.