Is this a good airbrush?

The prices that you have quoted seem a bit high.

Average hobby shop prices for the basic brushes (carded "blister" packs) are about $85.00-$90.00 (AUD) for the "H" and about $135.00 (AUD) for the VL. These are basically minimal sets consisting of the basic airbrush unit, a single paint jar, air hose and prepellant can adaptor, without the multiple nozzles and needles and paint jars in the "deluxe" box sets.

I'm not aware of a double action "H". I would have thought the basic design of the "H", being an external mix unit, would preclude any sort of double action function.

Two of the three I looked at were in box sets, and the Paasche VL double-action was in one of those carded blister packs that you pull apart. That one "retailed" at $150.00. I'm not sure if the other two were Deluxe box sets, but the picture on the front of the boxes of both of the other two featured the airbrush with the hose, a couple of tools and a kind of a conical/florence flask shaped (paint?) jar in the background. There might've been some other stuff as well, but I can't remember.

Another thing is, I never said how they were packaged...

Where did you hear or see that?

I'll concede that the prices quoted above are probably the "low" side, but they were found by looking at a number of local sites.

eg. Look at the following:

http://www.hobbytools.com.au/category45_1.htm

http://www.rcwarehouse.com.au/search/results/index.php?srchtype=AdvSearch&srchimg=0&srchvendor=PAA

The prices on the last one look very good, but I'd suggest confirming that the prices are correct for the sets illustrated and not simply for the brush alone. (EDIT: Oops, it looks like they may not have the sets in stock)

The Paasche H is a solid work horse.  I have one, and using the small #1 tip, can do free hand camo on 1/72 armor, which should be detail enough for any of your needs.  The same tip can spray a fairly wiide pattern for base coats, and if you build something enormous, like a 1/72 scale submarine, the #3 or #5 tips that come with the H Set can spray as wide a pattern as you need.  It's easy to maintain, rugged and reliable.

Your prices seem kind of high.  How to Ausie dollars compare to US?  I know European currency goes a long way over here.  Check out the prices at the US firm, DixieArt.  I know international shipping would eat some of the discount, but they may be an option.

http://www.dixieart.com/HSet.html

Andy

Andy,

Right now the AUD is about $0.88 USD, that and the price of shipping to Australia (which is actually quite far away from just about anywhere) conspire to make the prices very high.

IIRC somebody here on the forums bought a Badger 100LG from DixieArt and by the time it arrived in Australia it ended up about $135 AUD, not a huge savings, but still significent. 

Bgrigg wrote:

IIRC somebody here on the forums bought a Badger 100LG from DixieArt and by the time it arrived in Australia it ended up about $135 AUD, not a huge savings, but still significent.

Hi Bill,

I thought I recalled this member paying somewhat mare than $135 AUD, so I searched the forums, and if it's the one that I remember, it ended up costing him $181.57(US) or $209.35(AUD) inc. shipping. 

I was looking at the Badger garage sale prices, and thinking what a shame that they don't ship internationally.   

LOL Bill...

Lots of posts since then.

I remember looking at that when it happened and thinking to myself "Geez, two-thirds of that is shipping".  Oh well, if he was happy to pay that much for it, who am I to disagree?

Phil_H wrote:

I'll concede that the prices quoted above are probably the "low" side, but they were found by looking at a number of local sites. eg. Look at the following: http://www.hobbytools.com.au/category45_1.htm http://www.rcwarehouse.com.au/search/results/index.php?srchtype=AdvSearch&srchimg=0&srchvendor=PAA The prices on the last one look very good, but I'd suggest confirming that the prices are correct for the sets illustrated and not simply for the brush alone. (EDIT: Oops, it looks like they may not have the sets in stock)

Cheers for that, but I would only be saving $10 on the single action and $5 on the double action and I don't have a credit card anyway.