Thinking about an airbrush.

[stevedenver]

its a bit of a minefield,,, single / double bottom feed top feed etc

i bought a testors aztek kit which is a bit of a jack of all trades

and is easy to clean and can be used to paint lots of diferent things

i bought the metal version, its well made and is convertible between single

and double action,,,,, which could be usefull

but having sprayed a few cars it comes down to practice and if you have the

touch of a kak handed knuckle dragger it wont matter what gun you buy

not used it yet,,,,,,, but seen excellent results from other people,,

i would see whats on ebay and maby pick up a cheep used bargain

and then practice,,,,

after years using cheap badgers for general stuff-which i found worked fine
i went to a local western wear store that was a client and saw how they air brush those hideous US type designs, bears and eagles and other cowboy stuff-the point is, with practice, an airbrush is simply amazing-things you cannot do with a handbrush, unless youre a trained artist


i use an aztek too,
easy to use and clean, many nozzles, pressure needs to be regulated
great product, but
simply

no matter what you use, you must practice
not only how to spray and control, distance
but also critical
is experimenting with paint dilution
as well as type of paint

ive gone from mineral to acrylic and back
now use both
very different application methods imho

once you use a spray gun, sucessfully, you will be spoiled

this is akin to having been proficient with chefs knives, and then getting really good with a food processor

not an either /or situation at all, but there are simply things one can do with different tools

id suggest, make a mental commitment,
get a really good one

and use it
practice with some inexpensive styrene models or old die cast cars, toys, paint a backdrop etc, and spend a couple of days learning how to use it

the big drawback , for me, is long term hiatus
(i used to paint n scale stuff up in UP regularly and decal it, a lot)
and you have to re-learn it a bit

be aware too, that airbrushes must be thoroughly cleaned after each use-no exceptions
this often takes more time than use time-full disassembly, gaskets, bottles, tips, etc
use separate bottle and designated tip for silver/metalllic/because its almost impossible to get all the tiny flake particles clean, even after 3-4 trys

and i often will use tamaya spray if i can because of this