Saw those fantastic models on one of the threads on here and it has stimulated me into wanting to waste some money on an airbrush.

Can someone recommend a decent starter airbrush and is there a way to charge up a bottle/reservoir with my compressor so that I can use the airbrush quietly upstairs? (airgun bottle?)What regulators & gauges are needed?
Where is the best place to pick up techniques, too?

I have got a part made Tamiya Honda CX500 Turbo to finish off. It has been waiting for some 12 years!

Cheers.

The Gamesworkshop one is good. It’s £18. Good for large and small areas of coverage.

Go on E-bay, you can get a decent dual action airbrush kit with a compressor and reservoir tank, with a built in regulator, air lines, moisture trap and a few accessory type bits and bobs for about a hundred quid.

Mine is quite enough to use in the room with the tv on and stil be able to hear the tv without touching the volume and hold a conversation. It also came with two airbrushes with different size needles as well. You can spend a fortune on Pasche,devilbis and other exotic airbrushes and compressors, but frankly, you don’t need to.

Mine succeeded in finishing the work shown below, and I’m pretty happy with it.

There are plenty of tutorials online, I use odorless fine pigmented acrylics or inks rather than enamels to avoid gassing myself.

Don’t get a vacuum feed where it has to suck the mixture up vertically, get a side or top feed where gravity does the work.

Absolute airbrush, that’s where i get all my airbrush bits from, just remembered.

Is that a Tamiya Stug-III kit? I think I recognise the tracks from my yoof. I even built a diorama for it…*sigh*

It’s a 1/35 Dragon Jagdpanther, but a Stug III is fairly high up my to do list, those tracks are the individual white metal Fruilmodel links. Take about a day a side to clean up,paint and put together.:(

Oh, that tank (destroyer) is nice.

I got a Revell airbrush for about £17, it had a damaged connector in it. I sent them an email to get a replacement but gave up waiting and bought a draper airbrush for about £10 which appeared to have a similar connecting line in it (typically Revell have sent me a replacement now) so far I have only used the revell airbrush but if you want to dip a toe in the water (said in Guy Martin accent) the draper would almost certainly be just as good.

I then had to buy a new tin of propellant as the one that came with the revell brush was soon gone.

What do people do about mixing paint? I sort of go with a bit of thinners in one of the mixing pot and then a little tin of paint. However I end up throwing most of it out. Do you have loads of little glass jars full of mixed paint or do you just throw out the unused?

Thanks 🙂

I have loads of bottle of pre mixed paint or ink and just use an eye dropper to load the reservoir on the brush.

Got pics of more? I have my lanc almost finished – nothing like the level of yours as its a first try but I am enjoying learning (ahem make that showing the kids what they can do)

I have got some more pics,but not got them sorted and uploaded yet.:(

I can just can’t get on with aircraft kits and mine always look rubbish, so your Lanc would almost certainly look better than mine would if you see what I mean 🙂

You can spend a fortune on Pasche,devilbis and other exotic airbrushes and compressors, but frankly, you don’t need to.

True, to a certain extent. My first dual action was a PremiAir G35, which is about £35 – £45. It worked, but was a pain in the arse to clean, and clogged easily with certain acrylics, but I got along with it.

After trying a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution at a show I was so impressed I spent £120 I didn’t have on the spot. It was like the difference between night and day. Cleans easily and sprays everything beautifully and predictably (except frikking Xtracrylix…..horrible stuff.)

I have the cheapest compressor (with reservoir tank) I could find, leave it on full pressure and control the air at the brush with an inline ‘regulator’.

I use Revell acrylics rather than enamels. Occasionally there’s a need to mix but that generally gets done in small enough quantities to not mind throwing away the leftovers. I do make sure I’ve finished the kit first though!

I’m on my third airbrush – first was a Revell one which was fine for dipping my toe in the water, but not good for detail work. Second was a Badger 150 single action, and I now have a dual action job as well

I got a decent deal on ebay for 2 brushes and a compressor and bottles. For a starter its worth it to get used to dual action airbrushes. I’ll burchasing an iwata or badger brush soon but don’t get the best as your first airbrush start of on something cheap as you may not get value for money out of a very expensive one. Register with Flory Models (formerly pro modeller)too, some great tutorials and videos on there as well as the place to buy the washes that give really good weathering results. Very helpful folks and loads of reference material. There are lots of step by step guides such as scratch building seat belts and the like. It’s improved my modelling immensely.

I generally use Revell acrylics and thin with water (Hi PSI (40) for thicker paint low PSI (15-20) for thinner paint.) however I am moving onto using Tamiya acrylics more. BTW for metallic paints Games Workshop paints are very good but cost a little more than others offerings. Vallejo model air are also very good and accurate paints.

Oh aye Tamiya masking tape too is a MUST. Don’t just use normal masking tape as it has a habit of bleeding. I’ll bob some of my finished stuff up later. I’m currently working on a VW Samba Bus and have an F15E, Harrier, Corsair F4U, and Tornado IDS in the pipeline.

What are the pros & cons of single/double action and gravity/syphon?

I’ll be using it for plastic kits.

And that is a nice tank destroyer model, Geek.

Good selection on Ebay – if I knew what I was looking for!

Register with Flory Models (formerly pro modeller)too

Phil’s videos are brilliant. I got loads of little tips and time-savers from them.

is it a hassle re breathing protection/room ventilation? Do you buy a spray booth as well? I’m interested in getting a cheap one to play with, but suspect this would be what gets me finally banished to the garage!

I use a cardboard box with one side cut out as a spray booth (sad I know)

I put a cooker hood with fan and light over my desk in the shed, vented outside. It cost about £40. (I think it would work much more effectively mounted upright against the wall, so any overspray would go directly to the fan, but I’m limited by space.)

If you’re not using enamels and laquers (eg aclad II) and just using a acrylics you don’t really need a spray booth. I just do it in a quite spot in the house with paper towel down. There’s not a great deal of overspray. You could get a respirator if using enamels however and make sure there is plenty of ventilation.

This is the kit I bought Here