Last week I purchased a Bar Mills kit. Quite early I realized that to do the kit justice I would require a airbrush setup.
The question is of course, what will meet my requirements without breaking the family budget.
I’ve been down this road before with other tools. Most of the time I hit the mark fairly close but occasionally;
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I buy too cheap a tool and then a couple of months later I find that it doesn’t live up to my needs. What makes it even worse is when I find that for $10 more I could have purchased a much better tool.
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Or the flip side is that I go overboard and spend too much money only to find that the tool I bought more than meets my requirements but I never use all the bells and whistles and should have bought a cheaper tool.
Therefore, people HELP please. What should I never, under any circumstances buy, and what is way over the top that I shouldn’t spend good hard retirement money for?
Thanks in advance. All comments are welcome.
Stick to the major brand names - Badger, Paasche, etc., pick one of their single action aribrushes for the most economy. A source for compressed air can cost you as much as or more than an airbrush. Canned air is very expensive, compressors by airbrush firms are really expensive. Home compressors with tanks seem to be everywhere for reasonable prices.
Curious why a Bar Mills kit would require an airbrush. Their kits are mostly wood, with metal detail parts. Wood can be painted or stained with brushes; the detail parts aren’t likely to require airbrushing. Rolling stock where you want good thin coverage is where airbrushes can be put to their best use. Brush painting detail parts is an acceptable way to go.
Check out what is available here: http://www.bearair.com/home.asp or do a Google search for Dixie Air, they too have great selections.
For the longest time I stuck with brush painting. But when I had to paint a large set of G scale passenger cars requiring intricate masking, an airbrush became necessary. Now I can’t believe I ever got along without one. I wanted something that would last and would give me excellent results. I also wanted a very easy to use brush. So I started the hunt.
I ultimately decided to go with components MicroMark offered. The Badger airbrush set was #27156. The compressor I got was #81093, but unfortunately I can’t seem to find this compressor on their website anymore. I wonder why? The closest to what I have is #83375, but this one is bigger and more expensive. What was nice about the compressor I have is it already came with the Badger airbrush adapter, and the price was $119.95 when I got it.
The whole set cost me about $200. So sort of pricey, but I’ve been using it ever since and it continues to work great. The results are so much better and finer than anything I’ve brush painted. I think it was well worth the money. Painting is so much easier with an airbrush.
One word of advice, my airbrush is difficult to clean if I use water based paints. They dry so fast that the paint tends to cake up in the brush if not cleaned right away. And even then it is difficult to remove all of this paint. My best results have always come with oil based paints.
Another possibility to consider for a source of compressed air is a portable air tank. For years, I used a 5 gallon one, IIRC, it cost about $20.00. You take it to a gas station, or anyplace with a compressor, and charge it up to about 100 PSI. You buy a small regulator for the airbrush (which you can use later if you decide to get your own compressor), an airbrush as suggested above, and you’re in business.