Santa was good to me and brought me a nice shiny new Paasche H airbrush set. It only came with one paint bottle and a quick look on the net for additional bottles revealed they want about $4 -5 each for extras.
That seems a might steep for small glass bottles, so how do the vets here deal with this issue? Are there other lower cost options? Do you just swap and clean the one bottle each time you change color? How many bottles does one really need?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Mike Tennent
I’ve bought extras at the LHS and Hobby Lobby for about $2.00 (USD) a bottle. Price depends on the size.
Empty Floquil bottles are the same size. I bought some empties from a dealer in the past while, but they weren’t that expensive.
You don’t have to use the Paasche ones. In fact I’ve hardly ever used bottles on my airbrushes - I have a Paasche H and Badger 150 & 360. I prefer the metal color cups as they are easier and quicker to clean. I do spill some paint once in a while and sometimes have to fill them more than once during a painting session, but their ease of cleanup makes their use best for me.
Bob Boudreau
O-o-o-o-o…ironpenguin…I’m jealous. I have the go ahead from the wife to get my airbrush and she recommended the Paasche as well. Keep us posted on how the brush works for you…your likes and dislikes…I have never used one before, which is why it is taking me so long to decide what I want. I am leaning towards the VL series but honestly don’t have an opinion either way.
I,too am curious about extra bottles. The Walthers catelog has 3 oz bottles for $1.35 each; 1 oz bottles for $1.05 each. Then there are “color bottle assemblies”…what are those??? ($4.95 for 1 oz; $5.10 for 3 oz…)…I’m so confused…
If this is going to be YOUR first airbrush,I would suggest a Paasche “H” model;I have two of them,one is over 40 years old,the other one was purchased this year as a backup;but the “old” one seems to get used for laquer based paints,and the newer one for the acrylic based paints.
If I’m remembering correctly,the airbrush came with at least two bottles w/pickup,and two more bottles for mixing/storage that fit the smaller sprayer lid/pickup Also my “Floquil” bottles are NOT the same diameter size to fit like that.
I’ve never had problems either finding the extra bottles,or buying them.(LHS should be big help)
Just remember that each time that you use the airbru***o clean it out by the manufacturer’s instructions,so it keeps working like it’s supposed to.
I just got a Paasche VL and used it for the first time today. This is my first airbru***oo. It worked great. I did a little practice with straight water and newspaper to get the feel for it before loading the paint. They keep saying that double action is harder to use, if so, single action must be a snap, because the VL is super easy. I also like the fact that you can just blow straight air through it, you can use it to blow off the excess alcohol used to clean the part before painting, and if you get a run, sometimes you can blow it out. I love it. I too need more bottles though. Let us know if you find some.
Glenn
Check your local craft/ceramic shop. The last time I needed jars They were selling them for $.35 each with lids. I have not checked there in a while as it is out of my way usually but, I imagine they are about the same price yet.
Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com
John, I’ll let you know how it goes. I haven’t had time to play with it yet, but soon…[:D]
RE: the difference in bottle prices, I think the $4 “assemblies” must include the top with the metal assembly and tube to attach to the brush. That’s what I was seeing on the net. Plain bottles are the $1.35 ones. That’s much more reasonable.
Mike Tennent
I’m another believer in the metal paint cup. I have 3 or 4 for each airbrush (an H and a VL). There’s always a couple soaking in solvent and a couple rotating in active use. WIth acrylic paints the maintenance is much easier with the paint cups; you only have to clean the brush and the cup. With bottles you also have to clean out the bottle caps and the siphon tube (and screen, if you use one - I screen my paint with a stocking into a plastic cup (courtesy of McDonalds!), before loading the paint cup). I then add a few drops of wet water (80% H20 / 20% alcohol) to get the right consistency for spraying.
I own a Paasche VL.
It’s not harder to use than a single action, it offers MORE options as far as fan width and the amount of material coming out of the airbrush. For a person that wants to “point and shoot” single acton style, it’s easy to adjust the gun to one setting…and leave it as is.
The advantage of double action is that once a modeler “gets comfortable” and wants to perform various types of airbru***asks: such as painting stripes or realistic blending…a dual action is hard to beat as it suddenly becomes so much easier to utilize thanks to the ability to make adjustments.
BTW:
I just painted a Busch Bus with a bottle of ModelFlex attached to Paasche jar lid. The fit is good!
Hmm…when i bought my VL-Wood (comes with a nice wood storage case for all the parts) last year it came with 2 1 oz bottles and a 1/4 oz metal cup. never really needed any more than that. and yes it works great, only thing i had to buy was the either #1 or #5 needle, as it only came with #3 and one of the others.