Recommend a good cheap airbrush

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

My Aztec A123 broke when I jammed a pipe cleaner down against the needle, bending it.

I need a new airbrush. Preferably one with a 1/4" fitting, internal mix, and on the cheap. (I’m a family man on a budget now.) What do you recommend?

Thanks

Don

2

Try HarborFreightTools.com I use the $15.99 airbursh and it does real good for me. Just search “air brush”.

Plus you might have a Harbor Freight near you, since you are in Pa.

3

silly question , can’t you just replace the needle and if needed the tip… I once lent my airbrush to a fellow who ran garbage paint thru it , so i just went down to the local hobby shop and picked up a needle and tip.

But if you are going to have to buy one, i recommend a badger, just because i like to 2 Badgers i have. Also out here in the Sunday paper there are Micheal Craft store ads that usually have a 40% of any item coupon in it, just a thought

4

I second Robby’s choice. There is more than one offered. We recomend this one.

5

The needle is internal in a sealed plastic casing. So it can’t be removed. :-/ That’s the hazard of Aztec airbrushes. The good news is it’s upstream of the paint mix, so it really shouldn’t get contaminated. The interchangeable nozzle is what does the real mixing and spraying.

6

Thanks for the tips guys. There’s a harbor freight 5 minutes from my commute home. I’ll go there tonight.

-D

7

Also try the garage sale at http://www.badgerairbrush.com/

Mark

8

Now for a totally diferent perspective:

I have a Paasche H external mix airbrush that will do very nearly everything we in model railroading need. Simple, easy to take apart and clean. This is new to me so am still working on my technique. Cost for a complet set is around $50.

Prior to the Paasche, I used a Badger single action internal mix airbrush for years. EXCELLENT customer support. You DO have to be very careful of needle tips, not damaging them. Cost around $70 including bottles and hose.

But my all time favorite is Iwata’s least expensive line (I don’t remember the model name) for an all-round double-action intenal mix airbrush. This will be the last airbrush you will ever need to buy. Probably the highest quality airbrush you can buy without going to a professional brush.

You can paint the thinnest of lines, do very fine weathering, etc. However, I would not put it in the inexpensive line, given the it costs around $90 from Dixie Art Supply.

I’d recommend that rather than spending $16 for an airbrush of questionable manufacture (given the design and color, I suspect that this is a Chinese knock-off of a Badger). Most of Harbor Freight tools are of Chinese manufacture. I don’t go that route myself.

9

It’s funny, everybody bad mouthed me when I pointed that out 2 years ago. Now everybody that bought one seems to love it![tup]

10

You can buy an atomizer at Walgreens for about $7.99 I guess . . . . . . . . . . and they do work . . . . . . . . . . not very well but they do work!

11

An air brush is a tool and if you want a poor quality finished product then go get yourself a cheap air brush. If you want a professional finish then go get a good one. You really do pay for what you get when it comes to tools. The Badger Garage Sale is a great place to pick up a good air brush for less then half the cost of one in the stores. If you can’t afford a good one now then start saving for one but don’t waste your money on one of those cheap pieces of garbage that you will only replace a year later.[soapbox]

12

Say what you want about cheap airbrushes… but I picked this one up at Walmart off the clearance rack for $10. Works better than all of the other brushes that I have that cost 5 times more. Its cheap, simple to use, simple to clean, and most importanly, WORKS!

Mighty Mini

13

**Loather…**Never heard of Harbor Freight till I moved to PA. We didn’t have them down south. Well at least in NC.

14

You got a Mighty Mini for 10 bucks? Up here in Canada those things sell for 89 bucks at Walmart. I’ve used a Mighty Mini, once. They are good to get a little experiece with airbrushing but I don’t like the fact that you can’t control the volume of air properly. They don’t have a tank, just a compressor so they are prone to leaving blobs of paint on the tip that end up on the model your painting. Do they squirt paint? Yes. Do they squirt paint evenly? No. Like I already said, you pay for what you get when it comes to tools.