Airbrush & compressor

Good day friends, hope U are all well and enjoying life!

Retired after 43-yrs in the Nuclear Industry, have just moved into a new home (Central VA-USA), from a Condo no less, and … if I ever get free time from house/yard work, I want to get back into Scale Model building!

I have not built a scale model since childhood, so I have much, much to learn!!!

My interest at this time is US Military trucks, cargo transport and the like.

Can you suggest:

  1. an air brush and compressor to start (mid level pricing)?

  2. Equipment/tools needed to get started

  3. Best paint type to start out with

  4. other info U feel I need

Thanks and hope to build a lasting friendship here

I would recommend a Badger 150 Airbrush,it is a simple double action,easy to learn,easy to clean and very durable,can last a lifetime.

Paints:The decision you need to make Enamels or acrylics,both have advantages and disadvantages,Model master makes a nice line of enamels and Tamiya is a good place to start with acrylics

Tools;X-acto knife and blades,sanding sticks,sprue cutters,paint brushes,tweezers,Glues,Tamiya extra thin is great or Testors liquid.

Check out the Kalmbach Library on this site,lots of good modeling publications could provide good beginner info

Last but not least,ask plenty of questions on this forum,we are here to help

I’m sure you will get many varied answers to this question

Also check out the Tools and the Techniques forums regularly.

Hi Willee51,

In so far as airbrushes and compressors, you have lots of choices. Check out the following:

www.tcpGlobal.com

www.precisiongermanairbrush.com

www.dixieart.com

and many others like ebay and Amazon. You can get a relatively inexpensive outfit (AB+compressor) from TCPGlobal which might serve your needs (they also sell other brands than Master). Many posters here like Iwata or Badger AB’s, I like Harder & Steenbeck or Grex. IMHO selecting an AB can be very personal so look around. Find something that fits your budget then ask, you’ll get lots of replys.

Willee; I have a pacche H airbrush i’ve been using for over 30 years still works as good today as it did when new. As far as a compressor goes I got a good one at the local NAPA store for 80.00 dollars a little noisey but it does the job. As far as paint goes I like ModelMaster and Tamyia you can thin MM with any good grade of mineral spriets use Tamyia X20A thinner for Tamyia paints, hope this helps you out ACESES5 [snWcm]

Noise is a real big factor with the compressor. You can get cheap but very good general purpose compressors at the hardware store, like those pancake compressors. But, they are noisy. In general you will pay more bucks for quiet than for any other compressor feature.