When I unpacked all my old modeling stuff after about 30 years away from the hobby, I couldn’t find my old Testors airbrush. I figured it had disappeared somewhere along the way. Well, a year and a half later, I just found it.
This was my second airbrush and my first dual-action airbrush, probably somewhere around 35 years ago. If I remember correctly, this was the first plastic airbrush when it came out, and it was somewhat controversial at the time.
I know I’ll never use it again. The hose doesn’t connect to anything I own anymore, and compared with modern airbrushes it’s pretty primitive. I actually started to throw it away tonight, then stopped myself.
This thing was part of me learning how to airbrush all those years ago. It’ll never spray paint again, but I think it’s earned a spot as a little piece of history in my personal modeling museum.
Anybody else have one of these back in the day? Anyone still using it? I’d be curious to hear what you thought of it.
I do remember these, never owned one though. In fact I remember the ad they had for it back in the day in the FSM magazines. I would definitely hang onto it for sentimental reasons.
Steve
Yes had Testors Aztek many years ago.
I had the box with different coloured nozzles.
Not always good to use but so easy to clean after a session.
They go for quite some money on eBay.
Funny story about why I still have it. I had actually thrown it in the garbage, but later I went digging through the trash looking for a tiny F-4 decal I’d accidentally thrown away. I found the airbrush while I was in there and decided I couldn’t throw it away after all.
My first airbrush was a single-action Badger, which I basically used like a small spray gun. It worked fine for what I was doing, but this Testors was my first dual-action airbrush and really my introduction to learning how to airbrush rather than just spray paint through one.
So I guess that missing decal saved a little piece of my modeling history!
Wow, I had no idea these were actually worth anything. I looked on eBay after reading your post, and some of the complete sets have sold for around $100 or more.
Unfortunately, I have no idea where the box, hose and all the accessories for mine ended up over the years. But even if I had everything, there’s no way I’d sell it. At this point it’s worth more to me as a memory than the money.
Which is pretty ironic considering I dug it out of the trash yesterday.
I had completely forgotten about the lifetime warranty until you mentioned it!
I have no idea if mine still works, but I actually found an adapter that would let me connect it to my current equipment. I’m tempted to buy it just so I can hook this thing up and play with it again after all these years.
I ran out and bought one after reading about the glowing reviews but was terribly disappointed in it. For starters, the super lightweight plastic body felt cheap, and the return spring of the trigger was really weak. I could hear a “gwink-gwink-gwink” of the spring inside the body when I moved the trigger. The pen nib-type cartridge tips gave me no end of trouble, clogging easily, being nigh impossible to clean, and those delicate wire-like needles were prone to damage.
After repeatedly trying to get used to the Aztec, I gave up and went back to my ancient Badger 200, which I use to this day.
I vaguely remember some of that with the Testors brush, but honestly I don’t remember how much I actually used it. Funny that you went back to an old Badger 200 — I was using an ancient Badger single-action back then too. We may have been using the same airbrush!
I still have my first my father bought me for Christmas when I was 14… a Thayer & Chandler model “E” single action.
I painted a metric poop ton of testers paint through it.
I probably had that exact same airbrush. At the time the dual actions seemed pretty expensive, and honestly I don’t think I understood the difference between the two the way I do now. It worked just fine for what I was doing with it.
These days I prefer a dual action for most painting, but I have a .5 trigger-feed airbrush that I use mainly for primer, and for that job it might as well be a single action. I’m basically just asking it to put down a nice even coat. There are plenty of jobs where all that extra control really isn’t necessary.
That’s a great story. $42 was a pretty serious investment for a couple of high school kids back then. I love that you guys pooled your money, passed the airbrush back and forth through high school, and that you’re still using it all these years later.
I really wish I still had my old Badger. I have absolutely no idea what happened to it. I probably gave it away somewhere along the way, never imagining that 40-some years later I’d be back at the workbench and would love to have it again.
I tossed mine earlier this year. I had loaned it to a customer, he used it to spray polane(?) Some sort of clear he was using to keep brass from tarnishing. When I got it back, most if not all of the nozzles were unusable. At the time, I wasn’t needing an airbrush so I didn’t bother to get replacement nozzles. Over the years, I’d look at it and shrug. I let it go as I didn’t have fond memories around using it and I had two Blue Point rebadges of one of the Badger air brushes which I felt worked much better.
Yep. I actually went through 2 or 3 of those things. They were maddening to me to clean them, but I suppose they were good introductions to the art of airbrushing.
That’s interesting that you kept yours around all those years. For me, I think the biggest challenge was that it was my introduction to a dual-action airbrush after using single-action airbrushes. There was definitely a learning curve that came with that, and the trigger on the Testors wasn’t especially sensitive, which made it pretty difficult to control.
I actually used mine right up until I stopped modeling about 30 years ago. When I came back to the hobby I had no idea where it had ended up, so I started over with all new airbrushes. Using modern dual-action airbrushes really made me realize just how difficult that old Testors was to control.
That’s interesting that you kept yours around all those years. Mine actually stayed with me until I stopped modeling about 30 years ago, and I only recently found it again.
I remember that lifetime warranty too. Now I’m wondering what would happen if I sent mine back to Testors today. They’d probably just laugh. If there’s anyone left at Testors to laugh.
