Well, i’m about to buy me a brand new airbrush and i’m wondering what’s the difference between bottom feed and gravity feed.Well, I know what’s the “physical” difference but is there a better one when you’re painting, cleaning…
I also read the past topics ( well not every one…but most of …) on the aibrush subject and I could see that Badger, Paashe, Omni was mentioned often… I checked their web site and I was wandering what airbrush should I buy. The Omni 3000 or 4000 seems good, maybe an Anthem 155…well i’m stuck…[:(!] could you give me some tips…I just know one thing, it will be a double action airbrush…
They are both good designs although the gravity-feeds like the Omni 4000 and Eclipse CS are easier to clean due to the fact that there is no bottle and siphon tube to clean. It all depends on what you prefer. Do you want to be able to spray other things like possibly murals or T-shirts in the future? If so and you can only buy one airbrush then I would buy a siphon-feed such as the Anthem, Omni 3000, Eclipse BCS, Paasche VL, etc.
If you want this airbrush for models only and like the idea of a little faster cleaning and don’t mind a color cup built into the top of the airbrush, then get a gravity-feed.
Tough choice isn’t it? [;)]
I personally would choose the Omni because it has a single needle/tip combination which is convenient. They both however spray about the same. The Vega puts out a bit more paint than the Omni at full power which is not really important to modeling. [;)]
The Omni I believe is a bit more precise compared to the Vega with the #3 (med) tip.
Does this mean you are looking at siphon-feed models?
I don’t really know … I think I’ll wait to get some more advices…and i’ll pay a visit to my local artist’s materials shop (or something like that). Hopefully I will be able to hold one of those airbrush in my hand to get a good feelling and have some advices…or maybe i’ll just buy me both of them, bottom and gravity…[:D][yeah]
I’ve successfully used the Omni with both acrylic and enamel paints. It is a very versatile AB. I wish I had a better, concrete, answer to the paint thinning question. I thin the paint until it looks and feels right. Not too thick so it gobs on the sides of the AB bowl and not thin enough that it runs down the AB bowl too fast. I thin it until it has a medium run down the bowl of the AB.
That depends on how thin the paint is before the thinner.
Most people try to get the paint to about the consistancy of milk after adding thinner.
For Model Master enamels I mix 2:1 with 2 parts paint to 1 part thinner, with acrylics it depends on how thin it is out of the bottle. Some is thin enough to spray with no thinner while others may need to be thinned 3:1 or 2:1 depending on how thin the paint is and what pressure you are spraying at. Some people even go 1:1 with enamels and acrylics.
It is something you have to experiment with as roosterfish said in his post.