When I started Modelling again a couple of months ago I bought a cheap airbrush with a very basic compressor for around €60. It has been helpful and allowed me to get a feel for using an airbrush.
I am now looking at getting a new compressor and a new airbrush. The compressor I am looking at is a Fengda FD-186 and a Harder and Steenbeck Hansa airbrush for a total cost of €250.
I would appreciate people’s thoughts on this combination or any recommendations you may have.
I found this site very helpful,he used to post here also.
Sorry MacGeorge8035 I don’t have this Arbrush but having a good one is a really good idea, I bought 3 since my beginning and I like that you will probably keep your older to do kind of Primer and thinks like that with a bigger needle and have your new one for finest work.
That is my thoughts exactly
First, your compressor need not be anything more than basic. It only needs to compress air to some pressure above your brushing pressure, regulate that pressure to whatever your preferred brushing pressure is, and never permit your air line to drop below that preferred pressure. A water separator is nice but not strictly necessary if you’re using acrylic paints, especially indoors in winter when the indoor humidity is low.
For the airbrush aspect… my favorite go-to airbrush (I own a small harem of airbrushes) is a cheap pistol-trigger gravity-fed internal-mix single-action airbrush. Just for reference. I have no use for rapid changes of paint concentration in the air stream, so I have no use for double-action airbrushes, which are uncomfortable for my hands anyway. My second-most-reached-for airbrush is a suction-fed external-mix airbrush that cost about as much as a diner cheeseburger. It’s nearly all plastic, and it’s a snap to clean with no disassembly, and color changes need take only a few seconds. It, too, has a very comfortable top-button trigger and I can paint with it all day.
The sort of painting we do never demands any high-ticket equipment.
I have this compressor, and have had it for years – I believe it is sold under a variety of names. I’ve had no issues with it at all.
I’ve not used it but I’ve only read good things about it. One thing to note is it looks like it uses a 0.2mm needle/nozzle – that will allow for extremely fine detail work, but if you’re doing a lot of priming of large projects you might find it a tad slow and tedious.
I think it depends a little on what sort of painting we do, or how we do it, at least. I use an airbrush for mottling and highlighting quite a lot, on 1/72 aircraft and miniature figures, and I can’t imagine doing it with a single action brush.
I got years of use out of an inexpensive Iwata Neo, but recently added an Eclipse HP-BS which is a significantly more refined brush for not much more money (about the same as the Hansa you’re looking at). They both come with a .35mm needle, but I bought the parts to swap my Neo over to a .5mm needle and now use it just for priming and basecoating, while I use the Eclipse with the .35 for detail work.
As an aside, I’ve never used a suction-fed airbrush… doesn’t it result in a lot of wasted paint in the jar? I’m often doing detail work that only needs 1-2 drops of color. I find the gravity-feed perfect for that.
I do 99% of my airbrush work with a Paasche H - single action. I’m learning on double action with a cheap cake decorator brush and a Krome. I can paint, just haven’t figured out the cleaning/maint but thats me being lazy. I’ve used a CO2 tank for 30 years or so. Silent and dry. Don’t know the brush you’re looking at but the name has a very good reputation.
Take a look at Spray Gunner they have really good prices and think they have a sale going on .
Their No Name air compressors are top notch !
Not much at all. The bottles have a little pickup tube that goes to the veriest bottom, against the front wall (when you’ve thoughtfully rotated it to the right spot before filling it)… so it picks up all but the last few drops.
And, of course, fruges like me… when I get to the end of a shooting job, I just pour the remainder back into the paint bottle, so next to zero waste.