I agree with Waikong. An Aztek was my first airbrush and I was inexperienced to start. However, after 6 months with it I was able to get the best out of it. Then I got my badger and what I can get out of that just can’t compare to what I could get out of my aztek.
I have owned four Azteks : the first one ( 1010 ) which seems to be reissued as the 3000, the Contempo and the 470 . The 1010 was a delicate precision tool; if I remember well, Aztek was a division of Kodak and those expensive ( yes sir, expensive at this time) tools were designed for photo retouching and fine arts. They were great. Over the time, I wanted to try the Contempo, which I did not like at all; and the 470 was half and half. I think the reason is that what was a happy few tool was cursed by mass production for industrial painters calling themselves globally modelers. I swear that my 1010 did not sound “SCREECH” when I screwed a nozzle in place; Contempo and 470 did; I am not saying that Aztek is crap, I say it has unfortunately globally become ( stress Unfortunately and Globally) . As for repair, it remains strange: a friend of mine has got the metal model; the internal hose tore so what must he do ? We live in France and he got it in the US( question of selling price); you can open the beast but you can’t get spare parts, so back to the US hoping that guarantee will work, or using another one as a “Christams tree” ( French funny expression for cannibalization )
Now I’m neither in favour nor against Azteks. I had good times with them; I had metal airbrushes before, I have metal airbrushes after, we’ll see in the future what happens
Note that I only speak of the quality problems; apart from that, if you like it, go on and enjoy; if you don’t , there’s a lot of alternatives ( much more than with industrial sprayguns, I think ) so if modelling is a space of freedom, enjoy it
Ouf, ça y est, j’ai fini
Yeah my Contempo practically screeched when I screwed the nozzle in.