When I first started out, I preferred suction fed airbrushes, but as the months have gone by I've felt myself drawn to the convenience of gravity fed brushes instead. Colour changes are much quicker with these, although I find cleaning at the end of the day takes a little longer.
HARDER & STEENBECK INFINITY CR PLUS
0.15mm & 0.4mm setup. My 'Go-To' brush! Got this at Christmas 2013 and haven't put it down much at all. After having watched many YouTube videos of someone who swears by this brush, I finally treated myself! When I get it to work, it works perfectly, but I have to get the right paint dilution and compressor pressure first....which I'm still working on. Feels great in the hand, perfectly weighted and looks stunning too. |
BADGER SOTAR 20/20
Fine setup (0.18mm?) I got this as a present from my wife at Christmas 2013, and my first impressions were quite mixed. It looks absolutely awesome. I really love the black colouring, the design and shape, but after only a short couple of uses my hand ached quite badly. I have no idea what I did differently, but one day I messed up something whilst using other brushes, and not wanting to colour-change any of them, I grabbed this and it worked like a dream! No aches at all?? The short nose allows for good vision when doing detail work, and the flared cup allows for easy cleaning. The needle is 'fine' which I think equates to 0.18mm, but I may be wrong? |
VEDA 180
0.2mm & 0.3mm setup. This was the first airbrush I bought after receiving the starter kit for my birthday. Some bill it as fantastic, especially when considering the low price tag (£30) whilst others warn to stay clear. In my experience I have nothing but praise for it. The price is excellent, and although it doesn't exude quality in the same way as the H&S and Badger, it is still something very nice for the collection. It is comfortable to use over prolonged periods, comes with a 0.2mm and 0.3mm needle/nozzle, and replacements are cheap and easy to obtain. It sprays very well, when the other elements are right (paint/pressure etc) |
VEDA 134
0.2mm & 0.3mm setup. I bought this shortly after the Veda 180 (so impressed with it I was) and it performed just as well as its brother. The main difference is that it can be used as both a gravity fed brush and a suction fed brush - best of both worlds! It also comes with a 0.2mm and 0.3mm needle/nozzle set. I've only used it in the gravity guise at 0.2mm, and it does very well...but....colour changes and cleaning is a bit more involved than the others and so I generally reach past it. (Nothing personal) |
ORIGINAL NO-BRAND PURCHASE
0.3mm setup. I actually enjoy using this brush. It works as it should but, no matter what pressure it's set to, the paint doesn't atomise very well. Rubbish for detail work but okay for large coverage. I use it mainly for applying water-based clearcoats. |
SPRAY GUN
0.8mm setup. This is probably a very good spray gun, but I get frustrated with it! It was cheap (£10) from eBay. It's supposed to be a HVLP (High volume, low pressure) gun but I think it's more like an LVHP instead! It has adjustments for spray pattern, air pressure and paint volume, but regardless of what I do with those controls it either dumps all the air out of my tank after a couple of squeezes of the trigger, or it barely shoots out any paint. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium! I have used it for 2k clearcoats so maybe I haven't cleaned it very well? Watch this space! |