13 year old son loves making models, next stage is to airbrush, he's had enough of brush painting.
I dont know anything about airbrush kits...
...what do I need to know ?
Amazon have kits for £60ish including compressor, what paints do we need etc ?
Thanks in advance
As ever with these things you’ll get better results if you can spend a little more, say £80-90 will get you a good starter kit.
Don’t expect perfect results straight away - practice and perseverance are key. Getting paints thinned to the right consistency (I go with milk, semi skimmed rather than skimmed) is also important. One of those very small plastic syringes can help with precision thinning.
Big bottles of thinners are a must, as is a supply of cleaning kit. The aerosol cleaners can be good. Clean it scrupulously after every use - it only takes 30 seconds.
It can seem like a bit of a faff to start with, but he’ll soon get the hang of it with practice and the results are hugely satisfying when you get it right.
As for paints, I prefer acrylic for ease of clean up, tamiya or xtracolour. I find enamels spray better but I can’t be bothered with the drying time and clean up...
I was told by an acquaintance the one to get is the Harder & Steenbeck Ultra. The 2 in 1 kit with the .2mm and .4mm nozzle is around £85 and a half decent compressor £100 or so. It really is an excellent airbrush.
Not super cheap but very high quality, easy to use and most importantly very easy to strip down and clean. Most airbrushes have a few really fiddly little parts to unbolt etc. The H&S range strip down with no tools required and things like the trigger mechanism are very easy to disassemble and reassemble.
There's some excellent YouTube tutorials on getting down with the basics and I have let Finleybgoode use mine and he has got quite proficient with it after just a few goes.
EDIT and agree - the Tamiya acrylic paints with the X-20A thinners are as good a choice as any when starting out. I hadn't used an airbrush before and found it very straightforward to get far better results than I even could with a normal brush. I really like the Vallejo airbrush cleaner as well. You can mix your own with IPA etc but the Vallejo stuff doesn't eat any rubber o-rings and the like
I had a Badger 150 back in the day. Great airbrush for models. Mainly used Humbrol enamel & turps.
This was before compressors were cheap & you had to use cans.
And yes, keeping it clean was the most important part.
Still miffed my cousin probably pinched it.
A couple of us had airbrushes in our A-level art class. We couldn't afford a compressor, so we had a Land Rover tyre with a second valve installed in the ring. You'd spend ten minutes with a foot pump pumping up the tyre and then get probably 15-20 minutes of airbrushing out of it. Happy days... 😉
As we are here and I've posted a similar question in the Airfix thread. I've been reading up.
This might give an idea of what's involved in cleaning...
Maybe this too, just watching it on my lunch break. 🙂
I went for a cheap eBay airbrush. It’s a double action gravity fed one, it came with different needles, a hose and moisture trap. For what I paid it’s been brilliant and rather than get an expensive one straight away see how he does with a cheaper one first?
I have an Iwata Custom Micron which I use for model painting, but a couple of yrs ago I also bought a Chinese made clone, as back-up & I have to say, given the price difference its incredibly good.
I got it from a company called Bartsharp, who as well as selling the expensive stuff, also sell these cheaper brushes under their own brand name.
They also have cheap diaphragm compressors which are ideal for a beginner. They stop/start automatically when the airbrush is used & are far more economical than using the disposable cans.
I'd start him off with something like this, its good enough to get some excellent results, but also won't break the bank if (when!) he clouts the needle & damages it.
It will also get him used to using & cleaning a 'proper' airbrush from the start, rather than starting with an external single action, then having to re-learn as he gets better equipment.
Below is a link to a starter kit, but there are lots of options on the site & I recall the guys being very helpful too.
https://bartsharpairbrush.co.uk/product/bartsharp-airbrush-compressor-kit-tc802/
Sorry for the delay in replying.
thank you all to the extremely informative and helpful advice. We bought one from the site recommendation in the above post.
👍🏼