Advice needed on buying an airbrush please!

[cram]

Hi, I've started to develop an interest in Flames of War and I'm planning on painting up a German army.

 I am thinking of getting a spraygun to add the camouflage onto my vehicles, as I really like the effects I've seen achieved with an airbrush for this task. The trouble is I have never used an airbrush before, and have zero knowledge about the things!!

If anybody could give me some advice on what to get I would really appreciate it.

Theres a Modelzone store not to far from where I live and was thinking of getting one there, here is what they range on their site http://www.modelzone.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=airbrush  if anyone has any experience with any of these, if they could give me their opinion please.

I'm looking for cheap and easy to use, that will give a decent camouflage effect.

Many thanks Marc.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

I think ModelZone have airbrush tutorials or is that Hobbycraft.  Anyway it would be worth checking.

Failing that there are always wargame and modelling clubs - try IPMS in your region who can offer not just advice but the chance for you to try.

The IPMS show at Telford (later this year) has loads of opportunity to try before you buy and may be your best bet for an informed decision.

I hope that this helps.

Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

[cram]

I'll have to enquire at Modelzone when I call in there in a few days, as to wether they do a demo then cheers.

Thinking on this model, from what info I can find on it on the net it seems pretty good http://www.modelzone.co.uk/airbrush-and-compressor-kit.html

[gamer Mac]

I asked the same question a while ago.
Link to the thread
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=21363.msg260632#msg260632
Loads of great advice in it.

[Connectamabob]

The thread Gamer Mac linked has a lot of good stuff in it.

A few pointers of my own I'd add:

Make sure you get a gravity feed rather than a siphon feed. Gravity feed lets you spray at lower pressures than siphon feed, and when you're painting small stuff (like camo on a 15mm tank) low pressure is very much what you'll want, since you're going to be holding the brush very close to the model.

Buy a separate regulator for your air supply. Tanks don't come with them, and most compressors' built in ones are dodgy. Unless you're using CO2, buy a moisture trap as well. If you live in a damp or humid climate you may want to look at getting an in-line moisture trap (i.e a trap that can be spliced into the hose just short of where it connects to the brush, rather than between the hose and the regulator), and make sure buy the shortest air hose you think you might need for your work space (the longer the hose, the more opportunity there is for water vapor to condense inside).

Air supply is a trade off between cost and space. A good airbrush-specific compressor will cost big bucks, but will fit neatly under a desk without getting in the way of anything. On the other hand, a cheap-o car tire compressor attached to a spare air tank will work just as well, but will be fairly bulky.

Avoid using oilless diaphragm compressors of any type or brand without a tank. They're loud, produce a pulsed air flow, and will burn out if run for too long too often.

Avoid those little economy table top airbrush compressors, even the name brand ones. They're oilless diaphram types: if you're going to use one, you're going to want a tank, and if you're putting a tank between the compressor and the brush, there's no reason to spend extra for a "specialist" compressor. The good, space-saving airbrush specific compressors I mentioned above are oil lubricated models with small integrated tanks.

Expect to waste a lot of paint in the process of learning, as what you learn from one paint type (thinning ratios, pressure/paint/distance ratios, etc.) won't translate smoothly to others. The properties of the surface you're spraying onto makes a difference as well. The only thing that reliably transfers across different paint and surface types is how comfortable your hands are with the controls. One of the worst pieces of advice I got when I was first starting out was to practice by spraying water onto newsprint. All this did was create a faulty set of expectations and "skills" which made my first attempt at actual painting even harder.

[cram]

Thanks for the info guys 

[zemjw]

If you're spraying inside, it can get messy.

Spray booths are available, but they can be very expensive, and generally want pipes to outside. I bought one last year that shrinks down to a very manageable size and claims to not need pipes. I haven't actually used it yet, so I can't say how effective it is at stopping stray spay, but it's got to be better than the cardboard box I used to use 

Anyway, £81 on Amazon - I'm sure it was less than that last year, but what wasn't 

[OSHIROmodels]

Really. Four and a half years.

There's plenty of more recent threads with longer discussions about airbrushes if you used the search option.

Topic locked.