After reading glowing reviews about Iwata's M1 and M2 single action airbrushes, I thought I'd take a punt on this:
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With the intention of buying the Iwata original if it all felt good to use.
As I'm sure, I've mentioned, I used a couple of Badger 200s years ago, to produce a large range of paintings and collages, they never clogged, never let me down and were simplicity itself to clean. I used them with Badger's "Air-Opaque" acrylics, which were also as good as it gets. When I started modelling, I bought a Harder and Steenbeck Ultra, always with the feeling that I ought to just get another badger! The H&S is an ok airbrush, but no matter what I put through it, there's always the chance of it playing up in one way or another. I was used to airbrushes that just got on with it, and would blow paint for months without stripping, or even cleaning with more than water. The thing about dual-action airbrushes is the mechanism requires some pretty fine tolerances and standards of engineering, both the nozzle/needle combination and the spray action. Back in the day, the go-to airbrush for professionals was the De Vilbis Super 63. This baby was over £100 back in the late seventies / early eighties, when £100 was serious money - many hundreds of pounds in today's money. Then, a compressor with a reservoir was £359-400 minimum. The point I'm making is that, with CNC and seriously cheap labour, we can buy an airbrush very cheaply now, and some of them seem to have found friends with these. I now count myself as one of them! As things stand, I'll not be shelling out £140 for the genuine Iwata, as long as this £19 version delivers as it is at the moment! True, it may be a short honeymoon - that nozzle might be made of junk metal and not last, if this happens, then I'll admit defeat. It is brutally simple, Gravity fed, a nozzle, and a needle, adjusted buy a knurled knob at the rear. A lovely big button, press for paint, release for no paint. You can set the required pressure on the hoof, with a bit of deft thumb action (fnaar) and you only have to remember one thing, and it's a big thing at first, but trust me, you learn to live with I, the first press will spit a bit, so you always start spraying off the model, and move into It. This may seem an affront to some folks, but believe me, it beats the Eartha (think Rhyming slang) out of having to strip your brush so many times. (There's a discussion point here too - some folks rarely do more than blow their brushes through to clean them, and some who go through rituals approaching obsession to keep the things going!).
No, with this little gem, you swill a bit of water around the cup with a paint brush, empty it out, then swill fresh water through a couple of times, blow it dry then finish off with a blow through of airbrush cleaner. Then you hang it up and get on with life!
I've rambled on, I'm sorry, but I really love this airbrush, it really encourages me to use it, as it is so accommodating to my style of modelling, it put a perfect coat of Stynylrez on my Dragon Saladin, and I mean perfect. I've just finished the base coat with it today, using Tamiya paint, thinned with x20a, and again, perfect finish.
This airbrush is £19. Beginners will get on well with it, and experienced modellers will find it a very useful tool in their armoury, perfect for primer and base coats. Just remember the little spit...
As a post-script, the best way to clean this and similar ones is as follows: get a washing up bowl, fill it with clean water. When your done airbrushing, swill a bit of water in the cup as described above, then empty it out and just plunge the whole airbrush under water and press the button, lift it out, spray a couple of blasts with the needle wide open, then repeat. Finish off with a few drops of airbrush cleaner, and it's ready to go again.The whole process takes less than 3 minutes!
[ATTACH]270774[/ATTACH]With the intention of buying the Iwata original if it all felt good to use.
As I'm sure, I've mentioned, I used a couple of Badger 200s years ago, to produce a large range of paintings and collages, they never clogged, never let me down and were simplicity itself to clean. I used them with Badger's "Air-Opaque" acrylics, which were also as good as it gets. When I started modelling, I bought a Harder and Steenbeck Ultra, always with the feeling that I ought to just get another badger! The H&S is an ok airbrush, but no matter what I put through it, there's always the chance of it playing up in one way or another. I was used to airbrushes that just got on with it, and would blow paint for months without stripping, or even cleaning with more than water. The thing about dual-action airbrushes is the mechanism requires some pretty fine tolerances and standards of engineering, both the nozzle/needle combination and the spray action. Back in the day, the go-to airbrush for professionals was the De Vilbis Super 63. This baby was over £100 back in the late seventies / early eighties, when £100 was serious money - many hundreds of pounds in today's money. Then, a compressor with a reservoir was £359-400 minimum. The point I'm making is that, with CNC and seriously cheap labour, we can buy an airbrush very cheaply now, and some of them seem to have found friends with these. I now count myself as one of them! As things stand, I'll not be shelling out £140 for the genuine Iwata, as long as this £19 version delivers as it is at the moment! True, it may be a short honeymoon - that nozzle might be made of junk metal and not last, if this happens, then I'll admit defeat. It is brutally simple, Gravity fed, a nozzle, and a needle, adjusted buy a knurled knob at the rear. A lovely big button, press for paint, release for no paint. You can set the required pressure on the hoof, with a bit of deft thumb action (fnaar) and you only have to remember one thing, and it's a big thing at first, but trust me, you learn to live with I, the first press will spit a bit, so you always start spraying off the model, and move into It. This may seem an affront to some folks, but believe me, it beats the Eartha (think Rhyming slang) out of having to strip your brush so many times. (There's a discussion point here too - some folks rarely do more than blow their brushes through to clean them, and some who go through rituals approaching obsession to keep the things going!).
No, with this little gem, you swill a bit of water around the cup with a paint brush, empty it out, then swill fresh water through a couple of times, blow it dry then finish off with a blow through of airbrush cleaner. Then you hang it up and get on with life!
I've rambled on, I'm sorry, but I really love this airbrush, it really encourages me to use it, as it is so accommodating to my style of modelling, it put a perfect coat of Stynylrez on my Dragon Saladin, and I mean perfect. I've just finished the base coat with it today, using Tamiya paint, thinned with x20a, and again, perfect finish.
This airbrush is £19. Beginners will get on well with it, and experienced modellers will find it a very useful tool in their armoury, perfect for primer and base coats. Just remember the little spit...
As a post-script, the best way to clean this and similar ones is as follows: get a washing up bowl, fill it with clean water. When your done airbrushing, swill a bit of water in the cup as described above, then empty it out and just plunge the whole airbrush under water and press the button, lift it out, spray a couple of blasts with the needle wide open, then repeat. Finish off with a few drops of airbrush cleaner, and it's ready to go again.The whole process takes less than 3 minutes!
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