Post by pieterhb on Jul 28, 2010 7:47:29 GMT 1
One of the models I am working on, besides my Bissy is the Lancaster bomber.
Those of you that builds it knows how much small areas there is to paint and how long does it take to manually paint it, armed only with a very small paintbrush.
After many hours of painting I decided that it was not worth it to spend so much time in going this route.
Thus onto the web to do some homework. I was trying to see whether it was affordable to buy an airbrush and compressor and to look at all the pro's and cons of each.
I am not going into airbrushes here, because it will take way to much space, but I will recommend the Iwata types of airbrushes. Quite expensive, but you will never be sorry you bought one. They are for life, although there are many other good airbrushes out there as well. Remember to do intensive homework beforehand, because you can easily buy the wrong type of airbrush for your hobby/work and/or cheap stuff that simply does not work. There is plenty useful articles on the web about everything on airbrushes.
With the compressors you can also go many different routes. For example, one is to buy a mini compressor without an air tank, or one with a small air tank, industrial types with much bigger air tanks and lastly convert something like fire extinguishers or diving tanks into air tanks for your airbrush. Read more on the web.
The mini compressors (with and without air tanks) gets very hot, lots of friction when working and that actually destroys the compressor over a relatively short time. They are also very noisy (do get quiet ones, but more expensive), needs to run all the time when working, hops around if not strapped/bolted in, use more power and is very expensive for its size. Personally it was not an option for me, but it does have its advantages as well...
In the end I bought myself a bottom line industrial compressor (Grip model). It holds 25L of air. It takes about 4 minutes to fill up to its 115psi pressure. Then everything is dead quiet around you and you can spray your model in peace for many hours, before you run out of air. Because it use oil and is bigger than the mini compressors, it will also last you for many many years to come. Thus a good investment. With all the air you also have the advantage to use other tools on it, like spraying your house with paint or clean your house/car with water/steam. etc., etc.
You look roughly at around 100 - 200 dollars for the compressors and from 50 to 300 dollars for the airbrushes. Above mentioned is a lot of money for most people, but believe me, it is worth the investment and you can use your airbrush and compressor for many other purposes, besides painting your models.
Hope it helps for those of you that are still doing painting the manual way.
Those of you that builds it knows how much small areas there is to paint and how long does it take to manually paint it, armed only with a very small paintbrush.
After many hours of painting I decided that it was not worth it to spend so much time in going this route.
Thus onto the web to do some homework. I was trying to see whether it was affordable to buy an airbrush and compressor and to look at all the pro's and cons of each.
I am not going into airbrushes here, because it will take way to much space, but I will recommend the Iwata types of airbrushes. Quite expensive, but you will never be sorry you bought one. They are for life, although there are many other good airbrushes out there as well. Remember to do intensive homework beforehand, because you can easily buy the wrong type of airbrush for your hobby/work and/or cheap stuff that simply does not work. There is plenty useful articles on the web about everything on airbrushes.
With the compressors you can also go many different routes. For example, one is to buy a mini compressor without an air tank, or one with a small air tank, industrial types with much bigger air tanks and lastly convert something like fire extinguishers or diving tanks into air tanks for your airbrush. Read more on the web.
The mini compressors (with and without air tanks) gets very hot, lots of friction when working and that actually destroys the compressor over a relatively short time. They are also very noisy (do get quiet ones, but more expensive), needs to run all the time when working, hops around if not strapped/bolted in, use more power and is very expensive for its size. Personally it was not an option for me, but it does have its advantages as well...
In the end I bought myself a bottom line industrial compressor (Grip model). It holds 25L of air. It takes about 4 minutes to fill up to its 115psi pressure. Then everything is dead quiet around you and you can spray your model in peace for many hours, before you run out of air. Because it use oil and is bigger than the mini compressors, it will also last you for many many years to come. Thus a good investment. With all the air you also have the advantage to use other tools on it, like spraying your house with paint or clean your house/car with water/steam. etc., etc.
You look roughly at around 100 - 200 dollars for the compressors and from 50 to 300 dollars for the airbrushes. Above mentioned is a lot of money for most people, but believe me, it is worth the investment and you can use your airbrush and compressor for many other purposes, besides painting your models.
Hope it helps for those of you that are still doing painting the manual way.
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