Page 10 - Oct2019
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4 Maintaining Units with Interchangeable and Spare Parts
WHY SHOULD I USE AN AIRBRUSH?
Regardless of if you’re beginner, a seasoned modeler, or
someone that mainly paints table top figurines, everyone can
benefit from using an airbrush at some stage during the
painting process. They can make short work of applying the
Airbrush Reviews for the Scale Modelers, primer and undercoats for all parts of the model, not to
by Modelers mention being able to quickly and seamlessly apply the final
coat to most pieces.
After consulting with several modelers about their
opinions on using an airbrush vs a paint brush, as well as A paint brush on the other hand, is ideal for all the fine
detailing and delicate line work on the smaller and more
our own, we have complied enough data to provide you
with a helpful and informative article. We will be taking intricate parts. On the larger continuous parts such as the
fuselage and the wings however, they can leave brush strokes
a look at the pros and cons of using an airbrush to paint
and hard edges where two different paint colors meet, or
your models. We are also going to be providing you with
several product reviews for some of our favorite when additional patterns such as camouflage, are painted
over the models based color.
airbrush units.
In truth, it’s almost impossible, for most people to be able to
Contents
match the finish of an airbrush, using a paint brush.
1 Why Should I Use an Airbrush?
QUICK BENEFITS GUIDE TO USING AN AIRBRUSH:
o 1.1 Quick Benefits Guide to Using an Airbrush:
Consistency: The paint spreads very smoothly and
2 Buying Your First Airbrush?
o 2.1 Do you Want Gravity or Siphon Feed? easily, preventing any hard edgings.
Appearance: The final coat is much smoother, and
2.1.1 Gravity Feed
practically flawless. Applied correctly, the final coat
2.1.2 Siphon Feed
o 2.2 Do you Want Single or Double Action Trigger? will be streak free.
Speed: Even if it’s only being used to apply the primer or
2.2.1 Single Triggers
undercoats. An airbrush takes much less time to coat every
2.2.2 Double Triggers
o 2.3 What Type of Paints you Will be Using? part of a model, then what a paint brush would take.
o 2.4 What is your Intended Use?
MAINTAINING UNITS WITH INTERCHANGEABLE AND
3 Examples of Airbrushes being More Suitable for SPARE PARTS
Different Purposes:
o 3.1 Detailed Work – Fine Detail, and Camouflage One other thing to consider before buying an airbrush, is the
3.1.1 Iwata Eclipse HP-CS brands reliability, and universally available parts. Try to avoid
3.1.2 Tamiya 74545 HG Super Fine using a unit that uses exclusive parts that are only used by that
3.1.3 Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CR Plus 2 in 1 model. Some companies have made it so that their nozzles
o 3.2 General Purpose – Body Work, and Primary Coats and needles are virtually identical across their range. Meaning
3.2.1 Iwata-Medea Eclipse HP-BCS that if your bought a model that is later discontinued, you
3.2.2 Badger Air-Brush Co. 105 Patriot Fine should still be able to find the required replacement parts with
Gravity Airbrush relative ease. Unfortunately other companies try to shoehorn
o 3.3 Primers and Gloss Coats – Basecoat, Undercoat, their customers into using their more “superior” range that
and Clearcoat uses exclusive parts, only for the line to be discontinued or the
3.3.1 Harder & Steenbeck Ultra company goes out of production at a later date.
If you are unable to find the appropriate replacement parts to
fix your unit, and it uses universal parts. More then likely you
will simply be able to purchase new cheaper units, and salvage
the required parts from these units to fix your better one,
instead of having to replace the whole unit.
