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Good, Better, Best Airbrushes


mahcenter201

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Hello I work at a hobby shop in Iowa and we have recently had a real boom in modeling and I'm looking for some feedback on Airbrushes. We have only ever carried a single action and double action Paasche airbrush.

 

What brands of Airbrushes do you modelers prefer or recommend. Looking for maybe what a good starter would be and the maybe a step up from there and then a top of the line for you really skilled guys.

 

Thanks for your feedback

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Single action- Paasche H is a real winner for me. First one bought - still using 20 years later.

 

Double Action- I like Badger Velocity for a good price. Sotar is also good but pricey and there are Iwata equivalents also

 

Dave

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Tamiya/Iwata brushes have been a staple in my tool box for 15 years now. I have 3. A Tamiya HG and super HG and an Iwata baby 50 hvlp. The HG is my workhorse and is good for general work. It has a wide enough pattern for most model work in medium sized models. I use lacquers mostly both Tamiya and DuPont auto paints. I also use acrylics but I use the super for those mostly because of the smaller spray pattern.

 

The Baby 50 is in my arsenal of tools for painting large scale. This is either a huge airbrush or a very small touchup gun. I tend to lean toward the small touchup gun. Frankly, it is not something that I would expect to sell in a hobby shop. First of all it costs $500 with three nozzles and an airbrush bottle adapter. It is a very useful gun and can do everything that a standard airbrush can do, but it is large and if you don't have a lot of space it can be unwieldy. For the large scale builder it is the right tool, but of all the builders I know, I am the only one who uses one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like Badger products, simply because they work. Their customer service is hard to beat, too.

 

Starter airbrushes: Paasche H, Badger 350, Badger 200

Next step up: Badger 150, Badger Patriot

High-end: Badger Renegade series, Paasche Talon

 

That being said, the Grex line of airbrushes gets a lot of press these days--we bought one for work, and I have yet to test drive it, but if it is as good as I've been reading, I might get one for myself.

 

The Iwata line gets a lot of press, too, but I've seen them break a bit easier than most.

 

The other current darling of the hobby, so to speak, has been the Harder and Steenbeck line.

 

And then there are the Testor Azteks. Good airbrushes when they had a Lifetime Warranty, not so good when they switched to the 3-year warranty. Why? Sooner or later, you were going to need the warranty. I liked them from about 1991 to about 2001, then realized that I had spent quite a bit on replacing tips.

 

See what kind of distributor deal you can swing, and carry those products. What do you personally use? Personal experience, especially with airbrushes, sometimes can mean the difference between making the sale and not. One reason that I have test driven most of the commercially available lines is that when I worked in a hobby shop, I was expected to know these things.

 

Good luck.

 

Ralph

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You have two solid airbrushes that you already sell. If I was looking to add a few for variety I would add the single action Badger 200 and the double action 150.

 

I use the same Paasche H that I convinced my Dad to buy me when I was in H.S. 37 years ago. I learned on an H in Drafting class and therefore I prefer the heft of the fatter Paasche Brushes. I have a V and I also have several Badger brushes. The Badgers are fine products but they are slimmer than the Paasche. So if you bring in the Badger products you will have fine products from two manufacturers. It comes down to the customer and if they prefer a slim almost pencil like brush or a heftier feeling Paasche.

 

Max Bryant

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