This little write up should help when deciding which airbrush to chose. We don’t want to overwhelm you with the endless flood of airbrushes on the market, I’m sure there are great airbrushes out there. We would like to tell you about the ones that we use and why they are our choice.
It can be pretty daunting when choosing an airbrush, we are talking dual action here. If you are new to airbrushing and you ask for suggestions as to which one to buy, the first question you will probably be asked is, ‘what will you be using it for?’ i.e detailing, painting large areas, painting small areas, painting t-shirts, custom painting, fine art, make-up and beauty etc. The list is endless and it all adds to the confusion. Most of us haven’t given specific thought to that question because we want to use it for lots of things or we aren’t sure about what we will be painting in the future. The most suitable answer would be that we want the airbrush that does it all and does it well, so far we have yet to find this Holy Grail of airbrushes.
Throughout our airbrushing career we have probably tried and bought every airbrush available at that time and spent thousands in doing so. Today, after thirty years and twenty years respectively, we have whittled it down to two, which we use as our everyday work horse and they cover the detailing and mid size works such as cigarette lighters, jewellery to stuff like motorcycle tanks, crash helmets and even bigger. These airbrushes should be suitable for custom painters, modelers, nail artists, make up artists, cake decorators and fine artists.
Our choice is even simpler because given the options of gravity, side and suction feeds, we chose the side feeds as our airbrush of choice.
A simple over view of these three types is that the gravity has a colour cup on top which requires cleaning every time you change colour, the side feed has detachable cups for consistent colour change and the suction feed has interchangeable pots located under the airbrush, which require more pressure to draw the paint out of the pot.
So now we have narrowed our choices greatly. As most of our work involves detailed painting, we obviously need an airbrush that excels in this area as well as a good all rounder. A point worth mentioning is that all airbrushes have their pluses and negatives, in time you learn to overcome these quirks and you become comfortable with the instrument to the point that you can focus having fun using them instead of fighting with them.
The airbrushes we use as our main work horse are the Paasche V, which Lorena uses and the Iwata HP SB Plus, which I use. I will do a comparison test, based on my personal experience, between the two, below.
Students have asked me why I didn’t chose the Iwata Micron, after all we have 10 of them in the studio which we mainly use for teaching, it’s a fair question. The reason being is that the SB Plus is much cheaper and affordable than the Micron, the difference in atomisation and detailing is negligible, the trigger pressure on the Micron is heavier than the SB Plus, which after working 12 hrs in the studio becomes more apparent and the spray parameter with the Micron is less than that of the SB Plus. In other words, the Micron operates in the detailing arena whereas the SB Plus operates in the detailing and gives better results in the mid range zone.
Okay, so we have our airbrush that covers the detailing to mid range, now we need something that covers the mid range to larger areas. Here we both use the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS. Yes it’s a gravity feed, but when you are spraying large areas you don’t require much colour change. It’s a quality airbrush and pretty cheap. There are other airbrushes that are better but value for money, this is a good instrument.
There you have it, if you want to save yourself a fortune and a drawer full of ‘used once’ airbrushes, these are our choices.
Iwata HP-SB Plus Versus Paasche v
I used the Paasche V for around 6 years and eventually changed to the HP SB Plus. The first thing I noticed was how long the Iwata was compared to the Paasche. The Paasche had a more natural feel and was very light. Also it was a smaller airbrush and presented less fatigue when using for long periods of time.
The Paasche v shown above has a more comfortable design than the Iwata which is important when you are using an airbrush all day long. Also the distance between the trigger and tip of the airbrush is much shorter which gives a more natural feel.
The Iwata shown here has a greater distance from the tip to the trigger, which takes some time to adapt to, after using the Paasche v for so long.
Now you are probably asking why would I change if the Paasche was such a good airbrush? When the Paasche is working well, it is a fantastic airbrush on par with the best. The problem is that it’s a very temperamental instrument and when you rely on something temperamental in your business, it can destabilise and affect the quality of your work.
There are three problems I that i’ve encountered with the Paasche, they were; the trigger sticking, if I drew back the trigger for full paint coverage of a large area, it would sometimes stick in an open position. Which meant that the next time I pressed down on the trigger, I would have the full load of paint projected onto the surface that I was painting. An accident like this could ruin a days work because of a badly designed trigger return system.
Problem number two was with the side cups. Over time the hole which the side cups would fit into, would wear due to the soft material the airbrush was made of. Which meant that the cups wouldn’t sit properly in the hole and often the pot, full of paint, would fall onto the floor, yourself or even worse, your work.
The third problem I had was when a nozzle had to be replaced, luckily they are cheap. The nozzles are made from a soft material, probably brass and are crudely engineered compared to the Iwata, which is reflected in the price. The most delicate component and hardest to engineer on an airbrush is the nozzle, because of it’s relationship with the needle. A well engineered nozzle will seat perfectly with the needle. This is important because a nozzle which doesn’t seat with the needle means there are areas that allow paint to escape. So it would always be a lottery when buying nozzles, some would seat okay, others needed time to bed in, which isn’t a good thing to have in a professional studio with important deadlines.
So as you can guess, the Iwata for me is more reliable. The nozzles, even though expensive, are more durable and work first time out of the box. The side cups are a snug fit and don’t fall all over the place and the trigger return works all the time.
To summarise, The Iwata is more reliable and the quality in engineering and materials are superior, while the Paasche is lighter, more comfortable and has a natural feel which means the ability to work all day with less fatigue on your hands. Remember, Lorena has used the Paasche v for over 30 yrs and is happy using it. She’s aware of the problems and has adapted to them. I’m sticking with my reliable Iwata because when i use it straight out of the box, i know that it will perform perfectly.
Important note. When buying an airbrush, make sure you also add a hose or ask if a hose is included. Most kits will come with the hose included but a single airbrush purchase usually comes minus a hose.