I'm on the verge of buying a new airbrush, and I'm leaning towards the Iwata eclipse, based on the reports posted here and other places.
I have one question that I haven't seen addressed yet, and it applies to many of the bottom feed airbrushes:
Isn't that a somewhat wastefull design when you only need to airbrush a couple of small parts? It seems like you'd have to mix up more paint than is needed, to make sure the siphon tube can pick it up.
I'll be using acrylics-- is it true that thinned paints don't store well?
"RC Boater" wrote in news:%zF5b.22361$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:
You are correct. I have used a Badger Crescendo for years to full content. This year I bought a Badger 100G gravity feed, and it is a world of difference in both paint-usage (much, much less per job) and control (again, better than the Crescendo). I find myself only using the
100G lately, even for larger parts such as wings and fuselage, i.e. complete models up to 1/72. If I am working on 1/48 planes I still use the Crescendo for it's wider coverage.
Personally, I have had no luck with storing thinned acrylics in small (< 5 ml) quantities. Thinned Tamiya jars on the other hand, posed no problems over time. Enamels (Humbrol and Modelmaster in my case) store well, small or larger quantities.
Gravity feed is much better for most modeling tasks. Besides being more economical with the paint, you can spray finer detail with less pressure, because of the gravity assist in the paint feed.
The only reason to use a bottom feed brush is because they CAN hold more paint. This is only important if you're painting something large.
every bottom feed brush I own came with a jar and a color cup. A big job gets the bottle and if it is only a few small part(s) then a small amount of thinned paint goes into the color cup. Really not much waste at all unless I really overestimate my paint need.
Now there have been times that I thin a larger batch of paint than I need for one particular painting session. These times are usually when I need to give something multiple coats of a color. I will paint then let dry then next day or session I will give the additional coats. When I mix I never ever return the thinned paint to the original jar. I read somewhere that this was bad so I don't do it. I have some spare bottles and my favorite short term storage containers are empty 35mm film cannisters with the snap on lids. These kind of act like small tupperware containers. Very handy.
I agree -- i bought my Paasche VSR 90#1 thinking that it sounded like the most detail oriented airbrush that paasche had (except for the monstrosity that their ultra-detail brush is...), and have been painting with it for perhaps 3 months now -- i borrowed a paasche single action H and a paasche double action VL, both of which are siphon feed airbrushes, and was shocked at the amount of paint i needed to use
I also noticed that the pressure from my compressor had to be much higher for good results -- my compressor already runs too much so i think it's a good thing(tm).
There are 3 color cup sizes that came with my airbrush, a 1/4oz, 1/2oz and 3/4oz... i've NEVER used ANYTHING other than the 1/4oz color cup
-- i thin the paint in the cup (few drops of thinner first, then a few drops of paint, stirred well...first blast onto my notecards is pure thinner, but it works and i don't have to have a billion bottles for premixing stuff).. I don't understand how people can manage to use an entire color cup of paint -- half a cup paint (including thinner!) will paint 2 coats on a
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