Airbrush Set for Beginners

This is another question from one of my readers, so once again I'm relying on all of you out there to fill in the gaps. I am, by no means, an airbrush expert but I did manage to get my hands on a relatively cheap one that did the job for me.

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hi my name is kojak and i have just recently started to read your blog. i find it very interesting and i am glad that you are able to update so frequently. like a mentioned before i have just frequently started reading your blog as well i have only recently started to take gunpla seriously. basically i was just wondering if you could answer a question for me. i have been looking into buying an air brush ever since i got my mg rx 78-5.i thought if i were to take it completely seriously that spray cans wouldn't be enough. so basically i was just wondering what a good starter set would be and also maybe what a super cheap super beginner alternative for an air compressor would be. i say super cheap and super beginner because i have looked into getting canned air and starter air brush set from testors. thank you for taking the time to read this.

-Kojak, Thanks for you E-Mail.

Well I can say that after doing a considerable amount of shopping for an airbrush myself I went for the cheapest, simplest, and quietest airbrush that I could find. Check out these posts. Preface and Beginnings. I also advise you to take a thorough look at the comments section because the other readers give a lot of good advice.

In short this is the one I bought and it's perfect for the type of work I want to do (Re colours, custom colours, shading and I can save on paint!).

It basically works like a spray can except with a different trigger. The trigger is pressure sensitive so the more you pull, the more paint you get. This can also be adjusted by the "paint limiter" on the top of the brush making it impossible for you to spray too much, if that's what you want.

The paint area can't be narrowed that much as far as I can tell. I managed to get it to just over 1 cm but I haven't really experimented with this at all. Never had a reason as I've only used it for blanket re-colours. I spent around 15 000 yen for the whole thing (AC adapter was seperate) but generally I have to say that I'm glad I have it, even though I don't use it that often (Currently. That will change soon I think.)

However I'd like you to remember that having an airbrush doesn't eliminate can usage forever. Sometimes it's just easier and quicker to give your parts a quick spray from a can and get it over and done with, without have to worry about mixing, thinning and then cleaning the paint from your airbrush. I hope that answers your question and good luck with the G05. My G04 is never far from my mind and I've enjoyed working on it. I'll finish it someday! I promise!

So does anyone out there use an airbrush? If so, which one and why did you choose it? Most importantly... How much did it cost?! Thanks in advance for your help.

Entering the Airbrush Era - Beginnings

Back to my original story...

The first day I got my airbrush the first thing I did was read the instruction manual. As I've mentioned before, I get some of my best ideas on my throne so I took the manual with me and read it over thoroughly.

Luckily the manual was written in many languages, one of them being English and it came with a lot of diagrams and illustrations.

After I got an idea of how the process works and learned about the parts of the airbrush and learned how to set it up AND learned what to watch out for, I gave it a shot.

First was the paint. I have a lot of paint. I recieved a very large paint set almost 10 years ago from my ex-gf but never really used it the way I should have. She bought me this VF-1A 30th Anniversary Valkyrie to go with it.

She was with me in a Japanese souvenir shop back home and we were looking at the models and she really liked the SD-Gundam Zeta series set so I bought it for her. She kept the Hyaku Shiki and the Zeta but the gave the Mark 2 Titans to me because she knew how much I liked that suit and she thought it'd look cute next to my MG Mark 2 Titans. Sweet girl. Later on that year she got me the paint set.

Anyways... another gf after her gave me even more paint (because I left the first batch back in Canada and I met this gf in Japan and had no paint with me) which was very nice of her. I used that paint on the 1/100 Red Frame, of the OYW White Demon. After I went back to Canada I brought all the paint back with me along with a couple of models. I don't know why I did that. I just didn't want to leave them at home for some reason. I felt that I could finally do them justice now that I've increased my skill set.

I only brought back two out of purely sentimental reasons. The first was the 30th Anniversary Valkyrie that I mentioned before. The second was the first model I ever bought. The Sentinel (nickname for my no-grade S Gundam.)

It was in a semi-sad state of disrepair and I thought that I would finally be able to 'resurrect' it.

Sad to say that day has yet to come and I'm not sure when it will. So much to build... so little time!

I'd always hoped to be able to finish these machines properly once I got enough skills... AND the right equipment. I think I'm there now. I believe that I can do it but there are other things that are taking priority now.

So now I have a LOT of enamel paint from back home and these two old school models that I'm probably not going to work on for some time. First things first. Use up the paint.

I tested out the airbrush initially with just some regular black that I had laying around. The paint had long since settled at the bottom of the jar but I stirred it up a bit with a toothpick, poured a VERY small amount into the airbrush paint canister and mixed in a little enamel thinner until I got it too a very runny consistency (comparable to skim milk).

I tried it out first on a cut up milk carton and played around with the brush a bit, trying to figure out what everything did and how I could use it. Also took note of distances from brush to surface and what kind of painting effects I could get when I varied pressure and distance.

After all of that I tried it out on my first piece, that being the sinanju bazooka.

Since then I haven't used it as much as I thought I would but I'm glad I have it regardless. I still do a fair amount of hand painting but for the recolours I often do, this device is sure to come in handy.

I'm learning as I go obviously but that is the reason why I created this blog after all!

um... wtf?!

Why is my airbrush spitting out cobwebs?!

That was crazy! Kinda cool actually but it's going to clog up my air filter at this rate. Hope I
didn't ruin my brush! I just got it! This was with "Mr. Color #90 - Shine Silver" Acrylic paint. Maybe I thinned it with the wrong stuff? I have lacquer and enamel thinners but no acrylic so I used the lacquer. Bad call?

Ugh. Now the trails and tribulations of a rookie airbrusher begin.

Anyway here's the current pose for my EE. I'm working on making this pose the 'standard' one. The Sinanju would make a great toy! There's so much you can do with it! Too bad I'm always concerned about the paint job and stability. Otherwise I could have even more fun with it than I do now!

Entering the Airbrush Era - Preface

It hasn’t been a full 2 years since I started to take this hobby seriously. And by seriously I mean simply doing panel lines for the first time. Since that time when I first started working on the 1/100 Red Frame, I’ve learned a helluva lot and even started this blog in order to track my progress.

A short while back... near the middle of this month, I reached a turning point. Came to a crossroads so to speak. And I crossed it. I didn’t stick with what I knew and decided to do something that made sense practically and financially.

I bit the bullet and bought an airbrush.


It all started when I tried to paint my Sinanju bazooka in metallic black after priming. There was no paint left in the can. Not enough to paint even one part properly. And I said to myself that this was it. I wouldn’t spend any more money on these cans. It was a waste. A waste of space, paint, metal and probably money even though I'd thought that I was saving money.

Now I realize that as soon as you have an airbrush, the amount of money you spend on paint decreases considerably. Like almost next to nothing in comparison. You'll be using a lot more thinner though. However large amounts of thinner is much cheaper than large amounts of spray paint.

That said... I realize now that even with an airbrush you probably will need to buy the occasional can of paint and primer now and then. I painted my Sinanju with TS-40 Tamiya Metallic Black.


They don't make paint vials of that. If I wanted to stay consistent I'd have to buy another can of it... totally defeating the purpose of me buying this airbrush to begin with. The closest I could find was Mr. Color #78 Metallic Black.

I haven't tried it out yet to know if it will work or not. Either way I decided to use some left over flat black that I've had for years and also have an abundance of.

Sometimes I feel like I don't want to go through the trouble of using the airbrush and cleaning it when I can just spray the part one time with a can of spray paint and get it over and done with quick.

To each his own though right? I'm happy to at least have the option now. And the added control and creativity that an airbrush provides.

Considering all the paint like I’ve bought until now, I'd say the price has just about evened out. I have about 12 cans of paint and have already gone thought about 10 or so already, not including primers which are more expensive. At over 500 yen per can I’ve probable spent about 15000 on paint already. And that’s with me using paint semi frugally. I know for a fact that Gai Gun and ASM use paint and top coat considerably more liberally than I do.

So... I'd been to the shop earlier to buy some AM hands and aurora decals and while I was there I decided to browse the airbrushes just for the sake of doing so. I was curious.

There is no doubt that these things are expensive. I saw some set getting upwards of close to 40000 yen. That's pretty risky and intimidating for the beginning modeler who is just interested in recolouring and not much more than that. Some sets came with brushes but no AC adapter, or an adapter but no brush. Or just brushes with no compressors. I didn’t want that any of that. I wanted the whole set up so I could get off and running quickly and that's what I got and that's what I did.

I went for the simplest, most basic set-up I could find to suit the type of work I'd be doing. Recolouring. I don't need a super fine brush because I'm going to be painting flames or lightning on these things. I'm changing a grey part to blue, red to green. That type of stuff. I don't know about double action or single action or whatever, but the trigger grip looked like it was easy to use so... I didn't know anything about compressors either but it said it has a special molded body to reduce noise and that was enough for me.

But I have to admit that I did deliberate over it for some time. I must have walked around the store with all the stuff my arms for 30 minutes before I decided to just get it over with. I rationalized it by thinking that a couple hours of private tutoring will make enough money to pay for it. I can sacrifice that. Why I am such a cheap bastard! Just go for it already. No wife, no kids, decent, stable job, I've got money... so why not?!

After picking it up and using it for a while I have to say that I’m pretty happy that I did. It has given me the effects and finish that I’ve always wanted. And I realized that one of the things that got me into modeling was seeing all those finished products that had been done with airbrushes. We all know that if we want to get the most out of this hobby it’s going to result in an airbrush purchase eventually. I am no exception to this.

For the sake of archiving I'll talk about my first experience with the brush in a seperate post.

The Time has Come...

...to step into a new era.