I’m glad you finally got a chance to try out your portable air brush set up.
Your set up is much fancier than the self contained ones I’ve been using. Everything I’ve painted in the last 18 months or so has been with one or the other of these.
Why so many? Because the batteries eventually won’t take a charge after a year or so and I just buy another AB that’s even cheaper but uses the same battery/compressor.
Notice they all have different battery/compressors.
With the exception of the two on the right, I haven’t paid more than $40 for any of these.
You and I already discussed this but I’ll also mention it here. I bought a $100+ self contained AB from Micro Mark and the battery died after a month.
When they gave me the run around about warranty and wouldn’t even sell me a battery, I bought another $40 AB that used the same battery/compressor assembly.
Maybe it’s because all my compressors are “on board” I get different results than you.
Or the very real possibility is that I’m a much less skilled painter than you are and don’t notice the same things you do.
Anyhow, I got my Iwatas out at the beginning of my modeling season and haven’t touched them.
The “unpainted wheels will eventually be painted in Forest Green, along with the drive sprocket, once I buy a couple more bottles of paint. Used 3/4 of the bottle of Interior Green psi ring this and the M151A2 TOW jeep.
again. I bought their micro sprue cutters, 12 piece Swiss files and chop-it. All are sub-par quality IMO. The nippers do not cut close enough to the sprue and they won’t cut rod squarely. The file patterns are not uniform and very rough (not one file is usable to me). The chop-it needed to be set-up to 90 deg when unboxed (not a big deal), however it doesn’t stay 90 deg under pressure when cutting. Oh, and I got wickedly dinged with customs import fees which amounted to $35 CAD, so basically paid $150 CAD total for tools I will end up throwing out very soon.
Al, that’s lot of excellent information. Very disappointed in Micro-Mark. They waffled and didn’t take care of the issue.
I think the battery powered & small nail compressor sets are both fantastic. They open the possibility of good quality, convenient, inexpensive airbrushing to everyone for less than the price ($40 to $60) of most 1/35 AFV kit’s available today.
Inflation adjusted, my $58 nail compressor airbrush would have cost less than $11 in 1976 dollars. Your cordless set up, inflation adjusted would cost $7.50 in 1976 dollars. About the price of a Tamiya 1/35 kit in 1976.
I’d definitely take either set up 1,000 over the sucky Badger starter airbrush & Propel canned air, I started with that cost far more in 1976!
Very “invested” in same process painting from using the same compressor, tank & regulator set up with the same Paasche H for 36 years plus and same custom Paasche VL & same Iwata Micron B for ~26 years.
Basically, any minor process change causes an uproar in me, the inflexible painter
Same with me, Wade and Al. I have been airbrushing for 44 years (Jesus Christ I’m old now!) and although my equipment has changed and is now mostly Iwata, I have My Process and My Sequence for airbrushing, cleaning, and then finishing and weathering. The Zen flows. If anything disturbs the process, sh!t goes right out the window.
I guess the main reason I’ve gone over to the self contained ABs is pure laziness and noise abatement.
I found this compressor on the side of the road waiting for trash pick up in 2000 or so (I know it was before 9/11) and my original plan was to use it as an air storage tank to supplement my 50gal compressor in my garage.
After I discovered the pressure switch had a bad connection, it came to live in my hobby shop. It has a pretty accurate built in regulator and uses standard air couplings.
Unfortunately, it’s a diaphragm compressor and is loud as hell when it runs, unlike my piston driven compressor in the garage.
Although it doesn’t run often while model painting, it always surprises me when it starts.
I realize there are lots of other hobby compressor options these days but I’m wedded to industrial air couplings. Just kidding about the couplings.
Silent compressors are nice, got one myself which had a rusted out tank, but they are only needed when noise is an absolute no-no.
With a big tank, or huge as in your case, the tank can be filled, compressor turned off and then spray in “total” silence.
Sitting in a small enclosed space with my silent compressor the click in the pressure actuated on-off switch when it decided to start scared the living daylights out of me sometimes.
Al, I’d forgot about the noise of a standard diaphragm compressor.
Definitely, I like it quite when painting. Very spoiled with a rotary refrigeration compressor. It’s about like a window unit AC compressor cycling. So finicky, I never spray paint when the compressor cycles on unless its a blast of thinner between colors etc. Literally a case study in persnickety painting.
I remember the canned air days. I had a siphon feed airbrush be I can’t remember the brand. I had blue plastic hose and I always made a mess.
Then I discovered I could boil a pot of water and put the canned air in a coffee can full of hot water and increase the pressure on an almost dead air can.
This was in the mid 70s and I was an apprentice in a VW shop with a bunch of crazy German dudes. I got the bright idea that if I could find a small acetylene or oxygen tank, I could have my own compressed air, using the shop compressor to fill it.
I went to the local oxygen/gas supply place and they refused to sell me an empty tank. Although one of the younger guys behind the counter suggested an empty R12 tank
As I live in a house with 8 appartements a compy like that is stricktly a no-no. My neighbours would kill me. In 2021 I bought this Sil Air 30/9 compressor from Werther. It has a 9 liters air tank and is not louder than my fridge. It’s my 3rd compy and I still have my first piston compy which helped me out when my first oil compressor with 5 liters tank quit after 13 years.
Just received one of these all-in-one units and have yet to unpack it, but I’m worried to hear about the sucky battery life . Wonder if it will run with the a.c. adaptor cable attached once the battery pack fades? I asked around a bit before purchasing but hadn’t got the battery heads-up, but guess it’s see how it goes…Maybe there are charging cycles for the battery that work optimally like with Mobile (cell)phone batteries??
Ahh - what a treat! So many parts going together so perfectly! Not a flaw in the paint to be seen! Not even the need for a clearcoat - wow!
And then:
Well - you might have noticed those two pink air cleaners, yep, right there in the foreground, supported on some wire for painting. Primed with Tamiya pink fine primer, just need a splash of red and we’re moving!
Or, while painting, both could fall off of the wire they were evidently precariously dangling from - not to worry tho, the concrete sidewalk below easily broke their fall(s) and, just to keep the project a challenge, one of the air intakes snapped clean off - very nice indeed! Not only the intake, but through the styrene beneath - what could be better? of course! Giant finger prints in that fantastic paint job, which is a really nice touch
So, on we go. A guy will need to fix and clean those up, then, back to paint.
The only (surprising) good news here is that while hard to see, each of these tanks have several small PE straps and connectors - and happily, they came through unscathed.
…
. Wonder if it will run with the a.c. adaptor cable attached once the battery pack fades? I asked around a bit before purchasing but hadn’t got the battery heads-up, but guess it’s see how it goes…Maybe there are charging cycles for the battery that work optimally like with Mobile (cell)phone batteries??
