Jetblast

The "common" bottled propellant is CO2, pressure in the bottle is in the region of 800psi & pretty much stays this way until the liquid CO2 has gone, after which the leftover gaseous CO2 pressure declines quickly, so it's steady pressure pretty much to the end. A common issue with CO2 is unexpectedly running out of propellant while using the bottle pressure gauge to figure what's left in the tank, but the gauge will correctly show a pretty constant pressure until the liquid is done & the bottle is heading towards being empty.... Air (say from a scuba tank) is a different proposition altogether.

I think they are all 0.35 - if you look at the European site www.airbrush-iwata.com , it lists 0.3 in the sales spiel, but the corresponding parts pages lists the 0.35 / 6042 nozzle.

That would depend on it's age, all solid / straight colour cars have been clear coated (with UV resistant clear) for some years now. There was a period in the 80's when virtually any red car faded at a pretty astonishing rate, possibly in connection to the paint manufacturers not being fully geared up towards changing paint regulation (not 101% certain on that though), after which clear on solid became normal. The strong, deep red's like Tornado, Carmine, Cardinal & Rosso all became pink over time & the norm was to use T-Cut to temporarily restore them, but inevitably the freshly bared paint would eventually fade - most depressing & time consuming......

Red pigments are more susceptible to UV degradation than many other colours, as can be seen on many red cars that are a few years or more old.. Although it wasn't stored in direct sunlight, some types of lighting (particularly CFL's) do emit UV as far as I'm aware - a possible solution would be a UV resistant clear coat.

Sparmax, Iwata & Revell oil-free compressors all originate from Taiwan & are of good quality / longevity. As far as I'm aware, Badgers range of oil-free compressors originate from China & are typical of Chinese compressors, very affordable in comparison to the above brands, but with exceptionally variable quality control. The variable quality control results in many different reviews & opinions of compressors originating from China, some good, some bad, all of which are probably accurate....

Some users can find nickel irritating to the skin, but I don't think it's a very common issue. The main benefit in chrome is that it's more resilient to staining & tarnishing so may retain the "just new" look for longer. That being said, tarnishing or staining will not have any impact on usage / performance at all - I use a battered, stained & tarnished Infinity that's been mistreated continuously for 10 years or so & it works just fine.

The Fineline air cap is a very popular upgrade for the Ultra, Evolution & Evolution Silverline, particularly when acrylics are being used, something that many users purchase down the line & it certainly narrows the price gap. You are obviously going to be stuck with whatever finish (chrome or nickel) you initially choose & you do have a point about the needle stop - it would be another £23 or thereabouts to get a quickfix handle for the Evolution CRplus, which takes the total towards £150... Decisions, decisions - maybe Henry had the right idea with one car in the "colour of your choice".

If the Fineline air cap (pinch tip) & paint cup lid are something that you were to consider purchasing down the line for the Silverline, give or take a few pence you would be at the same price as the CRplus.... The Chrome finish on the CRplus models is also more durable than the nickel plate on the Silverline.

The oil will be coming from the unloader valve which is the black plastic elbow located below the pressure control unit, not the pressure relief valve (the unloader valve outlet & PRV both point in the same general direction). Oil is typically passed from here on new compressors or just refilled with oil compressors where the oil level is slightly above the ideal & once the oil level settles, the leakage will stop. If oil has been blowing from the unloader valve you will also likely find oil mixed with condensate in the air tank when you drain it via the drain plug - it's for the same reason & nothing to be concerned with. I would get into the habit of draining the tank via the tank drain plug rather than the pressure relief valve as keeping the tank as moisture free as possible is wise in the long run.

Is there any difference in performance between the connectors sold by airbrush retailers and the ones you can buy on eBay or Amazon. When connected & in use, no difference, but when the Chinese products are used with other apparently identically specified equipment you may run into occasional coupling or sealing issues. Now if the one sold by the airbrush retailer was made and packaged by Iwata then I would infer extra quality (even if it weren't true) but often they are just 'no brand name' just like the ones sold on eBay. Q/C's packaged by Iwata would most likely be manufactured for them, but being manufactured for them is an indication of quality as you suggest. Q/C's supplied by H&S are distributed to dealers in quantity packs & not individually packed or branded, they are manufactured in Germany by a long established industrial pneumatic component manufacturer. These will typically be supplied to the end user loose - so a lack of branded packaging is not necessarily an indication of quality or lack of. Which makes me wonder whether they are the same thing. Similar, but not the same.

Sounds very much like the air cap is insufficiently tightened - try tightening it a bit further by hand (no tools).

As well as the smaller nozzle & paint cup, the HP-B also has a shorter nose that the HP-C - again another detail orientated feature, allowing you to get closer to the subject for fine work. The HP-B is undoubtedly capable of finer detail work than the HP-C, but your going to trade coverage in for that finer detail. In I had to choose one of the two for scale modelling it would be the HP-C, it offers better coverage & while it can't offer the same detail capability of the HP-B, it's not exactly a million miles away.

I could be wrong here, but generally speaking the lining in the head is a thick corrosion resistant coating rather than & plastic liner / separate part. Corrosion in the head will creep up under the coating from any exposed edges & although the coating can remain intact in itself, it becomes completely detached from the head.... If this is the case I would be tempted to give them a thorough clean inside (small wire brush, drill or the likes) & give them a spray paint with something up to the job, making sure that all the edges are coated. Corrosion will likely set in pretty quickly if they are left bare. Other than checking/cleaning the head valves, non return valve/s & piston bores / seals for contamination from the flaking liner I doubt there has been any significant damage.

Thirdly, you get trigger tension adjustment with the Infinity which isn't available on any Evolution model.......

The 0.15mm set up will work fine with most popular modelling acrylics, but they need well thinned & coverage with the 0.15mm really relegates it to fine / very fine work & nothing else... The FPC valve is a nice addition, but as you suspect has a pretty similar result to a flow control Q/C. To be honest, if your regulator is nearby & offers reasonable control neither the FPC or Q/C offer a dramatic improvement.

0.2 / 0.4 without a doubt. The 0.2mm nozzle set virtually offers the same detail performance as the 0.15mm set, but it's far more robust & far less fussy over what's put through it - it's a long overdue addition to the H&S line up.

As Mike suggests, Sincom 32/e (The Aztec is a rebranded Sil-Air compressor).

A light initial coat followed by a heavy coats give me the best results, the final coat being heavy enough so that it's just not running, allowing passes to be made wet on wet. Medium to Low pressure will prevent drying en-route allowing the clear to level out more easily & a large nozzle will reduce the number of passes required, reducing overspray. The car guys often have this down to a fine art, so I'm sure one will chip in.

Generally speaking when you get to somewhere between 5>10psi paint won't be atomized efficiently & you may up with a sprinkle rather than a spray. Pressure regulation is sometimes also a limiting factor if regulator control isn't too smooth - that being said, if your using a 15D the BIT regulators fitted to these operate pretty smoothly. If you're looking to minimise the volume of air/paint going through your booth, be aware that the Eclipse series flows a fair bit of air in comparison to similar airbrushes!

I would remove the filter bowl, unscrew the white filter assembly & check that everything inside is clean & that the moving parts have a light coating of grease (white grease) on them. It's not unusual for the internals to become "stuck" due to moisture or dirt. Edit:- Sorry, should have said that cycling the regulator a few times from fully open to fully closed may resolve the problem more easily.

Are you getting air without any trigger input? If that's the case, take the needle out, turn the airbrush upside down, pull the chuck back against the spring so the trigger drops out & see if you still have air leakage. If you don't it's a re-assembly issue (unlikely though), if you do still have air leaking it's possible that paint, thinner or cleaner has gotten down to the upper air valve seal & is preventing the valve from closing or the air valve is faulty / out of adjustment.

Hypothetically yes. Assuming that the airbrush is a Kustom TH or very similar, that I've got Boyle's law by the right end of the stick & that my Cray slide rule is working properly, you would get about 8>10 seconds before the tank would be depleted. Once the tanks is empty, the pump's output would give you a constant 18psi or thereabouts. The Sil-Air 30 models would be able to sustain about 30psi after the tank empties.

The maximum airflow while the tank is being refilled is more or less the output of the motor = 17 L/Min, but what pressure can be sustained is very dependant on the nozzle size being used (think syringe, high pressure & drain pipe, low pressure). While not running on tank reserve & the motor sustaining it's 17L/Min flow you are looking at somewhere around the following maximum pressure outputs at the quoted nozzle sizes; 0.2 - 50psi+ (Don't have the actual max pressure, but it's more than you will ever be airbrushing at) 0.4 - 28psi 0.6 - 18psi * The quoted maximum pressure is the maximum pressure that can be created - it's just an indicative figure & not really that useful in the real world, airflow is by far the more relevant figure. * The output will only be steady if the combination of nozzle size & set pressure gives an airflow requirement below the compressors output of 17L/Min, if the demanded airflow exceeds 17L/min, the output pressure will continue to drop until the airbrush / spraygun consumption is down to 17L/Min, when it will then remain steady at whatever the resultant pressure is. If that makes sense?

It's a re-brand of the Sil-Air 15D for Faller (different case colour & a Faller badge are the only differences), Sil-Air's are quiet & are built to last the course - there is a review of the 15D in the review section (oddly enough...) HERE I see that on another post you have enquired about a fan pattern brush / gun - the 15D would struggle to keep most fan pattern set-up's supplied with adequate air in full fan pattern, although there are a few smaller spray guns like the Iwata RG-3 which have relatively low air consumption & are fully adjustable between round pattern & fan pattern, the majority of airbrush compressors can handle guns like this in round pattern & partial fan pattern. The Iwata Kustom TH that you mention in another post is a regular airbrush that happens to have a fan pattern cap, it can be changed from round to fan by swapping the air cap over & it's a case of one or other with no adjustability between patterns, so if you find that air flow is marginal in fan pattern there isn't really any way to dial it back......

I'm no expert, but from what I do with my limited experience (compared to some around here); 1) Depends on what brand & model you go with, some easy, some difficult, some impossible. Airbrushes with a drop-in nozzle design (like H&S or Iwata Eclipse) are the easiest to swap. 2) 0.4mm + 3) 0.4mm + 4) Approx. 20psi 5) Twin piston compressors typically have a higher quoted noise rating than their direct single piston counterpart, but twins generally have a deeper & less intrusive tone that of the comparative single in the real world. 6) I generally coat with consideration to what's happening next, such as a gloss coat before decals. 7) Depends on the severity of the scratching & filling ability of the paint. Using regular hobby paint over a scratched surface will give little improvement, but using a primer or basecoat specifically designed for this type of work (like Mr Surfacer) will help significantly. It's a double edged sword though as the better the filling ability, the easier it will be to "loose" detail on the kit. 8) A long time... I don't use them very much & am no expert, but wouldn't go back within 24-48 hours 9) Very variable, but a couple of hours plus as a guideline - it all depends on the paint, thinning, depth of coat & ambient conditions. 10) Too many coats will start to obliterate surface detail, so you really want to get the job done with the minimum number of coats. 11) Yes, but it's generally water with a small amount of detergent that's used, so it's no big deal to dump it. 12) As long as the lids are airtight it shouldn't be an issue