Air-Craft.net Mr Hobby Procon Boy FWA Platinum Double Action Airbrush

[Mike]

Mr Hobby Procon Boy FWA Platinum Double Action Airbrush
Mr Hobby/GSI Creos Corp.

This range of good quality airbrushes has been harder to get hold of in the UK until recently, and spares were even harder to find, but our friends at Air-Craft have taken steps to rectify that and are now selling the full range on their web shop.

This is one of the mid-range brushes, and it arrives in a compact box surrounded by a cardboard outer and a sheet of acetate on the top to protect the box lid from scuffs during transit and storage, ensuring your case reaches you unblemished. The box lid hinges along the long axis, revealing the airbrush and accessories in a hard foam insert, with a softer foam underneath. The box is pretty well stocked, but some of the items won't really see use because they are proprietary and not for use with generic airbrush components. The Quick-Release (QR) screwed to the air-valve is designed for their own hoses, but under it is a standard thread, so it is easy to remove and replace with a standard part, which is what I did the moment I got it out of the box. If you don't have one, remember to add it and a suitable hose to your order, as they are extremely useful.

The box contains the following items:

• The airbrush with a rubberised cap to protect the needle and crown and proprietary QR connector fitted
• Proprietary air-can adapter
• Proprietary vinyl hose with screw connectors at either end
• 1.6mm pressed metal nozzle spanner
• Instruction booklet in Japanese, but with easy to follow cartoon drawings for anyone not fluent in Japanese
  

The airbrush has a 10ml cup built into the top of the body, which comes with a close-fitting cap with bleed hole in the centre, to ensure good paint flow and prevent the build-up of vacuum in the cup. Under the cup is a mini-MAC, a Micro Air Control valve that you can screw in and out to adjust the air pressure at the nozzle. As I seldom use this feature I have wound it out to the maximum. The protective rubbery "nodder" on the nose of the airbrush is well worth keeping for storage and to protect your airbrush during periods between uses, although the crown also fulfils that purpose to an extent. The crown screws off for cleaning or for getting extra close to your work, and can reduce any micro turbulence to give you the thinnest line possible, if you were doing squiggle camo for example. Behind the crown is the air nozzle, which also screws off to reveal the paint nozzle, which is very small, and has a pair of flats for the included spanner to remove it during cleaning. Undoing the nozzle is fiddly, so be careful not to drop the part as you will have a devil of job finding it due both its size and the fact that brass isn't magnetic.

The handle of the brush screws off to access the needle retention screw and the trigger tension adjustment, and here I usually wind the tension up to maximum to cope with my pudgy fingers. The needle is a shade under 1.4mm wide at the rear, and tapers down to a blood-drawing 0.2mm at the tip in a fairly flat taper that should give a linear increase in paint flow as you draw it back. The trigger is omni-directional, and has a long bar hinged to its bottom that actuates the air valve, so care needs to be taken when re-inserting it to make sure it seats in the pathway. To get a clear view of the hole, the spring plate can be pushed back with a fingernail or micro-screwdriver if you don't have those. If withdrawing the whole needle assembly for a deep clean or after a seal leak, you will need to beware, as it all comes apart once it is free of the airbrush body. Re-inserting it is best done with the top of the trigger plate pulled back, feeding the part down the brush so that it follows the trigger slot, and then screwing it home firmly. Inside the body is a needle seal screw that is slotted to enable it to be removed with a flat-bladed screwdriver, but as I found with my H&S Infinity, using the correct tool for the job makes that task much easier. My needle-seal tool wasn't long enough to do the job, so I took my life in my hands and used a small screw driver to examine the seal, which is Teflon based, firm and quite deep, which should give a good seal and a long lifespan, fused to the brass retaining screw as a single unit.

The airbrush is chrome finished over a brass body, like so many other airbrushes, and shares a great deal of ethos with the Iwata range, although they are definitely not just re-badged clones, because their parts aren't interchangeable. It has a weighty feel, and has a centre of mass at the trigger base without a hose attached, which makes it comfortable in the hand. When stripping or rebuilding the brush the parts feel of good quality and there is no play between the components, which should lead to a long life if correctly and thoroughly cleaned. Spares should be readily available once Martin has them up on his site, and I'll update the review when they are.

In Use
Now that I've had a chance to use the airbrush, I can say with hand on heart that I'm rather impressed. It has worked well with various paints that I have used with it, from Alclad Primer, AMMO acrylics, Gunze acrylics as well as a little LifeColor, and each time it has performed flawlessly, giving a tight spray pattern when used close in, never suffering from stoppages or a dry tip, despite the tests being done in hot weather (23-28c). Clean-up is simple, and the plating on the brush seems robust under normal use. The large base of the paint cup where the needle passes through is conducive to easy cleaning, allowing you to dabble a brush or cotton bud around the needle to disturb any stubborn paint residue. The crown has stayed clean throughout due to the tight dispersion at 1bar/15psi active pressure, although it does make blowing air back through the paint cup to clean the needle path a job for a cotton bud rather than your fingertip due to the cut-outs letting air escape past your pudgy digit. That's a minor thing however, and you'll soon get used to having one or two nearby for in-session cleaning.

What's not to like? There's a quantity of stuff left in the box that you'll never use unless you're going to track down some of Mr Hobby's proprietary air cans, but most of us will gravitate to a compressor anyway, so it's just a shame to waste that little chunk of metal and tubing. An industry standard Quick Release spear would have been more use from a personal point of view, but as they're buttons to pick up you might as well grab one if you have a suitable hose. The MAC valve built into the airbrush body is an unusual feature to me, but as I seldom use them I'm not sure whether it's a selling point or not.

The most important plus however is the airbrush's performance, and it is great. Coming from a hardened H&S Infinity user that has to be worth something, and I anticipate keeping it around to use more in future. As usual, I'll not bore you with pictures of squiggles because they don't mean an awful lot in the real world IMHO, but having managed to touch in a back-plate on one of my RC tanks recently without having to mask, I can assure you that if I can do so, almost anyone will enjoy using this brush.

Conclusion
A superb little airbrush that is relatively pocket friendly in the branded market, and is likely to give you good service for a long time. Order yourself some spares such as seals, nozzles and a needle or two while you're spending money, and you'll be able to keep spraying even if you manage to ding a needle or wear out a seal.

Very highly recommended, and with Martin's reputation for customer service and good prices, you'll be a happy modeller! Always mention Britmodeller when you get in touch.

Review sample courtesy of Martin at

[colin]

I got the next one down from this one, Procon Boy WA .3 needle,from Martin, and can honestly say for the money they are fantastic, still love my Iwata's but this comes a very close second.

The front crown caps a little longer than most airbrushes but I find I'm able to point it better somehow, also the air hose connection on the body which your fingers tend to go around is sloped slightly back which seems to be more comfortable in use.

Also it's nice to have a airbrush body without the cutaway in it (which lets you pull the needle back for flushing through without removing the body, does anyone use this feature anyway) means it sits in your hand better, well in does with my shovel hands.

The air nozzle has three outlet holes, similar the Iwata's crm range which seems to let you spray at lower pressures and still get nice paint atomization.

Mike,use the soft cover that go's over the crown cap, just slip that over if you want to blow air back for cleaning.

Sorry to add so much to your review

[Mike]

Not at all Colin - that's one of the reasons we leave them open for comment Your idea about the soft cover is genius! Why didn't I think of that? Simple. I'm not a genius... now where did I put it?

[colin]

I'm no genius either, someone told me too

[Mike]

That's how knowledge gets around. People sharing their tips, rather than keeping them to themselves

So who is this guy that knows everything then?

[Robbyrockett]

I am in love with this brush. Quality is flawless.

Aside from just being a fantastic brush (understatement) already capable of crisp clean lines the actual width of two human hairs and doing very tightly edged spray patterns of larger diameters, you can remove the head and it will accept a micron or ps-770 head assembly, the needle and needle seal need to be replaced too with the micron or 770 version as well because the 270s needle shaft diameter is larger.

 

If you also get yourself an hp-b+ needle (the 270 nozzle is already a b+)  you can then switch between the 270s .2 configuration and a .18 micron configuration whenever you feel like it without changing the needle seal.

I originally worked this out because I hate cutouts but wanted a micron or 770.

 

Edited June 2, 2018 by Robbyrockett

[Robbyrockett]

Also there is no need to remove the nozzle for cleaning ( which btw is stainless steel and not brass). Especially given that the entire head assembly is removable.

If it is initially on a little tight for the fingers, then use an 11mm wrench. After that fingers are the only tool necessary.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Robbyrockett

[Julien]

Just got one of these and very happy with it.

 

Julien

[Julien]

With regards to back flushing it seems they have thought of that.

 

While reading the instructions (sacrilege I know  ) they mention that if you loosen the nozzle cap by approx 1mm then the air will flow backwards to clean nozzle and pipe.

 

Julien

[Mike]

Just now, Julien said:

While reading the instructions

What were you THINKING?

[Julien]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

What were you THINKING?

[j_holtslander]

I just bought this airbrush and made an unboxing video if anyone is interested.

 

Deleted - Please read the link

 

[j_holtslander]

Quote

...teaser photographs inviting you to see the rest in ... YouTube channel etc.

I figured since the whole thing was embedded and playable right there in the topic without having to navigate away, subscribe, or anything, that it wouldn't be a problem. <shrug>