Initial impressions from a Badger Sotar 20/20 V

[Earnest]

Summary: A good airbrush for its job but with some peculiarities that can be a deal breaker.

 

Yesterday I had my first painting session with my new Badger Sotar 20/20 V, which I bought directly from Badger with the 2020 Birthday discount.

The V has a 0.3 nozzle / needle and a larger cup (sort of - I will explain later).

 

 

For reference, I have been an owner of an Olympos side-feed airbrush (0.3) for something like 20 years, and a Harder and Steenbeck Evolution (0.2 / 0.4) for one and a half year.

The Olympos is a great airbrush but the side feed always bothered me, and the H&S is also great but I cannot get comfortable with the position of the trigger.

Both the Olympos and the  H&S are manufactured like precision surgical instruments. 

 

Upon taking the Sotar out of the pouch it came with, two things impressed me:

 

First, how it fit in my hand. Like the shoe that you will not throw away even though it is falling apart because it is soooo comfortable. I got an immediate similar feeling from the Sotar.

 

Second, that any movement of the needle felt rougher than what I was used to. I took the needle out to find that it was well lubricated, so I attribute the roughness to the back-and-forth friction against some sealing o-ring. Which I do not consider a bad thing, given that my H&S will, when backflushed, send paint back to the trigger section.

 

During painting, the Sotar gave me good atomization, even though I noticed that I needed about 5 PSI more in all scenarios, which I attribute (probably because I am physics-illiterate) to the smaller aperture of the air inlet (which also delayed my enjoyment of the airbrush as I had to find the appropriate adapter!)

I am not a big detail painter but in my fooling around with the Sotar, it seems that details wouldn't be a problem.

 

Also, I have to point out that Badger does not provide any protection for the needle while in use and only a badly-cut rubber tube thingy like a cap for when not in use. I understand that this is a discount item but it makes the whole thing feel a little cheap.

 

What is weird in this airbrush is the cup. The Sotar V, being a more general purpose airbrush, has a bigger cup than the other Sotars. However, the cup has a cutaway on its back side from the top to half the height of the cup which makes a significant portion of the cup useless. 

 

Deal breaker: The airbrush is great so far but I will not buy another Sotar. The deal breaker is the miiiiniscule nozzle. Smaller than my H&S (of course, since H&S have comparatively huge nozzles - which was its selling point for me, compared to my Olympos) but also smaller than my Olympos which I understand is Iwata-sized and for me was already marginally too small but thankfully has two flat surfaces on its two sides that made it much more handlable. Sotar nozzle is so small that I can barely hold between my fingers - and I have normal fingers. But I also have a standing relation with the floor monster (no carpet) so I am sure that one of these days this small small nozzle will disappear never to be found again.

 

So a good airbrush for its job but with some peculiarities which can be a deal breaker.

[louiex2]

Very nice review. I love my Badger Krome and internally it is the same as the Sotar 20/20 and they use the same nozzles. I use it primarily for detail work. The nozzle size and guard are an easy fix- Badger make a 0.5 mm nozzle and also a two prong metal tip guard that will fit if damaging the needle is a concern.  I’m not sure I understand your comment about the cut away on the cup. 

 

Lou in California

[Earnest]

I will try to find photos of the cutaway

Edited September 29, 2020 by Earnest

[Earnest]

This is the cutaway at the cup

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by Earnest

[Ranger822]

I have been considering getting the Sotar V for increased detail control.  The original poster's comment about the needle is valid in terms possible damage - but as mentioned by louiex2,  Badger does provide protective arms, not just for the medium nozzle but for all three of the nozzles (0.2mm/0.3mm/0.5mm). Anyone concerned about damage will have these options.  Depending on how fine your spray detail is, you may not want those protective arms - when spraying really fine lines you may want to get really close to the paint surface and in doing so those arms might graze against the painted surface which might not be desired.  The other issue raised is regarding the paint cup cutout.  Yes it has a cutout but that cutout serves two functions.  First, most users never fill the paint cup up to the brim as in most cases the airbrush spraying angle is downward - so if you fill the cup full, the first time you angle the airbrush downward you are going to spill some paint.  So, Badger has created a cutout which kind of serves as a visual aid how full fill the paint cup for regular use.  Also, if you measure the contents of the cut at the cut out you will find it holds precisely 4.2ml just as advertised.  Let me speak to the other point of the cutout which is llikely the primary reason for its presence.  The Sotar comprises a trifecta of airbrushes which address very specific uses.  Depending on your needed level of detail and desired visual feedback as you paint, any paint cup will block some portion of your direct line-of-sight view of the painting area.  Badger's Slim model addresses this with a very minimal paint cup with virtually no direct view blocking.  The shortcoming is you only have a micro amount of paint, so this airbrush is for very minute spray applications with exceptional direct vision control.  The Sotar 20/20 has a very small paint cup but there is going to be some direct line of sight blocking of the spray area.  But, now you have more paint but not that much.   The Sotar V addresses the lack of paint for bigger requirements, but by adding more paint you lose a little more direct viewing and are forced to view your painting off-angle.  To reduce this effect Badger put a cut out on the rear portion of the paint cup, which effectively cuts the angle of viewing a little and perhaps improve ones' line of sight over a conventionally designed paint cup.  I have  the Badger 105 and its paint cup holds roughly twice the amount of the Sotar V and blocks a lot more line of site and it has no cutout.  So, I have to view my painting from the side or at an angle. Not a big deal for me, but it lacks direct line of sight.  I am not a  professional illustrator so I can't comment on how important direct line of sight is for commercial artwork but I suspect for some that is a deal breaker.   Personally, I am not completely convinced I have mastered my Badger 105 with the 0.5mm nozzle yet and I will likely continue to experiment various paint/thinner ratios and PSI until I have found the maximum performance of that airbrush configuration and then perhaps try the same with the 03mm nozzle.  Lastly, there are lots of airbrushes out there and I tend to think they are all pretty good if you can master them and use them as designed/intended.  For fine scale modeling I suspect just mastering a 0.4mm  to 0.5mm nozzle on an airbrush may be sufficient for most modeler's needs from 1/48 to 1/24 scale.

[flyboy2610]

You make some valid points, but a huge mono-paragraph is kind of hard to read. You may want to break up later posts to improve their readability.