Just Bought A Suction Type Airbrush

[Tijuana Taxi]

Just bought a suction type airbrush from a secondhand/pawnbroker /cash converter type place.

Not sure why I bought it really, never owned or even used one before.

Seemed like a good idea at the time and looked like a relative bargain. so went for it

 

Think it might come in handy for all over primer type coats and have had a vague idea about doing some airbrush art.

Any tips from owners of these airbrushes would be much appreciated, model is an Iwata Eclipse Series HP-BCS 

 

Thank you

Edited November 12, 2021 by Tijuana Taxi

[dogsbody]

I bought a Badger 150 suction type well over 30 years ago and never really used it, other than a few practice runs. Last year I got it out, did some practice runs again, then used it on my Airfix 1/72 Hurricane. The airbrush worked great, but I suck at using it. 

About my only advice would be to mix the paint and thinner in something, then pour it into the airbrush cup. If you have the option of bottles, you can mix the paint/thinner in that.

 

My unit:

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Black Knight]

In my experience you need to thin the paint more than for a gravity feed a/b and you need more air pressure and more free air delivery from your compressor

One way of using it is to use a smaller container inside the main bottle, then you don't need loads of thinned paint

[Tijuana Taxi]

Thanks to both of you, I have bought some small jars to save wasting paint.

Will also turn the pressure up a bit and make sure the paint is properly thinned.

 

Hope it works out, many small jars of various colours seems like a good idea.

[dogsbody]

On my rig, the compressor runs at about 30 psi when the airbrush air valve is closed. When open, I get around 12 psi. .

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Tijuana Taxi]

9 hours ago, dogsbody said:

On my rig, the compressor runs at about 30 psi when it airbrush air valve is closed. When open, I get around 12 psi. .

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris

Do you adjust the regulator with the airbrush trigger depressed?

My gravity fed Iwata runs at about 18-20 with the valve open and approx 30 with it closed

[dogsbody]

9 hours ago, Tijuana Taxi said:

 

Thanks Chris

Do you adjust the regulator with the airbrush trigger depressed?

My gravity fed Iwata runs at about 18-20 with the valve open and approx 30 with it closed

 

I haven't been able to do any adjustments on that regulator at all. I should be able to, but nothing changes. As it's about as old as the airbrush and compressor, I'm not sure if something inside just died of old age or not. I did buy another one a couple years ago, but the instructions are quite vague about which side is the inlet and which is the outlet and there's nothing on the regulator itself. 

As what's already on the compressor seems to be putting out 12 to 15 psi, the airbrush works great. All I have done so far is this 1/72 Hurricane. I didn't finish it because of some bad masking on my part and applying too much paint in some places. Also, it was September last year when I did it and had to shut down spraying for the winter. As I use a fan to remove airborne paint from my basement room, I had to close the windows to keep the freezing cold out of the room.

 

 

 

Also, I ran out of the Gunze-Sangyo Dark Earth paint I had used and couldn't get anything else that matched. Then my mojo faded.

 

 

 

Chris

[Tijuana Taxi]

I reckon if it ain't broke don't fix it with regard to your compressor/regulator.

Maybe your mojo will return with the warmer days, can see how freezing cold could dampen ones enthusiasm.

 

Bought my very neglected compressor on eBay for not much cash and refurbished it.

Works very well albeit only for about 30-40 minutes before the thermal cut off kicks in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Tijuana Taxi

[Tijuana Taxi]

Here is my compressor looking very sorry for itself in the eBay photo

My wife cleaned the filter/regulator and all the shiny parts up a treat with some Autosol
I rubbed the heat sink down and resprayed it with a can of Jenolite Satin Black.
Cleaned up where possible internally, replaced the intake filter and bought some new screws, washers and bolts.

Works a treat, never misses a beat and will do me nicely for now

 

After

 

[dogsbody]

My compressor.

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[nheather]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:31 AM, Tijuana Taxi said:

Just bought a suction type airbrush from a secondhand/pawnbroker /cash converter type place.

Not sure why I bought it really, never owned or even used one before.

Seemed like a good idea at the time and looked like a relative bargain. so went for it

 

Think it might come in handy for all over primer type coats and have had a vague idea about doing some airbrush art.

Any tips from owners of these airbrushes would be much appreciated, model is an Iwata Eclipse Series HP-BCS 

 

Thank you

A good start is that this is a very good airbrush.

 

My best advice, but I appreciate that it may not be possible, is to get someone who has airbrush skills to test it. Starting out as a beginner with an airbrush can be pretty daunting because there are so many variables that can result in a poor result

• Paint consistency - is it thinned correctly
• Air pressure
• Spraying distance
• Technique
• Microscopic damage
• Microscopic dirt
• Minute air leaks

If a beginner picks up a brush for the first time and doesn’t get good results it can be bewildering to know what is the cause.

 

So if at all possible I cannot recommend enough getting someone with experience testing your new airbrush - the good news is that you have bough an excellent airbrush so build quality should not be an issue (unlike with the Chinese clones) but the brush is second hand so it could be damaged or dirty.  Having someone experienced test it can rule out any physical issues and then at least you know that it is then down to your technique which can be learned relatively easily and quickly.

 

When you know you have a working airbrush, start on some cheap or scrap models - better to learn by mistake on them than on your expensive pride and joys.

 

Watch YouTube - there are plenty of great tutorials.

 

Primers - one thing to bear in mind with primers, they are often quite thick with large pigments, so thinning is really important, some brands (like stynlrez and ultimate, which is the same stuff) actually specify a 0.4mm nozzle/needle as minimum.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

 

[Tijuana Taxi]

Thanks Nigel, all good advice and I wasn't aware about those two primers being the same product.

 

I should have made it clearer and said it was the first suction type airbrush I have owned.

Not that i'm very experienced, but I do also have  a gravity fed Iwata HP-CH with a 0.3mm needle.

 

Got this one mostly out of curiosity (plus it was cheap) and with the 0.5mm needle thought it might be handy for thicker mediums like primer.

Apart from a few what look like plier marks around the nozzle cap it appears pretty new, can't imagine its been used more than a handful of times.

 

As you suggested I have bought a cheap couple of kits from Amazon to see how my primer technique works out.

Very confusing though some say to thin, others not, same with air pressure, some say go higher others don't.

 

I usually use Vallejo Model Air with a drop or two of flow improver which works fine with the smaller needle size.

Primer has until now gone on by hand, but hoping to speed things up a bit with this new acquisition