Scale Modeler Dopers - What's a good aribrush?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Getting back into plastic modelling after a 20 year gap and I need a decent airbrush.

Got any reasonably priced (<$100) favorites?

2

I have a Badger 350 that I haven’t used for about 20 years, and I don’t know if that model is even made anymore.

A large part of the model railroading world swears by Azteks when using acrylic paints, but I have no personal experience with either one.

3

I’m not an expert, and opinions vary widely, so I would suggest you visit The Atlas model railroad forum and search on airbrush, where you can read the opinions of some folks who use theirs a lot.

4

There is also www.trainorders.com, if you’re interested in model railroading. They’re a pay site, however…

5

if you’re getting back into airbrushing after 20 years, then probably the standard workhorse of the hobby, the Badger 200 (NOT the 200-20) is good for you.
Single action yes, but that’s OK since model air-brushing is more like miniature spray painting (which a single action is like) which doesn’t really require fades, shading, shadows, etc that a double action is necessary for.

http://walthers.com/exec/productinfo/165-2001 to see one…

  • Note: you can do much better on the price…
6

Just a note: the Badger 200-20 is designed for fine work only.
The Badger 200 (the standard model; there are different 200 models for say fingernail painting, etc) has different tips and needle combo so you can do very fine work (like adding weathering rust streaks to a damaged truck chassis) or heavy duty work (like painting a trailer van model Testor Metallic Steel or a 50’ PS-1 boxcar red) - yes, you have to change the tips/needles manually, of course, but this is easy, as is cleaning the 200.
The 200 is quite sturdy, as ones I have had in the past have made the journey to “concrete floor land”, with no apparent damage in looks and no problems in operation.

The basic selling point of the Aztec was it was even easier to use than the Badger 200. Not sure about that…

7

This is more a matter of opinion than fact, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

8

Thanks for everyone’s help.

As it stands now, I’ll probably go with the Badger 200.