Dirt cheap for rough look?

I know a compressor is something one might not want to compromise on, but I have an image in mind that would need the spotty look that many airbrush artists try to avoid.
I've even considered the ancient reed/straw technique, but would prefer a *little* control.
Would definitely be incorporating ye olde thumb on paint loaded toothbrush tactic as well.

So, hold off until I can afford and Eclipse, or would a really cheap airbrush perhaps be better in this case?

Personally I would never waste my time on a cheap air brush, put the money towards the savings for the Eclipse. Whether your a carpenter, a mechanic or whatever else your work is only as good as the tools you use.

What look are you trying to achieve? Speckled or similar?

If you're hoping to buy an eclipse I would wait. You likely won't use the cheap brush again after you get the eclipse so that is money wasted. Plus the eclipse will do the distressed/grungy thing if you need it to, but maybe not a cheap brush. As you said, you do need some control (and possibly more than you think depending on what you're going for), with a cheap brush there's no guarantee you'll get that. They are so hit and miss, you could get one that's ok for a while, or one that's unusable, or maybe something in between. If you're getting an eclipse anyway, buying something cheap that may not be up to what you need is a waste.

Hmmm.... it makes sense.

How do you cut down the atomization though on an internal mix? I mean, they are designed to provide as smooth a result as possible, right?

What type of effect are you trying to create?
"The spotty look" could mean many things

There's lots of different ways to get a variety of spots, splatters etc. You can lower your pressure, crimp your airline, take the head cap off, bounce the paint off something by holding it in front of the brush, let paint build up a bit and flick the trigger. You can also spray through different materials for various textures, or even make some masks, or just freehand paint it on. Usually a variety of the above gives a good effect.

There are good deals out there. I just got another HP-BCS on ebay for $63.

I forget about e-bay a lot of the time. will check there.

I know I go against normal convention in this department - but, here goes anyway!

I have done an extensive amount of work with inexpensive brushes, even though I also have some "good" brushes. I have a bunch of information documented in a FB page, including a write up on why I generally don't recommend one to a newbie. The page is DaveG's Airbrush Exploration (https://www.facebook.com/davegs.airbrush.exploration/) Once on the page go to the tab called "photo's". From there, hit the "album" tab, and then "show all". If you click on each picture in each album, there is information tagged to almost all of them...

With the understanding up front, that purchasing an inexpensive brush can be a gamble ( I too usually recommend something along the lines of a Badger 105 or an Iwata Eclipse to beginners) these are some of inexpensive imports that I have chosen to keep, and use regularly - the most expensive was $46, most in the $21-$25 range


Creating textures with an airbrush is part of what makes them so fun to use! There are lots of ways of doing it, some of which has already been mentioned in this thread. Check out the tutorials associated with this forum, by looking all the way up at the top of the main page, and following the link - there is some interesting and fun stuff to be found there as well.

Here are a couple of quick examples of textures produced using just the airbrush - that background was done by forcing the brush to spit by pinching the hose, and then rocking the trigger and releasing a little air. Used just an air blast to create some direction to the texture when the paint was wet, and I also used a paper towel to remove some of the paint from the surface of the synthetic paper I worked on.


While the colors on this one may distract from how much texture there really is in this piece, it was all airbrush. Most of it was done by stippling, either by pinching the hose, or reducing the air pressure to get the result I was after. There was some stencil work also done in this, using FX texture effects from Artool -



Good luck on your quest! Will be looking forward to watching your progress.

Thinking à Eclipse whit à spatter cab.

Eclipse's don't have 'splatter caps'

Airbrush tutor had a video on splatter, hang on I'll hunt it down.

If you have a picture of what you're trying to achieve we can guide better

Personally I really don't see the point of splatter caps, it's so easy to get splatter anyway if you want to - but I guess some folks like them. But there isn't one for the eclipse that I'm aware of.