That one airbrush that is an extension of your hand

Best performance airbrush for you!

  • Iwata

    Votes: 17 85.0%
  • Olympos

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Badger

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Paasche

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Grex

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • H&S

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sata

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Devilbiss

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Tamiya

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Mr. Hobby

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Meiji

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sparmax

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Thayer and chandler

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hansa

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Grafo

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Efbe

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Testors

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    20

mike k

Double Actioner
Hey guys I'm mike, and I want to share something that I been doing for a long while, I been testing out and buying recourse, Japanese and german airbrushes, I have olympos, mr. Hobby, iwata, holbein, meiji, harder and steenbeck, sata, etc etc and even usa airbrushes, badger rage, grex xgis2, and I'm still waiting to get a couple of more brushes to really come up with a conclusion, but as of now, I have to say for me these sata airbrushes are damn near perfect, all the brushes I have excell in their own areas, but these satas, I know they are identical to hansa airbrushes, but the performance is just wow, I have a sata 3 foose edition .25mm and these nozzle needle combo is perfect for me. I feel .2mm is just to meticulous to work with, and my sata 1 is .45 and just eats everything you put in it, I guess I want to see what everyone else thinks for themselves is the best performance airbrush for them, not the best on the market, or best finish, that one or two brushes that are an extension of your hand, just like my sata are for me, I look forward to reading your responses
 
For me Iwata and H&S . I have tried some other brushes but I like the feel and the performance of both those brands best.
Most of the airbrushes I have tried felt to light in the hand . Being I have worked with my hands for many many decades now I like a heavier airbrush than most and a stronger spring .
The softer spring just causes me to have too many blow outs.
But this is an interesting thread but I am sure most have seen don's page and his reviews on almost every airbrush made LOL
https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/
 
I've had a Micron in my hand and used it and was pretty pleased with it, however, the brush that I was most comfortable with as far as feeling good in my hand was my iwata HP-BH+ which I miss, but I am saving at this moment for another one although I want the one without the built in MAC, probably because I am left handed and how I hold my brush I frequently accidentally nudged the valve more open than I wanted it, that cost me many an artwork so I ended up attaching an eternal MAC and jammed the built in one fully open.

The Micron is a fantastic brush and well worth the price, but in my case it was just in the wrong hands, I would also like to see the micron with the same back piece as the HP-B because I thought it was nicer to look at than the anodized one, but that is just me:)
 
I agree with me micron, I'm 30 years old been working at a body shop since 18, and I like my airbrush heavy and a lot of tension on the spring, I found myself dremeling , sanding down the trigger on my airbrushes sometimes to tweak it to my finger
 
H&S Evolution, it was made for me, I simply love it!!


Enviado desde mi iPad utilizando Tapatalk
 
I do 95% off my work with only 1 airbrush the Iwata CM SB V2 it feels like a part of my hand my second airbrush has to be the Iwata HP sb+ this was my first airbrush and I used it for many years till I switched to the CM I raised the trigger a bit and would replace it with the V2 trigger if I had a spare one
 
My fiance works at an art store, and they sell iwata everything, she got me an iwata kustom th, which I love to death, and she's working in getting a micron, I have a h &s evolution cr plus, which is fantastic
 
Interesting... I didn't know Grafo was a brand of airbrush :p Of the few brushes I own, the Infinity seems to be the best so far, but I don't have a Custom Micron yet lol.
 
I only have two brushes and I love them both equally and wouldn't be without either. The micron cm-c (old version) - like a hand in a glove and the trusty old eclipse hp-cs, maybe not the 'dream' brush, but I couldn't be without it.
 
Interesting... I didn't know Grafo was a brand of airbrush :p Of the few brushes I own, the Infinity seems to be the best so far, but I don't have a Custom Micron yet lol.
Grafo and hansa were independent but harder and steenbeck bought them, so out of respect for the original people who developed them initially I made them separate, the are beautiful airbrushes
 
I've got too many to choose just one. I keep only brushes that I like, with the exception of one that I have that I would not sell, because I would feel bad for sticking someone else with it. They each have a personality of their own - and most excel at one thing or another, some are fantastic at lots of things.

Over the last 28 or 29 years, I would say that I have turned to an Iwata HP-B+ more than any other brush, and always feel comfortable using one.

With that being said, on a daily basis I may sit down with a Micron, Olympos or Iwata. A Grafo (really enjoying this one). An Olympos HP200b (fantastic little brush), any number of inexpensive imports that I have tested (and used) the heck out of - I have a PointZero 2cc brush with a .18 Micron head and needle in the holder on the edge of my table as a daily user.

If you try enough of them, you will eventually find "THE ONE", that just does it all for you - and that one brush will be different for just about everyone ;)
 
The three brushes in my sig are the ones I use regularly. None of them are perfect "all-'rounders": which one I use depends on the kind of painting I'm doing.

The HP-TH (same brush as the Kustom-TH) is the simplest to use, easiest to clean, and excels at large scale work. It also has the best atomization of the three, and is excellent with thicker paints or paints with large or irregular particle sizes. Downside is it's no good for detail. I use it for priming, base color blocking, and clear coating.

The side-feed SOTAR has the best ergonomics and the second-best atomization. I use it for when I have to do complicated stuff in a small area, as it comes closest by far to the feel of using a pen, pencil, or "hairy" brush. Downside is the fit and finish are not as nice as the Iwatas', so it's fussier to maintain. The "side-feed" distinction is VERY important: I also have a normal gravity-feed SOTAR, and the two are very different brushes both ergonomically and maintenance-wise. I never use the gravity feed one, as it has too much overlap with the easier to use and clean HP-CS, but the side feed one brings enough advantages to the table to make it distinctly better as a dedicated detail brush.

The Eclipse HP-CS is the closest to an all-'rounder of the three. If I had to pick one of the three to be my "desert island" brush, it would be this one. Better at mid-small stuff than the TH, and more easygoing to use and clean than the SOTAR. I use it for anything too complex for the TH, but not quite requiring/justifying the deftness of the SF SOTAR. Anything I can do with the SF SOTAR, I can also do with the CS, but the SF SOTAR requires less hand-eye concentration, and is faster/easier when switching colors. The CS is less strict when it comes to reduction though, and end-of-session cleaning is simpler.

There are many brushes I'm absolutely hungry to try, but I have no means to do so without buying them. There are no shops within hundreds of miles of me that carry any kind of selection or allow in-shop demoing, and airbrush classes are out of my range in both sign-up and travel costs. I'm just a hobby modelmaker, not a professional painter, so these are not expenses I can write off or that will pay for themselves. For me airbrushes are a specialty tool within my hobby, not a hobby unto themselves, so a large expensive collection of ABs is not practical or desirable for me. If I were to buy another brush at this point, It'd have to be a direct upgrade replacement for one or more of the above, not a lateral alternative.

I wouldn't call any of my brushes an "extension of my hand", exactly, but I'm comfortably set from a "needs" perspective, so unless I have the opportunity to try a given brush in person AND it really wows me, the only brushes I could see myself buying "cold" are a CM-SB (can't afford it, otherwise I would), or replacing the HP-CS with an SBS (not necessary, just "would be nice", so pretty low priority).
 
The three brushes in my sig are the ones I use regularly. None of them are perfect "all-'rounders": which one I use depends on the kind of painting I'm doing.

The HP-TH (same brush as the Kustom-TH) is the simplest to use, easiest to clean, and excels at large scale work. It also has the best atomization of the three, and is excellent with thicker paints or paints with large or irregular particle sizes. Downside is it's no good for detail. I use it for priming, base color blocking, and clear coating.

The side-feed SOTAR has the best ergonomics and the second-best atomization. I use it for when I have to do complicated stuff in a small area, as it comes closest by far to the feel of using a pen, pencil, or "hairy" brush. Downside is the fit and finish are not as nice as the Iwatas', so it's fussier to maintain. The "side-feed" distinction is VERY important: I also have a normal gravity-feed SOTAR, and the two are very different brushes both ergonomically and maintenance-wise. I never use the gravity feed one, as it has too much overlap with the easier to use and clean HP-CS, but the side feed one brings enough advantages to the table to make it distinctly better as a dedicated detail brush.

The Eclipse HP-CS is the closest to an all-'rounder of the three. If I had to pick one of the three to be my "desert island" brush, it would be this one. Better at mid-small stuff than the TH, and more easygoing to use and clean than the SOTAR. I use it for anything too complex for the TH, but not quite requiring/justifying the deftness of the SF SOTAR. Anything I can do with the SF SOTAR, I can also do with the CS, but the SF SOTAR requires less hand-eye concentration, and is faster/easier when switching colors. The CS is less strict when it comes to reduction though, and end-of-session cleaning is simpler.

There are many brushes I'm absolutely hungry to try, but I have no means to do so without buying them. There are no shops within hundreds of miles of me that carry any kind of selection or allow in-shop demoing, and airbrush classes are out of my range in both sign-up and travel costs. I'm just a hobby modelmaker, not a professional painter, so these are not expenses I can write off or that will pay for themselves. For me airbrushes are a specialty tool within my hobby, not a hobby unto themselves, so a large expensive collection of ABs is not practical or desirable for me. If I were to buy another brush at this point, It'd have to be a direct upgrade replacement for one or more of the above, not a lateral alternative.

I wouldn't call any of my brushes an "extension of my hand", exactly, but I'm comfortably set from a "needs" perspective, so unless I have the opportunity to try a given brush in person AND it really wows me, the only brushes I could see myself buying "cold" are a CM-SB (can't afford it, otherwise I would), or replacing the HP-CS with an SBS (not necessary, just "would be nice", so pretty low priority).
Where did you get the badger sotar side feed?
 
Grafo and hansa were independent but harder and steenbeck bought them, so out of respect for the original people who developed them initially I made them separate, the are beautiful airbrushes
:eek: I didn't know that... I will add that to my airbrush history knowledge :)
 
Where did you get the badger sotar side feed?

As DaveG says, you can combine parts from the 100 and SOTAR to make one (body from 100, head and guts from SOTAR). The one I have is made by Badger themselves though. It's only sold through one vendor (Casey Love Studio), due to special contract between the two. Cost is roughly the same either way.

The difference between DIYing one and buying the official one is the official one has the head assembly permanently braised/soldered to the body, and has the black SOTAR coating. IMO I'd prefer chrome over the black as it's easier to clean and more hard-wearing, but the head being permanently attached is one less potential air leak to worry about w/ no downside (a good thing, in other words).

The small cups are definitely better than the stock larger ones, and they are unfortunately out of production. They can still be found on ebay though. I have 4 of them for easy color changing. That said, if you have a way to ream out the hole to accept Iwata/Testors cups like DaveG recommends, without risking ruining the brush, that's probably worthwhile. In addition to better availability, Iwata cups will be easier to clean (the Badger ones have rough machining and soldering under the plating). It's not a mod I'd want to ghetto/redneck though: best to have a machinist do it.
 
The one I have is made by Badger themselves though. It's only sold through one vendor (Casey Love Studio), due to special contract between the two. Cost is roughly the same either way.
I tried several times to get in touch with Casey Love through his web page, over the course of a few months, to make inquiries about purchasing, but unfortunately never got a response. Not saying this is the norm, but it is what lead me to simply putting one (now 2) together for myself.
 
Yeah, my impression from my own experience back when I ordered mine, as well as the scuttlebutt I got from others on the forum at that time, is that he's not really a retail vendor. He's a contract sculptor and painter, and I think selling the brushes is just a sideline he didn't put much effort into setting up.

Apparently he mostly handles communication through Facebook. IMO that paints him as tech and business unsavvy, but he did come through where it counted in my case (in the sense of the brush arriving promptly, not communication, of which I received not even an order confirmation email). Definitely can't fault anyone for being gunshy under those circumstances though, especially if there are potentially complicating factors (like international delivery, say) involved.

It's a shame, as I feel kinda strongly that this is what the SOTAR should be by default, and this exclusive vendor deal with someone who seems only minimally interested in being a vendor is a bad deal for Badger, the SOTAR line, and SOTAR buyers.
 
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