Funny story about my first airbrush... I first started airbrushing using a Thayer & Chandler Omni 4000, which I got new on Amazon with a 10 foot Badger hose, big bottle of Badger cleaner and a full set of makeup (which I'll never use) all for $50. It all came as part of a mortuary kit!
Oh yeah, it even came with an instructional DVD on how to apply mortuary makeup.
After landing a couple more good deals on Amazon and Ebay, my airbrush arsenal included an Iwata HP-BC2 ($33, barely used), Iwata Revolution CR 4500 ($50, like new demo), DeVilbiss DAGR ($95, brand new, unopened Studio set), and Badger RK-1 Krome 2-in-1 with additional tip, spray regulator and needle ($125, brand new, still have to wait another few weeks before it ships, but I'll let you know what I think of it once it arrives).
These guns gave me a pretty good idea of the great differences among brushes. After playing with the Iwatas, I was unable to go back to the Omni. The Omni is a decent piece, but it's not great for what I want to do right now. The HP-BC2 is amazingly smooth and easy to control, but I don't really like siphon feed so I don't use it very often. I haven't had too much time to experiment with the DAGR because shortly after I got it I split the damn nozzle (a real newbie mistake on my part). Anyway, the replacement nozzle and a new needle arrived in the mail today, so I'm going to play around with it tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. From the brief experience I've had with it, I anticipate a lot of messing around with paint reduction and air pressure settings (I had a ton of tip dry to deal with, and I even had some issues when using liquid watercolors). I'm planning to use Com-Art transparent airbrush paint first. I'll shoot some Createx through it too. Moving on, I've found that I use the Revolution more than anything. It feels a little small and front heavy in my hand but I'm still able to get really good results with it. I switched out the handle with the HP-BC2 handle and it feels like a new gun. Very balanced now and much easier to hold on to. I almost never have problems or interruptions with the Iwatas, and the Revolution's large needle/nozzle allows me to get painting fast without having to tinker around with everything first in order to get nice results. The detail I can get from the Revolution is surprisingly fine, especially if I remove the regulator cap. So the takeaway I got from this small assortment of somewhat bargain priced brushes is that everything you read about Iwata ABs is probably true. They are all excellent, and they offer the user increasing levels of control and detail as you move up the various models.
In conclusion, I would have saved the most money and been most satisfied if I had just bought an Eclipse from the start. But, like many of you, I'm sure, I need to see for myself how different brushes work, and I'm sure I'll always be trying new brushes in search of the holy grail. All the while, I'll be using my Iwatas while the others collect varying levels of dust. From what I've read, I think I'll need to get an Eclipse soon. It seems to be the universal workhorse AB. I've thought about getting an HP-C Plus or HP-CH (or B+ or BH) instead of an Eclipse, mainly because I much prefer the trigger on my HP-BC2 over my Revolution's trigger (which looks much the same as the trigger on the Eclipse (and the HP Plus for that matter)).
If any of you would like to share an opinion about any of these ABs, it would help me a lot in making a decision. I would like to try out all of them, but I've got to keep my AB budget in check. I look forward to hearing from you!
One final note, because this is my first discussion on the Forum, I'm not sure this is the place for this long post about my airbrushes and AB history. If there is a better place for this type of subject matter, please let me know because I'd like my contributions to be as helpful as possible to others. Thanks again!
