Inspire H2O review

haasje dutchairbrush

Air-Valve Autobot!
Inspire h2o test.

I got a bottle of black and white to try from the local airbrush shop and thought I'd share my experience with this paint for those who are interested.

1st of I'm not sure if this paint is meant as a waterbased replacement for their eurothane based paints. From the description I got from the shop it should be, but on their site I couldn't find anything about it. I tested it as though it would be a custompaint replacement though.

As a surface I used a metal mockup hood I was using for true fire lessons.


I started with the white straight out of the bottle in my CM-SB at about 1,5-2 bar. This just didn't flow I got the occasional splotch of paint but this wasn't workable. As expected when it doesn't flow there was a lot of tipdry (needle was just coated in paint). I had to thouroughly clean the gun to get it to shoot water again.

The CM-C (0.23 instead of the 0.18 of the SB) had the same problem.

Next I reduced the paint about 1:1 (with water, I didn't have acces to their reducer). The paint now flowed but the amount of tipdry made it impossible to paint with.

Reducing the paint about 1:2/1:3 got the paint flowing nicely I did need to reduce the airflow a lot though to prevent only painting spiders. In the photo below I tried checking how fast it would cover the black the left was at "normal presure" for which the paint was clearly too reduced. On the right I reduced the pressure and build it up a tad slower. The black was covered in 3 or 4 go's (which I find reasonably fast for a waterbased white). Also it has a nice spray patern.

patern.jpg


With the same paint I started working on a quick skull. The paint kept flowing nicely painting more close up and doing detail work I did experience some tipdry but less than I'm used to with eurothane white's (Inspire and HOK).

Layers build up nicely and quickly for the amount of reduction and where comparable to using eurothanes. Detail work was no problem although I had to keep the airpressure low to avoid getting spiders. Like I said I used water to reduce the paint this might be less of a problem when using their reducer.

When I had the white in I wanted to test the black but before doing that (as I am testing this as custom paint) I thought I'd have a look on how it would hold up to a tag rag and degereaser. The tag rag was no problem but the moment I used degreaser (HOK KC-20) I just whiped of the paint.

To the left and right of the skull I had used inspire eurothan to do some flames which had also been whiped with degreaser without a problem so I don't think this was up to the prep work.


degrease.jpg

The right is before the degrease the left after a quick whipe.

As I do want to be able to degrease my work this was basicly the end of the test painting wise for me. If this paint is not meant as a custom paint this woudn't be a problem but than I would have tested it differently and checked other characteristics (erasability etc).

The last thing I noticed when cleaning my airbrush when I was finished is that this paint when drying up forms a bit of a rubbery film (bit like createx t-shirt paint). It could be this was due to me using water as reducer but it is something I get nervous about as I don't want stuf like that to end up in the nozzle.


For a water based paint on a metal surface the paint covered the black quickly and had a nice spray pattern eventhough I had to reduce it quit a bit. Detail work was no problem, there was a bit of tipdry but no more than I'm used to when using white (less even than with eurothanes).

20-01-16 edit:

I just came acros this one again and as I by now have painted a bit more with this paint I thought it prudent to add a little update.

When I did the first review I for one reason or another was under the impression this paint was meant to replace the solvent range and this had to be "safe to use" on custom work. As this is not the case and this paint is meant for "ilustration" work the whole part of how it stands up to degreaser is invallid.

This paint also contains a solvent and thus should always be reduced using the inspire h2o reducer. Using normal water seemed to make the paint dryup in a kind of chewing gum substance at the bottom of my cup. Eventhough it does take a bit before this happens this will probably one time or another result in colgged nozzles.

I now have used the black as well as the white from this brand, my thoughts about the white can be found above.

As for the black, it more or less handled the same as the white in that it needed a pretty high amount of reduction (1:4) to get it to flow nicely through a CM-SB. It did go through at lower reduction but the amount of tipdry I had with that was too much for me to work comfortably with.

At a 1:4 reduction the paint did preform nicely for small detail work. The coverage at a bit more distance became a bit grainy though. Where the white did cover nicely I had a bit more problem with the black here. he solution would probably be a bit less reduction but I like it when I can get a nice clean coverage even with a highly reduced paint even when it takes me serveral passes to get there.

The black felt a bit pigment heavy and grainy to me.

Overall I liked the white more than I did the black. I must stress though that I thusfar only worked with the black and white which are always difficult collors when it comes to airbrushing. I hope to try the colors in the near future as that would give a better overall impression of the paint.
 
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Great review of the paint Haasje. Thanks :thumbsup: I always find it interesting to read about other products on the market even if I'd probably never use them.
 
Thanks,Hassje.
Always worthwhile finding out about different stuff than you're used to.
You never know when something like this will be useful.
Might be just the thing for your next work.
 
I got hold of some of the reducer for this paint. Mixed the paint 1:1 and tried how the paint stood up to the use of degreaser but the effect remained the same.
 
I think KC20 is waterbased.
So over waterbased paint it just dilute the paint even more and wipes it of.

I mistakenly did it on a panel i did with tridend. Same issue.
 
Nice review. Very informative. I was talking to sales reps at a car show in march and he was trying his hardest to promote this paint to me. So I been looking for more info about it
 
Inspire waterbased H2O (Black Smoke) test. Iwata Micron SB. Paint : reducer = 1 :15. The ruler is in centimeters. Left paint in airbrush for 3 hours and continued spraying after that without any problem whatsoever. Impressed with this paint.


Inspire test 2.jpg
 
Absolutely Ignis, although there is always a hugh difference between black and white paint, the black is amazing, simply the best waterbased paint I have ever used. The white is always harder whatever brand u use. I always try to use the white of the background but thats is not always the case with custom painting.
Offtopic I hope to get started painting in a while after this longgg break...
 
For several things I found a vintage zeiss loupe glasses. The kind dentist and watch makers use. I use them with the nozzles for my Efbe's. if you know Efbe airbrushes, you know the mini nozzle in these detail brushes. Just 4X is plenty mag. so I can clean perfect, with an old needle and some alchohol. Used the way you fasion.
Spirit must enter the inside of the nozzle but all air inside the nozzle, must be replaced with alchohol. After halve hour, soluted old paint, can be "pumped" out with an old needle., it's much dry paint a nozzle can hold. The loupe brillen are wonderfull for this delicate task. And you are positive sure no, abs. no old paint are left.

lupebrillen.jpg
 
For several things I found a vintage zeiss loupe glasses. The kind dentist and watch makers use. I use them with the nozzles for my Efbe's. if you know Efbe airbrushes, you know the mini nozzle in these detail brushes. Just 4X is plenty mag. so I can clean perfect, with an old needle and some alchohol. Used the way you fasion.
Spirit must enter the inside of the nozzle but all air inside the nozzle, must be replaced with alchohol. After halve hour, soluted old paint, can be "pumped" out with an old needle., it's much dry paint a nozzle can hold. The loupe brillen are wonderfull for this delicate task. And you are positive sure no, abs. no old paint are left.

View attachment 36867

I may be missing something here, but what does this have to do with the attributes of Inspire H2O airbrush paint of which someone has gone to grate trouble create a very informative review? I can see the relevance of Ignis's post since it is naturally confirmation of the original findings of Haasje, but you seem to have turned a review into another antique/gadget discussion which has now relevance at all.

Out of respect for others, I will generally never post a photo or any other media onto another persons thread unless it has been invited or has some relevance to the original content of the thread.

I am not by any means having a poke at you but I suspect you will automatically think I am, that's fine, but when you have something interesting to share, you are perfectly entitled to start your own threads, this would probably provide you with more positive feedback to your subject matter:)
 
"The last thing I noticed when cleaning my airbrush when I was finished is that this paint when drying up forms a bit of a rubbery film (bit like createx t-shirt paint). It could be this was due to me using water as reducer but it is something I get nervous about as I don't want stuf like that to end up in the nozzle."

If you given up getting the dry paint out of a nozzle, and don't want to buy a new just becaurse it is totaly blocked by dry paint, there are more than one way to do it.
 
I just came acros this one again and as I by now have painted a bit more with this paint I thought it prudent to add a little update.

When I did the first review I for one reason or another was under the impression this paint was meant to replace the solvent range and this had to be "safe to use" on custom work. As this is not the case and this paint is meant for "ilustration" work the whole part of how it stands up to degreaser is invallid.

This paint also contains a solvent and thus should always be reduced using the inspire h2o reducer. Using normal water seemed to make the paint dryup in a kind of chewing gum substance at the bottom of my cup. Eventhough it does take a bit before this happens this will probably one time or another result in colgged nozzles.

I now have used the black as well as the white from this brand, my thoughts about the white can be found above.

As for the black, it more or less handled the same as the white in that it needed a pretty high amount of reduction (1:4) to get it to flow nicely through a CM-SB. It did go through at lower reduction but the amount of tipdry I had with that was too much for me to work comfortably with.

At a 1:4 reduction the paint did preform nicely for small detail work. The coverage at a bit more distance became a bit grainy though. Where the white did cover nicely I had a bit more problem with the black here. he solution would probably be a bit less reduction but I like it when I can get a nice clean coverage even with a highly reduced paint even when it takes me serveral passes to get there.

The black felt a bit pigment heavy and grainy to me.

Overall I liked the white more than I did the black. I must stress though that I thusfar only worked with the black and white which are always difficult collors when it comes to airbrushing. I hope to try the colors in the near future as that would give a better overall impression of the paint.
 
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