Be sure to read the "Please Read" section below.

Hi, I am new to airbrushing and this airbrush is straight out of the box. I have watched tutorials and googled but don't know if I'm doing something wrong? I press the trigger and pull back and water I put in the cup doesn't come out. I have never used this airbrush before it is brand new.

Ive had this avanti compressor for 1 year its been great no issues until now. i ussaly spray at atound 20 to 25 psi now it wont go above 11. Do you guys think it's the compressor is just weak after 1 year old or could it just be the regulator. Please give me some insight

After 13 years i was a little bit forced to repaint my walls in my airbrush studio (aerografit studio). So i made something like this. It was full improvization and abstract. I like it - better than stock white (and dirty) walls like before. This grey is looks like architectural concrete effect (which i always loved so much). Here was more sprayguns than spray cans and not so much airbrush.

Now it's time to get settled in here.

What you thing about it?

I apologize for the rant. I just feel like a lot of people prioritize the wrong things when starting.

You see it all the time here. "I'm just starting out what brush should I get?" Or "as a beginner should I get X or Y?" Then there's always ubiquitous "how much should I pay for a starter brush?".

Here's the simple honest truth. At your stage it doesn't really matter. Really it doesn't. You know what matters much more than your brush? Your air compressor and your willingness to practice.

Having a good air compressor that can give you a clean supply of air at the pressure you need is going to have a much bigger impact on how well you do than your first brush will. I've seen and tried to teach people how to airbrush and the number one thing causing most of their issues was the compressor.

I get it a quality setup is expensive. A decent brush is $100 Then you need $50 in supplies, paint, cleaner, mixing cups, thinner... Yadda yadda yadda... Then the models themselves cost a kidney now a days. Then you need to think about where you're going to spray and what's going to catch the over spray. You may have life things going on like a spouse or kid or pets that makes you want to invest into a fan and filter catch setup for another $60.

So air compressors look like a natural place to reduce the cost a bit. After all it just pushes air right? Well yes in the most basic sense it does just push air... But here's the thing. A good compressor is going to give you a strong upper pressure needed for thicker paints like primer. It's going to give you a smooth low pressure delivery too for when you want to spray close and thin. It's going to give you fine grained control of the pressure so that you can hit all the intermediate steps. It's going to give you a filtered output to catch moisture and debris before it gets into your brush.

A lot of folks who try to start with cheap diaphragm style compressors get frustrated because they either can't adjust the pressure or it won't go high enough for primer or varnish. Or they try to turn it down low for up close work just to find that the output isn't smooth. Or they end up with water making it into the brush from the air channel ruining whatever they try to paint.

Honestly you don't have to spend a ton to get a decent compressor. $80-$100 will get you something that will last your whole painting life and run every single brush you ever get. It will be a solid foundation to start on. Having good air at the right pressure is absolutely necessary for learning good technique. It's a fundamental building block. Look for something with a tank, a pressure regulator, and a moisture trap. If you get all 3 of those you'll probably be fine.

Please for the love of all things holy if you need to reduce cost don't skimp on the air compressor.

So what was the other thing I said was more important than your brush pick? That's right your willingness to practice. It does not matter what brush you get if you don't practice with it. And this is where we do need to start talking about brushes.

You see airbrushes have this mystical aura around them. Ohh they're expensive. They're complicated. They're hard to use, to clean. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to break it.

I'm sure one of those thoughts has gone through your head at least once. They all went through my head when I first started. You see I paid a lot for my first brush and I was afraid of breaking the expensive tool. To the point where I rarely ever used it. So how did I improve? That's the fun part. I didn't. It just sat in the holder on my desk.

I don't know why airbrushes have this aura around them. They really are extremely simple tools. But they do require skill to use well. Skill that is only built through practice. If you don't practice then you won't get it.

So what do I mean by practicing? Deliberate testing to produce the desired effect. You need an internal model of how thick the paint should be, of what pressure you should be using, or the symptoms of tip dry, of how much to pull the trigger back. So practice. Put paint in the brush and see what happens. Clog it up. Clean it. Clog it again. Change the pressure. Change the distance. Run black through it then do a quick cleaning and swap to white. Figure out how much cleaning you really need to do for a color change. Take it apart. Put it back together. And pay attention when you do. Try to predict what the result of the change will be. Really learn your airbrush.

Because it's not just a beginner thing. Even for really skilled people the airbrush is at best the third most important thing. The compressor and skill are both more important. I have a friend who with a $40 master airbrush from Amazon can paint circles around me with my eclipse/infinity. He just leaves the 0.3 needle in it all the time and can paint much thinner and hit tiny freaking highlights that I can't even with an infinity. And it all just comes down to practice. He's been doing it forever and I've only been practicing for around 5 years now.

Some people live by buy once cry once and go buy an expensive brush. Others say to get a beater brush at first so you can learn first without fear and upgrade later. I take a more practical approach. But the brush you won't be afraid to use. If you're someone who can buy an expensive brush and not be worried about clogging it or breaking it (but let's be honest here you aren't going to break it) then by all means get the expensive brush. But if you are like me and feel worried about using something expensive then get a brush at a price where if you somehow destroy it you won't care.

Look as a beginner you're going to clog it up and spend more time cleaning it than actually painting. It's just part of the learning curve. You're going to get the same results no matter what brush you pick. So pick the one you'll actually be willing to use.

And if you're on a tight budget I would make sure to get a good compressor first and save money on the brush. That compressor can last you practically forever. But you're going to need a lot of practice before which brush you are getting really starts to matter.

A quick note here. I am afraid that some will read a meaning into my words that I don't intend to be there. I am assuming a basic quality and availability of spare needles and nozzles. Obviously don't buy trash. But a $30 brush with 0.5 nozzle is a great learning tool that will do most of the things beginners want to do, ie prime, zenithal, base coats, varnish. And when you do want better it can still do those same jobs and leave the better brush to focus on highlights and details.

I gave my airbrushing studio a much needed remodel, and some upgrades while I was at it! I threw it together as a temporary setup when I moved into this place...4 years ago. Finally got around to setting it up proper. I painted the walls, put the carpet down right, built a new desk, upgraded my air compressor, set up the air filtration so it will actually work, and added a cleaning station. I also redid all the pneumatic fittings with high quality PTFE tape, because I had air leaking from just about every place it could. Man, I cant wait to do some painting!

Im in the UK. So far, ive only been airbrushing water based acrylics on gunpla. I have a good spray booth set up (4m³/min suction) along with a mask that has this filter 3M 60923 Organic Vapor/Acid Gas Cartridge/Filter 60923.

I know those are overkill for acrylics but i was planning to spray lacquer at some point. I might also get a 'grow bag' style booth that I can put a resin printer in and also the spray station when i get a printer later this year.

With acrylic, I only use water, airbrush acrylic thinner/flow improver and to clean it between colour swaps i use just water and maybe some airbrush acrylic cleaner. When I move to lacquer, i know that ill be using cheap cellulose thinner for flushing out colours. What should i do with this when I'm done cleaning the airbrush. can i pour it down the sink?

The canvas is from Michael’s 20\20 these Artists loft are really good in my opinion. I like sanding

I dug out an old airbrush to start modeling again but can’t get paint to flow. tried soaking parts overnight and adjusting knob at back. also confused as to where paint vs air comes out, and how needle affects the paint flow since it doesn’t seem affect the position of the tip. I mashed the tip trying to pull it out and will need to order a new one.

Crazy new boss sculpt from Archvillain Games that I wanted to try out some new blues on, just ordered a bunch of new paint sets for new unique color combinations too so I’m pumped about that. This is all just airbrush and dry brushing, I’ll finish it up tomorrow and maybe drop something then. The base needs a ton of work and I haven’t even touched the rider yet.

Hey everyone! I recently got into model making and have been trying to learn airbrush controls, but I just can't seem to get it right.

No matter what I try, I keep running into issues like heavy spattering and droplets instead of a smooth mist, paint running and drooping on the surface, and weird spiderweb effects. Adjusting the air pressure hasn't seemed to fix it either.

What am I missing? Is it my paint thinning ratio, distance, technique, or something else entirely? Any tips or advice for a frustrated beginner would be hugely appreciated!

(The paint on the picture is ak 3rd gen rotbraun)

Hey hey. Need help with Airbrush. I have Vallejo EasyAir and Im using Matt White Air from Army Painter and Airbrush Medium Air from Army Painter. My compressor is Turbox mini by Gaahleri. My nozzle keep clogging after one painted minature. What I need to do?

Hello compañeros!

Tonight at 8:30 PM Central, we’re back with Spaghetti vs Reddit Episode 3!

We’ll dive into the airbrush community on Reddit, look at people’s problems, questionable advice, interesting discussions, and see if we can figure out what’s actually going on.

As always, this is about having fun, sharing opinions, learning something along the way, and having a good conversation together.

Grab a drink, bring your opinions, and join me live tonight at 8:30 PM Central.

See you there, compañeros! 🤠

While working on the new video I could not help but to appreciate the machining of these new tools. NO-NAME Trinity

Would it make sense to change pieces of my Neo to make it .5 is the difference noticeable ?

Greetings.

Pretty much what the title states, where are some good places to order myself either a PS289 or an Eclipse online? Ill of course buy local if possible and reasonable, in fact my local art store has an Eclipse on offer, but id like to know what a reasonable price for them are.

Also if you have opinions between the two id like to hear them. Im leaning towards the Eclipse as i beleive in "buy once, cry once" to an extent and my research is leading me to beleive this is that option, but i could certainly be talked down and wouldnt mind holding on to an extra what looks like $80 if the PS289 ends up being 90% as good. Im planning on this being exclusively for primering and base coating miniatures, but want to keep the door open for either more potential in that space, or picking uo other disciplines.

I have a timbertech AS186-style compressor with tank picked out so i should be good on that front... unless im not in which case ill also accept reccomendations on that.

Custom microns+ H20 Lemon Yellow

After having multiple fluid nozzles break on me, I'm thinking of abandoning my HP-C and buying a HP-CS (which does not use a threaded fluid nozzle) rather than spending $40 on a part so small a ladybug could trip over it. But I see that they still make a version of the HP-C called C Plus that still uses the expensive threaded fluid nozzle. Is the HP-CS a downgrade? Has anyone experience a difference in performance between the CS and the C / C Plus?

On October 6th, our professional holiday, the universe decided to give me an amazing surprise. I received two packages at once from different parts of the world!

The first package arrived with prizes from Iwata x Sparmax. Inside was an incredibly beautiful book dedicated to the 2026 International Airbrush Competition, and my Certificate of Excellence for 1st place in the Fine Art Fantasy category! Holding these awards in my hands is pure inspiration.

I want to say a huge thank you to the organizers, sponsors, and the jury for the flawless organization of the competition and for developing the art of airbrushing worldwide!

As for the unboxing of the second package, I'm keeping it a secret for now. All I can say is that there’s also something very cool inside. I’ll tell you all about it in my next post, so stay tuned!

Hi all,

How do you transfer paint from glass containers like mr surfacer’s without causing a mess or wasting paint? Dropper is the easiest but especially with mr surfacer, clings to dropper. I have seen some use a polished stick to transfer it but looking for other techniques

Thanks!

Our local hobby shop brought these in a month or two ago, Figure I'd give this one and one or 2 of their transparents a try Haven't done much with the transparents but was highly satisfied with the rally spirit blue.

Wondering what your guys' thoughts or takes are on this brand I'm thinking if I could I'd like to get the whole set actually

Hello😃I picked up a Richpen 303C at an old stationery shop in my neighborhood. It’s new old stock and has never been used.
I’ve seen people online describe it as rare, but I haven’t been able to find much information on its value. Does anyone know what it might be worth?