I don't know how many of you use airbrushes, but I have found them useful. I do a lot of HO/ 1/76, and 1/72 kits for gaming as well as 1/144 aircraft. While a can of Testers spray will handle a lot of items, camouflage patterns look better with an airbrush. The other advantage is the greater range of colors. I have used airbrushes on items down to micro armor, to do base colors on 15mm figures and to do maps. One campaign I ran featured a map painted on an old bed sheet, done mainly with an airbrush. There are three basic types to consider. The Mini Spray Gun, the External mix Airbrush and the Internal mix Airbrush. One thing to consider is that you don't have to have a compressor to use these. There are cans of propellant, and adapters to run them off spare tires. I used the spare tires from a race car for years. I have now gotten fancy and use a $20.00 tire inflator and a $20.00 air tank. Both have other uses around the house. The Mini Spray Gun is not properly speaking an air brush. Both Badger and Testers/Aztec make them for about $8.00-10.00. They spray a pattern about 1-1 1/2 inches wide, and have one adjustment, on the paint nozzle, which tunes it to the air pressure and paint consistency you are using. It uses a 1oz glass jar to hold the paint. It's main advantages are, cheap, very easy to use, and very easy to clean. If it clogs an old paper staple fits the feed hole perfectly as a cleaning tool. You just screw the I oz bottles on, spray your paint, and put a bottle of thinners on and spray some thru to clean the paint nozzle. The disadvantage is there is no more control than a spray can so far as fine patterns or lines. I use acrylics and there is no problem spraying them. I even spray the women's craft squeeze bottle paint from this unit, as well as thinned down tube paint. The two actual air brushes are the internal and external mix types. These can be either single action, where your trigger controls only the air flow, and a separate adjustment controls the paint flow, or double action where the same trigger controls both air and paint. I am told both that you can do amazing things with a double action, and some people have a hard time using them. I haven't tried one yet so I can't say. The trigger on the double action brush moves in two directions, up and down and for-ward and back. So far the single action has been able to do all I want. I had a Badger internal mix that lasted for over 20 years. Then it developed an internal air leak. I am sure I could fix it or get it fixed but haven't as yet. I had a chance to purchase a Pacche on sale around the same time my Badger developed the leak.. It is an external mix. Internal mix brushes have a needle to control the paint flow and the paint and air mix inside the brush and then come out a central orifice. They seem to be a little more precise as to hitting right where you aim. They are more likely to clog if you have some grit in the paint, and take longer to disassemble and clean. My Badger only used one paint bottle, a 1 oz size. Other models will also take smaller bottles. External mix are quicker and easier to clean, and mine came with three needle/orifice sets, for different weight paints. With the Badger internal mix this was handled by resetting the needle. Both types allow you to set the width of your pattern and how heavy the paint comes out. Changing colors: to some extent you can just shoot thinner thru and change colors, but this works better if you go from dark to light, within similar colors. I wouldn't try going from red to white without cleaning the brush. Testers has come out with a plastic air brush with internal mix and quick change tips with the needle built in. I bought one for $30.00 at Walmart. They claim easy cleaning, and no clogging. It is easy to clean, but it will clog. Clogs are easy and quick to clear. The unit is very light and they have a wide range of color bottles. The unit will take regular paint bottles, both the large 1oz and the smaller Polly S 1/2 oz, and also several small color cups. Small color cups are handy if you want to mix special colors and don't want to have a bunch left over to throw out or store. It is a good serviceable unit and has a great price. I am not sure I like it as well as the Pacche or Badger but that could be because it is so light, where the other two have a substantial feel in your hand. I expect as I use it more I will grow more fond of it. Paint As I said I use acrylics. These are reputed to be more difficult to work with than oil solvent paints. Thinking back to 20 years ago when I began using them, the solvent based were easier to use, and you had more lee way on cleaning immediately. But I prefer the acrylic, for health reasons and because water doesn't smell up my work room and paint solvent does. That said, some care and experimentation has to be done. As I said some of the squeeze bottle paints will spray OK, some won't. Some come out grainy or clog the brush. Some will only stick to porous material ( such as old sheets) Fine Scale Modeler published an article in Nov 97 testing the various acrylic model paints. I have had good luck with Testers, Poly Scale and AeroMasters. I prefer AeroMasters at the present time. In any case, it can pay to strain your paint thru a couple thickness of old nylon stocking before trying to airbrush it. I will admit, I seldom bother with Testers or AeroMasters, but always do with paint meant for brushing. This would include Howards Hues, Delta and the rest of the women's craft paints. I have found I get good results at 25-35 lb pressure, and my air tank will let me paint the average 1/72 plane kit without a recharge. I clean the air brush by first shooting plain water thru it. Then I pull the plastic paint tube and wipe it off, and run a pipe cleaner thru it. Then I shoot some 1/2 and 1/2 water and rubbing alcohol thru. Then I dissemble and clean the spray head with pipe cleaners, rags and alcohol. Then I resemble and shoot alcohol thru, followed by plain air to dry it. It takes longer to describe than do. Actual techniques are described in the instructions with the air brushes. In general, start your spray before you get to the point you want to paint and keep moving. It is something you have to do to learn. Try your first experiments on bond paper rather than models. Back to MWAN #97 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com