My 2p worth.....
Firstly I would 100% second
@BarryW 's comment "I would personally recommend not going cheap. Buy cheap and buy twice."
As Barry says, make sure you buy a half decent compressor WITH a tank, and make sure you drain the tank often. Depending on where your hobby room / space is located consider buying a 'BIG' compressor and siting in a garage or outside the room and run a long air line to your hobby space. This can be a real benefit with no noise inside your hobby room and with a bigger compressor such as one of the Oil Free units from Machine Mart you can use it for other tasks such as Tyre charging etc.. The Airmaster Tiger 7/260 is an ideal option for doing this... This may seem like a big investment but it will pay dividends in the longer run.
If you are just going for the hobby compressors then almost all of AS-186 style compressors use common parts and will give you a few years service. If you are looking for the long term then the better Hobby compressors such as the Sparmax TC-610H or 620X are excellent and very reliable units and spares are available (in the UK) which is not always the case for some cheaper units.
Airbrushes....Well I have lots, H&S (Harder & Steenbeck), Iwata, Iwata NEO, Mr Procon Boy, Cheap Chinese ones, Bartsharp, Badger, Paasche, a vintage Aztec Deluxe set and even a very old Humbrol /
Airfix syphon fed contraption.
Having used Airbrushes extensively when I was at work and also for modelling purposes I have collected quite a few over the years.
All of these basically work fine, but the nuances are in the little details.
With the Harder & Steenbeck ones I have the Ultra 2 +1, The Evolution 2 +1, The Infinity 2 + 1 and a Colani.
Out of all the airbrushes I have I still tend to use the H&S Ultra as my daily 'Go To' workhorse, in 0.2 set up it does 90% of what I need and easily swaps to the 0.4 set up for Stynylrez or other heavier medium primers. In fact it does work with Stynylrez (un-thinned) in the 0.2 set up, just can't lay it down quite as heavy, but works for small parts.
The Ultra works with water based and cellulose based paints (They work out of the box with solvent based paints) and the PTFE Needle seals last years, but even if you need to change them they are super cheap and easy to change without too many special tools (123933 @ £8.00 for the needle seal tool), talking about parts, in fact all H&S parts are relatively cheap when compared to Iwata spares! Some individual O rings on Iwata are over £8 each and the comparative H&S ones are 90p!!
It is super easy to clean, you can full strip it in less than a minute and have it back up running in under 2 mins.. You do NOT need any tools at all to do a full strip (except needle seal) and it does not have any fiddly small threads for the nozzle.
The cup sizes are adequate and don't have fiddly threads to clean out (the Ultra has a push in friction fit cup, some don't like this but to me as an engineer it is simple and it works, so why change it!).
Mine is converted to the H&S 'Pinch tip' (Part 126784 for the 0.2 and 126794 for the 0.4) this is just my personal preference and is in no way essential, but I like it for back flowing when cleaning as it just makes life that little bit easier.
The new V2 needles are easy to identify and seem to work even better than the original ones, though I would say that is very subjective to tell the difference.
It is very worth noting that many of the parts in H&S Airbrushes are common right the way throughout the entire range, the needle and nozzle are exactly the same in the Ultra and the Infinity CRPlus.. So in real terms the working parts are the same from the entry level brush up to the top of the range, its just the bells and whistles or surface finishes and looks that differ..
John sells them and he keeps the spares...
On a final point, the air hose can make quite a difference in practice in using an
airbrush, I find the thick and heavy fabric covered / braided ones to be a pain, too heavy and not very flexible, even the expensive ones and I often end up in a tangle around table legs or stuff on the bench. I much prefer the simple but good quality H&S air hose and fittings, this is simple high quality clear 6mm OD tubing with the H&S fittings. This is light weight and flexible, does not restrict your movements and you can see inside the tube if you are getting any moisture carry over.
I hope my ramblings help in your decisions.. Model On..
