Review: Central Pneumatic Airbrush

[SgtM]

So, thanks to our resident airbrush guru, Commando, I've been wanting to get into airbrushing. Not only does he do come cool shizzz, but it looks like a lot of fun. Well, I've had my eye on this one from Harbour Freight for a while. It's like $13.00 or something. I figure, it's perfect to start out with. Inexpensive, and perfect for light projects.

What you get in the kit

• Airbrush
• Wrench
• 5cc cup
• 22cc jar
• Hanging bracket

My dad also gave me a compressor from a kit that he's had for a while but doesn't do anything with.

Paints. I can use acrylic, enamel, or urethane. I found acrylic paints at hobby lobby tonight for $0.60 each for 2oz. I got black, white, silver, sapphire metallic blue, royal blue, and red. Of course through mixing, that give me a lot of color choices.

I sprayed some test pieces to check things out, but I definitely don't have any idea on mixing ratios yet. Since I'm using acrylic right now, I can simply dilute with water. I'll be hitting up commando's web site for some pointers.

More pics of the airbrush:

Watch for some cool projects real soon.

[OvRiDe]

Sweet deal.. looks great too! Is the airbrush a single or dual action brush?

Also looking forward to seeing urz artz!

[Greco101]

Gaw... all this talk about airbrushing makes me wanna hop on the bandwagon too. To start, I'd probably only be using single colors... no matter what, they always put out way sexier coats than rattle-cans.

My dads buddy was self taught and within a couple years was making hundreds of dollars a week (1 day a week) as slot car meets.

[SgtM]

Sweet deal.. looks great too! Is the airbrush a single or dual action brush?

Also looking forward to seeing urz artz!

Good question, and I forot to include it. It's dual action.

@greco.. MUCH more control than rattle cans. Mixing > me right now though.

[NightrainSrt4]

Is this the one? Harborfreight

You def have to get a review up on this thing as for the price it looks built relatively well. Can't argue much with 12.99$

Good find!

[SgtM]

That's the right one Nightrain. Here's a couple of pictures of some flames I did today. Typical claw type. I mixed some black into the blue, but it ended up too dark. Not ready for the true fire stuff just yet. Also, if you look at the rest of the blue and silver around the HP logo, I sprayed that last night. I think I need a better compressor though. We'll see through more trial and error.

I'll say this much so far of what I've experienced. Airbrushing > rattlecans.

[SgtM]

Ok.. mixing is getting a little easier. One thing I found out.. You can't wetsand acrylic paints. It makes it easier if you mess up and have to start the project over though. A light sand with 600 and the mistake is gone. I'm painting up another mouse. I think I'll just go with a solid color rather than do a design. Updates later.

[Aero]

wow, nice airbrush. I spent about $100 on mine a few years ago, but its kinda sitting in my basement un-used . Its fun, kinda addicting too. Oh, but when your cleaning it, (take it all the way apart and get ALL the paint out, or its a mess, trust me ), anyway, be carefull where you put the needles. I laid all my parts out on tape so I would lose anything. The needle was about 1/2 inch off the edge of my desk. One quick swipe of the hand to grab my keys and I had a 6 inch long needle about stuck half an inch right on my thumb by the lower joint. I looked at it for a sec and then ripped it out before I even thought about it....

SO, be careful, airbrushing=dangerous.

[SgtM]

I've been pretty good about cleaning it. That needle scares me though. Looks like it's sooooo easy to bend, and I know if it does, I'll need a new one. I would HATE to get that thing stuck in my hand. OUCH! Another thing I'm liking is the extremely small amount of paint needed to get a good coat. Anyway, here's some progress pics. I had previously painted this thing red with spray paints. Again, I'm using acrylic paints.. $0.60 for 2oz at Hobby Lobby. This is the blue metallic. Questions and comments welcome.

[BigJohnson]

Wow. That looks like great quality for an investment less than $20. Love to see more of what it can do. I might just have to invest in one of those myself.