Ya know what I'd like to see?

Johnny

Double Actioner
I'd like to see some work done by you pros with an inexpensive airbrush.

Let's say, something in the Master series (a $30 airbrush).

I have the G233 (30 bucks) which appears to be a knock off of an IWATA Eclipse HP-CS. I know someone out there is/was good with a Master.

Ponz
 
So you want to see it is hours of practice vs the airbrush you use But in reality it is both. While some of us started out with an affordable airbrush and learned many lesson from it not only learning how to reduce the paint to flow through it but how to tweak it to spray better from polishing the needle to adjusting the tension on the springs.
Using an affordable brush suck as a Gmaster also was an affordable way to see if we really wanted to keep doing it.
 
So you want to see it is hours of practice vs the airbrush you use But in reality it is both. While some of us started out with an affordable airbrush and learned many lesson from it not only learning how to reduce the paint to flow through it but how to tweak it to spray better from polishing the needle to adjusting the tension on the springs.
Using an affordable brush suck as a Gmaster also was an affordable way to see if we really wanted to keep doing it.
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C'mon Herb. Do you have any of your original work, laying around somewhere, that was done way back when with a cheap brush?
 
I probably have as many inexpensive Asian knock offs as anyone... I spent a long time trying to determine which maker made what brush, but there are just too many of them to make any real sense of. There is no trick to learning to use them well. You learn the skills, you learn what the brush will do, and then you use it to apply paint the same way you would with anything else. Do some searching in the Airbrushes part of this forum - lots of us have worked with the inexpensive brushes. And, lots of it is documented here already.

I think the most expensive one here was $40, most being under $25-
import collection1.jpg
 
I fully understand why people start with affordable airbrushes but to me it was a question : do I want to start with a quality airbrush so I know it is all up to me and I cant blame the airbrush or get in cheap and hope for the best .
I went for the next best thing when I found a secondhand Iwata HP SB+ for about 150 euro and I had never any regrets about that choice.

Now back to your question could I work with a master airbrush and produce a decent portrait ? to be honest I dont know unless they sell a side feed that actually works as I cant stand the gravity feed airbrushes
 
I remember, and there might even be a thread or something, I bought a G44 not too long ago just to see if I could make a cheapy work. I failed completely. It was such a monstrous POS it would take someone like @DaveG to get it good enough to use for just background paint.

Once you've eaten filet mignon, you don't ever wanna go back to a Walmart rubber shoe meat cut.
 
You are much better to hold off and save a few more pennies and get a reliable brand.

Experience is the biggest difference with airbrush output.
I could put @musicmacd behind a generic brush and he’d get a better result than I would with a micron. The tool is only part of the process.
 
I'd like to see some work done by you pros with an inexpensive airbrush.

Let's say, something in the Master series (a $30 airbrush).

I have the G233 (30 bucks) which appears to be a knock off of an IWATA Eclipse HP-CS. I know someone out there is/was good with a Master.

Ponz

it’s certainly worth a try. I might just drop $30 or so on a Master brush just to see how it performs.
 
For what it is worth, I do not recommend "Master" brand brushes - they are made by several different factories, and are branded for them. Some of the models are really poor quality. The only Master I recommend is the G48 (B cup with MAC valve). It is the same brush as the PointZero - brushes that I have had some very good luck with. There are a couple of PointZero brushes that are Micron clones. The one thing that makes them stand out is that they tend to have a red o-ring between the body and handle. Handle is normally a frosted or satin finish while the body is shinny - helping to identify them, as they can be branded under many, many different names.

The "Master" brand is also usually considerably more expensive (relative term) than the same brushes branded under different names.
 
it’s certainly worth a try. I might just drop $30 or so on a Master brush just to see how it performs.
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Like I said in my intro - I have ZERO artistic ability (except for laying tiles and pavers). I've always wanted an airbrush just to see if I could nurture any ability at all.

This is the setup I'm learning with. I've polished needles and lubes whatever I could. One thing I don't care for is the trigger action. It seems like it could be more user friendly somehow. Oh - and if you look at the needles crooked they bend.
 
For what it is worth, I do not recommend "Master" brand brushes - they are made by several different factories, and are branded for them. Some of the models are really poor quality. The only Master I recommend is the G48 (B cup with MAC valve). It is the same brush as the PointZero - brushes that I have had some very good luck with. There are a couple of PointZero brushes that are Micron clones. The one thing that makes them stand out is that they tend to have a red o-ring between the body and handle. Handle is normally a frosted or satin finish while the body is shinny - helping to identify them, as they can be branded under many, many different names.

The "Master" brand is also usually considerably more expensive (relative term) than the same brushes branded under different names.
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This is the closest I can find to a Micron clone:
Amazon.com: PointZero Dual-Action .5cc Gravity-Feed Airbrush Set w/MAC Valve - .2mm Nozzle: Home & Kitchen
 
I think the very first brush should be a cheapy...Just to see if airbrushing is your thing or not. You will start spraying and hopefully decide if you want to dish out more money and dwell into it further.
I bought a cheap Aztec plastic one. I played with it and learned a lot, and I loved it. I still have a couple of my very first attempts hanging up in my shop.
I then went out and invested more....
 
I come in on the opposite end. I feel cheap airbrushes are the worst idea for a beginner, because your beginner's lack of knowledge/skill obscures the line between when an issue is down to insufficient skill, and when it's down to the limits of the hardware.

I think people who recommend newbies start with a cheap airbrush suffer from survivorship bias. They lucked out and got a good one, so they don't realize just how far a bad one can derail someone who doesn't yet know how to tell the difference.

My first airbrush was... not a cheap Chinese clone (this was long before those were a thing), but not good. I spent over a decade struggling with it, believing the whole time that it must be a skill issue rather than a hardware issue, and I just needed to practice more. It made the learning curve seem like an 10-mile high mountain that only wizards could climb. This in turn made me burn out on it, and look for reasons not to use it.

My second airbrush was an Iwata Hp-CS, bought at a discount because it was a refurbished unit. In literally the first ten minutes with it I had it doing things I'd never been able to get my first airbrush to do in over a decade, with ease. The difference was absolutely night and day, it was shocking.

IMO what a beginner needs most is something that "just works". Doesn't mean a super expensive high-end brush, I just mean something that won't actively fight you, so you can focus on your skills without confusion. If you can find that economically, then great, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that "skill matters more than hardware" means "all hardware is ultimately equally viable". A Ford Pinto isn't going to win Le Mans, no matter who's at the wheel.

Don't start your airbrush experiment by gambling with something that could give you a completely false impression of what airbrushing is like when you at your most vulnerable. The whole reason you're trying it out in the first place is because you're hoping it'll be successful. You wouldn't be buying a brush at all if that wasn't the desired outcome. I know that's tautological, but it's something I feel like people forget in their zeal to pinch pennies.

A vetted brand gets you a small known risk rather than a large unknown one. And resale value is generally within a margin equal to the cost of a Chinese clone. So if you can swing the upfront cost, it's both giving you a better chance of success, and is a better economy than buying a cheapie first, crossing your fingers it won't mes you up, then buying the better brush anyway if it doesn't.

Buying a better brush up front is cheaper in the long run, less financially risky, and less risk you'll dislike airbrushing. Either way you only lose $20-30 if your experiment fails, but if it succeeds you're out twice that in the long run if you plan to upgrade. Cheap airbrushes are only cheaper if you never upgrade, which goes directly against the oft-cited mantra of "buy cheap to try, and if you like it, upgrade".

At the risk of being overly blunt, threads like this tend to read like fishing for retroactive validation for deciding to buy a cheap brush.
 
I come in on the opposite end. I feel cheap airbrushes are the worst idea for a beginner, because your beginner's lack of knowledge/skill obscures the line between when an issue is down to insufficient skill, and when it's down to the limits of the hardware.

I think people who recommend newbies start with a cheap airbrush suffer from survivorship bias. They lucked out and got a good one, so they don't realize just how far a bad one can derail someone who doesn't yet know how to tell the difference.

My first airbrush was... not a cheap Chinese clone (this was long before those were a thing), but not good. I spent over a decade struggling with it, believing the whole time that it must be a skill issue rather than a hardware issue, and I just needed to practice more. It made the learning curve seem like an 10-mile high mountain that only wizards could climb. This in turn made me burn out on it, and look for reasons not to use it.

My second airbrush was an Iwata Hp-CS, bought at a discount because it was a refurbished unit. In literally the first ten minutes with it I had it doing things I'd never been able to get my first airbrush to do in over a decade, with ease. The difference was absolutely night and day, it was shocking.

IMO what a beginner needs most is something that "just works". Doesn't mean a super expensive high-end brush, I just mean something that won't actively fight you, so you can focus on your skills without confusion. If you can find that economically, then great, but don't fall into the trap of thinking that "skill matters more than hardware" means "all hardware is ultimately equally viable". A Ford Pinto isn't going to win Le Mans, no matter who's at the wheel.

Don't start your airbrush experiment by gambling with something that could give you a completely false impression of what airbrushing is like when you at your most vulnerable. The whole reason you're trying it out in the first place is because you're hoping it'll be successful. You wouldn't be buying a brush at all if that wasn't the desired outcome. I know that's tautological, but it's something I feel like people forget in their zeal to pinch pennies.

A vetted brand gets you a small known risk rather than a large unknown one. And resale value is generally within a margin equal to the cost of a Chinese clone. So if you can swing the upfront cost, it's both giving you a better chance of success, and is a better economy than buying a cheapie first, crossing your fingers it won't mes you up, then buying the better brush anyway if it doesn't.

Buying a better brush up front is cheaper in the long run, less financially risky, and less risk you'll dislike airbrushing. Either way you only lose $20-30 if your experiment fails, but if it succeeds you're out twice that in the long run if you plan to upgrade. Cheap airbrushes are only cheaper if you never upgrade, which goes directly against the oft-cited mantra of "buy cheap to try, and if you like it, upgrade".

At the risk of being overly blunt, threads like this tend to read like fishing for retroactive validation for deciding to buy a cheap brush.

I do understand what you are saying, but not everyone has over $200 to buy even a middle of the road brush. I am on disability and can't waste money for something that turns out I didn't like....
Cheers
 
In my case I could have afforded a ‘decent’ brush but at the time I was worried because I would struggle to draw a recognisable stick figure with a pencil and my hopes of creating something recognisable with an airbrush were slim.
Even though the brush (Veda) had a sticky trigger I was pleasantly surprised at my first output, by the time I’d finished it I was hooked and ordered the Iwata eclipse CS (local supplier so ease of spares) and the rest as they say is history.
@Johnny, you wanted to see what we created as a first attempt with a generic brush .... I’ll find the pic and be right back ....
 
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