 Hello everybody and welcome to another hobby cheating video today. We are going to compare airbrushes. We're going to talk brands We're going to talk features. We're going to talk what you need what you should choose So let's get into it. Let's strict techno man sir. That is Vinci v. Let us get to the technique and learn it Vinci v style All right airbrushes turns out. There's quite a few of them on the market Different brands different features and if you're new to the whole thing Or maybe even if you've been airbrushing for a while and you're looking for an upgrade This is the video for you. We're going to head over to the painting desk I'm going to take you through a bunch of different airbrushes and show you how really most any of them Can be used to do most of the tasks you need But also where some of the really high-end more expensive ones can do a few things the others can't We're going to put them through their paces do a few tests See how they perform and see what the real material differences are in their usage This should be a lot of fun Let's do it. So these are the airbrushes. We're going to focus on today we're going to look over these seven airbrushes and As I'm talking here, you're going to see each of them pop up on the screen But we've got the master and g23 the very sort of cheap option the badger chrome the grex xgi 3 the Iwata HP CS the Iwata Highline CH the hard-earned steenback infinity Kiev and Archive sorry, I'm not sure which the correct pronunciation is and the infinity cr plus Now first I want to start with just a few basic things about the airbrush You'll notice with all my airbrushes I have this extra fixture on the bottom This is a quick change cap that you can use along with an extension on your hose So you can change between them easily and often which I do because I use them for different purposes They're very cheap you can get them in bulk off Amazon or from USA airbrush supply or something like that Now the airbrush itself what it consists of is most of them The back is going to come off of course and then you have your needle chuck and you can take the needle out Lots of people say you shouldn't remove the needle out of the back You're supposed to remove it out the front and they say that because when you slide it back into the back You risk damaging the tip and that is true My response is yes, but it's really annoying to take it out of the front. So I'm just going to be careful You do you Many airbrushes also have this dial on the back that you can use to control The trigger as to how far back it will go. Let me can see you can go from, you know, full extension to lock and so You'll that's often a useful tool, especially if you're having trouble controlling how much backwards pressure you're applying The highlight in this case also has an airflow control on the front and some higher end airbrushes Do you have this airflow control that's controlling how much air is flowing between the hose and out the tip Now when it comes to the cup, there are many different designs You'll notice both of the eyewatts are roughly the same and in this case the eyewater does not have a removable cup But if you look at the master g23 There's a lot more space down there where paint can get caught and things like that Or as if you look at the grex, it's much smaller The smaller the cup area The harder it is to clean however with something like the grex you can unscrew the cup Which does make it then easier to get into that area and remove Walking a good balance between enough space to clean it easily with a soft brush And not too much space where paint can build up or just hang out is really important Finally, you've got your needle guard. So there are two. There is the nozzle guard and the needle guard on the front The needle guard can generally come off and help you get finer lines or you can have a tooth like Needle guard as like on the infinity Now we're going to start with a couple different tests So first off the most common reason people buy an airbrush, which is just priming Rattle cans are expensive and annoying to prime with I prime with my airbrush for basically everything that's not terrain And here i'm just using the master g23 And some pro crow primer and guess what if your goal is just to have an airbrush to prime Something like this cheap 30 airbrush is all you need and in fact, you'll see i'll do a lot more tasks with this over time But if you're looking for something to just get those miniatures primed so you can get to painting Don't waste your money anything cheap is fine And as a point of fact here, we're going to do the old paper test So our next round is the paper test We're in we're going to spray all of these and see how they operate under sort of perfect conditions When I can hold it flat and rest my hand and all of that as you can see the master Even though it's a 0.3 needle does create some pretty fat lines Now the badger chrome with a 0.21 millimeter needle Can produce some pretty pretty thin lines while producing a nice smooth spray pattern The difference in needle size You're going to see some of these airbrushes like the grex the master and the iwatas that I use having a 0.3 millimeter needle whereas the badger and the harder and steamback Having 0.2s now There isn't really that huge of a connection between your ability to do a thin line and the needle in question The yes, there is a difference, but it's so very small The precision of the machining of the trigger and your ability to develop trigger control With the tool will influence your ability to do sharp thin lines much more Than your than the particular needle for example I can do about the same thin line with the iwata with a 0.3 millimeter needle or the high line here as I did with the badger And the reason for that is because uh, I've used both of these tools a great deal I'm very comfortable with the trigger and having a statless trigger control The harder and steinbecks though are truly a cut above with either the 0.2 millimeter needle in the infinity key or the harder and steamback cr plus with the 0.15 You know, I can write my name pretty easily. I can do razor thin lines And so eventually you will get to the point where you really do have an enhanced sense of control And if you combine the smaller needle and nozzle With the with you know, you're you're built up muscle control over the trigger You will be able to really really become a surgeon and do some very fine lines So as you can see the greks the master produced some pretty fat lines the the badger produced nice a lot, you know Nice thin control same with the iwata and the the harder and steinbeck coming out clearly on top Now let's actually put this in practice because normally our miniatures are not pieces of paper or at least they haven't been for me since the mid 90s So now it's time to actually just do some base coating the next most common thing we buy an airbrush for Here again, we're going to start with the master g23 and i'm just going to put some flesh tone down over black paint We're not going to worry about zenithals. We're not going to do anything like that We're just going to get in there and we're going to apply some paint And as you can see for the purposes of base coating I can get that on no problem So again, the cheap airbrush performs just fine You'll see the difference here when I switch over to the iwata see hpcs for the front Notice how because of the precision of the machining in the control you see how much less paint Is coming out at a time now? I'm applying about the same pressure all of these paints are thinned exactly the same I prepared a batch and put the same one in every single Every single airbrush And I did not let them sit or anything like that. So this is the same paint same consistency same everything But you notice with the iwata because the trigger is so much more precise I was able to slowly build it up over time And when you're building consecutive layers on your base coats, that's often a very very valuable thing The same is true of the chrome now the design on the chrome is quite interesting. It has this very fat wide open Cup that's very easy to clean and very flat. So I do love that design Uh, but at the same time, it's a little bit harder and heavy to actually keep in your hand Now the key of again kills it at base coating a key. I'm sorry. Um, I'm just going to call it the the uh, the harder and steaming back Just kills it at base coating kills it at everything because I have such perfect control and Notably that infinity is uh, made of aluminum. So it's extremely lightweight The next test highlighting can we highlight? In other words, can we layer with the airbrush? And as you'll notice here, I've just stepped up to a light flesh again starting with the master and sure no problem For those larger open areas on your miniatures again, the cheap airbrush is going to do you just fine Didn't need to spend a lot of money, but I can be if I want slightly more control And more ability to do a better job when I move to the eye wadi you'll see again that ability to build up the paint is coming into effect Now with the chrome, it's exactly the same here. I'm going to work on the pants I'm doing the front and back of him with all four of these uh, going into round two here And you'll notice here again, I'm able to just very gently rock the trigger The one thing I will say for the badger is it's heavy, but it does have very nice control overall Um, I was able to with you know, sort of my highlight color here establish something very very gently Now with the uh infinity, uh, I'm able to just like precision in a precision way get in there and apply the highlights I need uh as a point of fact, you'll see as we rotate the miniature around in just a moment here Uh, you can see how I'll just focus in very small on that knee area And I'll miss the other sides and I can just build that tiny tiny area up Last test here glazing Uh, a very important thing to do with your airbrush because it's so much easier than the brush yet again the master g 23 Does it just fine? The difference is the spray pattern is going to be wider So I'm going to be limited when I'm working with my miniatures on the areas I can glaze But when I'm dealing with an ogre or something like this a vehicle It's going to be just fine for these smaller areas or when I need more precision That's when it's time to wear the something like the eyewater really shines Here I can just very gently because of the nature of how I have the trigger control Build this up much more softly than I did on the back I can also hone it in a lot better on particular small areas So as I move up to say his forehead or under his knuckles or something like that I just have a better level of control For the chrome we're going to actually do the skin transition for that in the infinity So here we're using sort of a mid-tone yellowy color to smooth out the skin But you'll notice again that I am able to be quite precise As I move around the the miniature I'm able to hit just the areas I want Get in there, you know, I'm going to do the hit these two back muscles And you can see how I can be very very small and precise Now part of this is because the trigger control and part of this is working in those thin layers As I've mentioned in previous videos The key of a cave sorry here once again, I apologize if I'm mispronouncing that Is going to once again just really outpace the others to some degree Because I can be so precise down to these very tiny muscle structures Getting in there and hitting like just the thumb or individual fingers or stuff like that It really does have a level of control that the other ones don't And part of that is the needle and part of that is the precision of the trigger As a proof point of that, let's see just how precise we can get Let's do something I would never actually do with an airbrush Let's paint it just his belt So we're going to turn just his belt black And as you can see with the infinity, I'm able to get in there and just do the belt I'm not overspraying onto the pants. I'm not overspraying onto the skin above it or anything like that I can do the bracer here and you can see no no overspray onto the rest of the the figure That level of precision is something you're really only going to get out of the the higher end airbrush Something like this infinity All right, so the master g23 Very cheap airbrush easy Dime a dozen as you could see I was still able to do Most of the tasks I needed to do with it However, realistically this airbrush is best if you're looking for something cheap to get in to get going You can prime you can base coat you can do all the things you need to do It's really more about learning the tool and how to use it than it is about the quality of the tool That being said it's a lot heavier than the others Just because the nature of how it's constructed that makes it just harder and more tiring to use in your hand and you know To balance on your fingers It also doesn't have the precision machining that a lot of the other ones have So the parts don't fit as well together and you may have to spend more time sort of futzing around with it to get it To perform where you want But if you're just looking for something that's going to help you get vehicles done get your priming regardless of the season There's no reason something like a simple master airbrush like this Which is you know very little money comparatively Let that be an excellent entry into the world of airbrushing for you Absolutely no shame in it. It's a great choice Next up the badger now badger makes many different airbrushes This of course that I was showing you here has been the chrome There are a lot of differences in the various Badger products, but they're all high quality products. You know, they're all made here in the usa Where I am right now and they all deliver A good solid performance as you can see I was able to do many tasks even down to quite precise work with them without any trouble Again, this is a pretty heavy airbrush The body and what it's manufactured out of is pretty pretty dense Meaning that it is going to be heavy in your hand Now it does have especially the chrome a much nicer grip in this rubber grip that you can sort of hold onto That is a nice small feature. It's a it's a little thing, but trust me after hours of airbrushing It really does matter This especially the chrome but really most of the badger line Does have a lot higher level of quality machining Then you see out of some of the cheaper brands that are out there Badger I find to be a really nice airbrush at a very competitive price Absolutely nothing wrong with these if you get a chance to pick one of these up I there's it can absolutely be an all-purpose airbrush for you doing everything you need from priming and base coating Detail work blazing the whole shooting matches you or as you saw I was able to do all of it No problem with it. They're good solid airbrushes The only thing that you have to remember is that they do have that different connector tip by default So you have to get the little converter For your quick change to make sure that it can you know be swapped out with any other airbrushes You have and connect to standard hopes Okay, Iwata now the Iwata HPCS has been my workhorse airbrush For more than eight years. In fact, this particular airbrush has been used for a good seven years of that time And I've used it for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours thousands of miniatures I really do think it's a fantastic airbrush. It's durable. It is solid. It is also heavy But it's nice again very high quality machining very precision control you can You know remove the needle guard if you want to be careful and actually get some pretty precise and tight lines out of it So all in all this is a performant airbrush Now from the HPCS I also showed you a little bit of the high line which is sort of the next step up There are Iwatas above that as well All of them give you the ability to have that different needle and housing and just focus focus focus in And get those really really tight really really precise really fine lines If you're looking to spend some money on an airbrush Iwata can be an excellent choice for your upgrade absolutely nothing wrong with it These are super high quality airbrushes well supported and you can Get the parts from many us retailers if you're here in the united states But if you're other places in the world the parts are generally pretty widely available Which is good the grex now this is actually the heaviest in the hand of all of them even heavier than the master That's one of the reasons I don't like it. I also just find it doesn't really respond as precisely as I would like I was able to do most tasks with this airbrush And grex has several different airbrushes in their line again. I'm just looking at one of them here But overall I found this one to be Probably the most underwhelming it does have some nice features that I like It has the standard lock for the trigger so you can't pull back too far I do like that it has the removable cup which is a nice feature that makes it much easier to clean And it's not a bad airbrush by any stretch of the imagination I've just found that over time it was a little more finicky and a little more trouble and wasn't producing the quality results That I really wanted so overall a nice airbrush But certainly probably not where I would spend my money if I had the choice between everything I've reviewed here Last up the infinity the infinity from harder and steinbeck I should have two different versions here both the infinity key of and the infinity cr plus Uh, I will be honest. These have become my go-to favorite airbrushes. I truly truly love Harder and steinbeck and and the products they produce Not only was this an amazing airbrush for charity. I covered in detail some time ago that went to relief for victims of the war in the ukraine But also with all of the harder and steinbeck products I find that they have just the highest quality of precision machining Everything on this thing on this airbrush is designed with absolute utter care and a desire for perfection in action Uh from the quick change or the quick reset on the back Of your your airbrush here to just the precision control of the trigger The way the needle moves the way it sort of floats Inside the actual housing and moreover because the infinity key of here has an aluminum body It is so lightweight in the hand. This thing's like barely heavier than a pencil It's just incredible. You can use it forever. You can do really really really precise lines With the point two or the point one five needle. Um, this one currently has the point two housing in it My cr plus has the point one five housing in it You really can be a surgeon with these airbrushes just getting the tightest finest lines Uh, and just it that's not just because of the size of the needle as I mentioned earlier You know the ultimate difference between point two millimeters and point three millimeters is not really that large Uh, but There the difference in the precision of the control and how much you can really just just touch that trigger This excels above all the rest But these are expensive the cr plus and the infinities in general. They're not a cheap airbrush now They're not a you know a car or anything. Let's be realistic here But they are a sizable investment If you're looking to take your airbrushing to a point where you're doing really fine detail work with your airbrush Where you can be a surgeon then these are absolutely worth the investment And hey in the case of the infinity key of your money goes to an excellent cause so All around right, so that's all the airbrushes as you can see Uh, most of these airbrushes really will perform for you once you sort of get above $100 here in the us and you get into that level of airbrushing You're able to do most tasks you want to do It's more about practice and learning with the tool than it is about the tool itself That being said when you're trying to do really fine precision high-end work with it That's where the quality of the tool comes into play If you're painting your miniatures and you're just looking for a good workhorse to prime to do some base coats Maybe some simple glazing or environmental lighting then more or less any of these airbrushes are going to work with you And you can make your purchase with confidence based on what's available in your area your geography your region in the world However, if you're looking for something that really does provide the super highest quality for me It has to be the harder and Steinbeck with the Iwata coming a close second Both are tremendously good brands making extremely high quality airbrushes And I don't think you can go wrong with either choice I have put hundreds of hours into both of them and been incredibly pleased with both products Now that being said the harder and Steinbeck has become my new favorite Just because of how much I'm able to control it as I've started moving into doing more delicate and fine work I really hope this helped you make a decision with your airbrushing and what to purchase If you liked it, give it a like subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future If you've got questions drop those down in the comments below. Is there something I didn't answer About airbrushing that you wanted to know or about these airbrush brands happy to respond to all comments down below If you want to support the channel, there's a patreon where you can do so It's focused on you taking your next step on your hobby journey. You can find the link for that down below As always though, I thank you so much for watching and as always we'll see you next time