Question on the Tamiya Spray Works system.

Anyone here use their compressor and airbrush? It appears to be a HVLP(High Pressure Low Volume) system like they use on real cars these days.

Thanks, Brian. :)

I have not personally used it, but have a friend who has. It's pretty good for a starter kit. The compressor does tend to have a short operating time before it heats up too much and begins building up too much moisture. Other than that it's good for basic spraying. It doesn't spray a line any thinner than about a 1/4 of an inch.

I have their trigger type airbrush and compressor Revo. The airbrush is of high quality, but unless you can find a deal, it doesn't have to be Tamiya. Just about every major brand makes an equal or better airbrush, as long as it's made of metal.

Compressor is strong enough for a car body, but it doesn't have the strong blast of a spray can. It's fairly quiet that you can use it at night, but it's not as quiet as Gunze's Linear compressor.

I'm using their SprayWork Basic Set for a few years, and satisfied so far.

Despite the cheap plastic look of the airbrush, it is well-designed, well-made and very helpful like any other modeling tools from Tamiya (btw, try their sharp-pointed side-cutter too)

The only disappointment is that Tamiya doesn't sell the basic (non-HG) airbrush individually.
I really want more of this helpful airbrush so that I can switch colors with less fuss. It's real pain switching from a metallic color to non-metallic now.

The price of this airbrush-compressor bundle seems unbeatable too.
At around 70 bucks, I can get an airbrush only and having to spend another 100 bucks for a compressor otherwise.
Now I got both compressor and airbrush from Tamiya! :)


Veyron, I dunno what's meant by a "HPLV system", can you elaborate a bit more?
The SprayWork compressor isn't a high pressure one IMO, but you may set the airbrush to spray in very small volume anyway.

Originally posted by IanLi
I'm using their SprayWork Basic Set for a few years, and satisfied so far.

Despite the cheap plastic look of the airbrush, it is well-designed, well-made and very helpful like any other modeling tools from Tamiya (btw, try their sharp-pointed side-cutter too)

The only disappointment is that Tamiya doesn't sell the basic (non-HG) airbrush individually.
I really want more of this helpful airbrush so that I can switch colors with less fuss. It's real pain switching from a metallic color to non-metallic now.

The price of this airbrush-compressor bundle seems unbeatable too.
At around 70 bucks, I can get an airbrush only and having to spend another 100 bucks for a compressor otherwise.
Now I got both compressor and airbrush from Tamiya! :)




Veyron, I dunno what's meant by a "HPLV system", can you elaborate a bit more?
The SprayWork compressor isn't a high pressure one IMO, but you may set the airbrush to spray in very small volume anyway.

Thanks everyone for your input! From what I understand the HVLP systems are able to apply paint at a larger volume in relation to the amount of air pressure it takes to disperse it, therefor laying the paint on smoother because it will be less disturbed by the air. It probably isn't as important to us modelers in that we generally spray at 15 to 20psi anyway. I think the Spray Work is set at 15psi, that coupled with their gravity feed airbrush led me to believe it was based on this theory. :)