Bottle-fed vs. Gravity-fed

[malsheem]

I've grown tired of my crap Aztek airbrush and canned air. So I bought a Iwata Smart Jet compressor. Next, the airbrush. I want an Iwata, probably get an Eclipse series. And the quandry. Which feed type should I get? My Aztek is bottle-fed, and it was okay for me. But gravity-fed just seems like a better idea. What I'm interested in is things like ...

Paint flow - probably better with gravity-fed
Clean up
Visibility - does the cup on the top make it harder to see?
Volume - if I want to paint car bodies, seems like the gravity cup would be inconvenient to fill up again and again.

Thoughts? Comments? And feedback is greatly appreciated.

[ShOrtyOC714]

So are u trying to get rid of ur Aztec airbrush? Is u are, would u like to sell it? I would like to buy a airbrush, but all of em that i want a exspensive, cuz i want good ones, hahahah Whut kind of Aztec airbrush do u have? Do u know the #? Thanx

[Ferrari TR]

Flow: About the same
Cup on top: well I do spill paint out of the cup from time to time...
the people in my club that use this style brush mix their paint in small dropper bottles and refill the cup as needed from their bottle.
I use a Badger with a removable cup that I can mix paint in, attach to the brush and shoot away. The cup holds a lot more than most that are mounted to brushes and I rarely have to refill for a single coat.

Top mount cup airbrushs are great if you change colors a lot.

[malsheem]

Originally Posted by Shorty4859

So are u trying to get rid of ur Aztec airbrush? Is u are, would u like to sell it? I would like to buy a airbrush, but all of em that i want a exspensive, cuz i want good ones, hahahah Whut kind of Aztec airbrush do u have? Do u know the #? Thanx

I got this kit as a gift about 3-4 years ago (see pic). According to that pic, it's an Aztek A410. Discontinued, I believe. It's been replaced by new, better Aztec airbrushes now. It's an internal mix, double-action. It's okay. I've seen it for $30 at Wal-mart. It's gotten about 10 kits worth of use. I only airbrush interiors, engines, and chassis pieces.

I'll post a picture of it later tonight when I get home. If you want it, you can have it. No charge. You'll just have to wait until I get a new airbrush, which will probably be within the next two weeks. Let me know.

[ShOrtyOC714]

Originally Posted by malsheem

I got this kit as a gift about 3-4 years ago (see pic). According to that pic, it's an Aztek A410. Discontinued, I believe. It's been replaced by new, better Aztec airbrushes now. It's an internal mix, double-action. It's okay. I've seen it for $30 at Wal-mart. It's gotten about 10 kits worth of use. I only airbrush interiors, engines, and chassis pieces.

I'll post a picture of it later tonight when I get home. If you want it, you can have it. No charge. You'll just have to wait until I get a new airbrush, which will probably be within the next two weeks. Let me know.

Oh really!! Thanx man, contact me when u can give it to me, ill send u money for the shipping, or u can, its all up to u...

[God|Zilla168]

Best place to get airbrushes

http://www.dixieart.com/

now as for gravity of bottle feed it really depends.

I have both the eclipse Bottle feed I use for more of a large area that I need to paint while cup feed I use when I need to change many colors. All I do is drop a the amount I need in the cup and go when change color i quickly wash and change color

[malsheem]

Originally Posted by God|Zilla168

Best place to get airbrushes

http://www.dixieart.com/

now as for gravity of bottle feed it really depends.

I have both the eclipse Bottle feed I use for more of a large area that I need to paint while cup feed I use when I need to change many colors. All I do is drop a the amount I need in the cup and go when change color i quickly wash and change color

Hmm. That's an idea. Go with a gravity-feed Eclipse for interior stuff. I really like the option of quick color changes. If I wanted to paint bodies, I could get the bottle-feed single action Iwata Revolution also. Hmm.

[Murray Kish]

I have both (Paasche VL and Badger 100G) and am gravitating a bit to the gravity feed Badger. I generally use a color cup with the Paasche and find that the amount of paint doesn't make much of a difference. I find that a cup full of paint goes a long way. I can put at least two or three entire coats of paint on a car body with one color cup about 3/4 full of thinned paint. Paint spillage is a bit of an issue, but after you do that a few times, you learn pretty quick. Thinking a bit more, I can't really remember the last time I used the jar??

Murray

[MustangMuscle]

I have the Iwata Smartjet compressor and Iwata eclipse bottom feef (bottle), and it works great. The only drawback is the bottle, it must be filled enough to allow the airbrush to "suck" the paint without air. This means for tiny jobs like for an interior or engine, it wastes a lot of paint.

The other advantage of a gravity fed airbrush is the finer atomization of the paint, this again is a clear advantage when you work on tiny areas of a model because you can get the air pressure down and still have a good fine spray of paint, at a close distance from your subject. The cup size for the Iwata Eclipse is good enough for any paint job, up to car bodies, and it has a LID, which means almost no paont spills!

If I had to buy an airbrush again, I would follow the salesman recommendation and get the gravity fed model. Oh, and talking about the Iwata Smartjet compressor, this is a great one, silent and all, but it lacks a REAL pressure regulator, which you can add on the moisture trap body (the shop where I bought the compressor added it for $30). This avoids the "air bleeder" regulator, which, apart from generating some substantial noise, also defeats the "auto-shutoff" function, which is a great feature.

My 10c...

[malsheem]

Originally Posted by MustangMuscle

I have the Iwata Smartjet compressor and Iwata eclipse bottom feef (bottle), and it works great. The only drawback is the bottle, it must be filled enough to allow the airbrush to "suck" the paint without air. This means for tiny jobs like for an interior or engine, it wastes a lot of paint.

The other advantage of a gravity fed airbrush is the finer atomization of the paint, this again is a clear advantage when you work on tiny areas of a model because you can get the air pressure down and still have a good fine spray of paint, at a close distance from your subject. The cup size for the Iwata Eclipse is good enough for any paint job, up to car bodies, and it has a LID, which means almost no paont spills!

If I had to buy an airbrush again, I would follow the salesman recommendation and get the gravity fed model. Oh, and talking about the Iwata Smartjet compressor, this is a great one, silent and all, but it lacks a REAL pressure regulator, which you can add on the moisture trap body (the shop where I bought the compressor added it for $30). This avoids the "air bleeder" regulator, which, apart from generating some substantial noise, also defeats the "auto-shutoff" function, which is a great feature.

My 10c...

Wow, thanks for the tips. Especially on the Smart Jet regulator. Mine should be arriving any day now, and I just ordered the Iwata Eclipse CS this morning. Can't wait to try them out.

[AE86er]

hey malsheem-

where did you order your iwata products from??? i'm looking into the same combo as you, and have searched the net - but most of the webpages selling these look a little sketchy to me~!

i'd like to order from a reputable dealer who has the items in stock...any help is appreciated!

thanks!!!

[soch89]

This is kind of off subject, but it is an airbrush question. What are the points of the needles and tips? Are they needed?

[ShOrtyOC714]

Originally Posted by soch89

This is kind of off subject, but it is an airbrush question. What are the points of the needles and tips? Are they needed?

Diff. tips are for diff kinds of sprays, such as a bigger larger tip is for spraying larger areas, and a small tip for detailing.

[malsheem]

Originally Posted by AE86er

hey malsheem-

where did you order your iwata products from??? i'm looking into the same combo as you, and have searched the net - but most of the webpages selling these look a little sketchy to me~!

i'd like to order from a reputable dealer who has the items in stock...any help is appreciated!

thanks!!!

I got my Smart Jet of Half.com ($150). Reputable art supply sellers (good feedback) sell them on Ebay on occasion as well.

If you don't trust Ebay affliated places ...

www.currys.com is where I got my Eclipse CS airbrush ($88.80) and braided hose ($18). I called six other places, and ordered from www.currys.com because they had it in stock. Good price, and free shipping. Word of advice. If you order from them, use a VISA card, you get a better exchange rate; they're in Canada. They also have a SmartJet for a good price as well.

www.dixieart.com came recommended. Only problem was that they didn't have the items I wanted in stock. I hate waiting when ordering stuff over the internet.

www.bearair.com came recommended as well. Same problem, didn't have what I wanted in stock.

All three of these are good places with competitive prices. Just call ahead to make sure they have what you want in stock. Typing in "iwata smart jet" or "iwata eclipse airbrush" in google will get you more places. Shoot for around $100 for an Eclipse airbrush and around $200 for the SmartJet. There are cheaper, but that's about the average. I also suggest calling these places before ordering. See if their staff is knowledgeable. That's dead giveaway of a place you want to stay away from. "An I-whata? Duh."

[AE86er]

Joe-

Thanks for your in-depth and prompt reply - i really appreciate your help!!!