NagoyaHammer.com

The wife wants to buy me an air brush. Who am I to say no?

Any recommendations on ones currently available in Japan?

Iwata are the go-to airbrush here. In fact, they're just generally a bloody good manufacturer of airbrushes, period. It's just a bonus that they're local.

I have an Iwata HP-BH, and I'd very much recommend it. With a bit of practice you can go from base-coating-tanks to a very fine line, and the wee flow controller under the nozzle is genuinely useful. When it comes to airbrushing, make sure you have:

• a compressor. Check this for how loud it is. It will also need a moisture trap (especially in the summer! srsly, the amount of water you collect in a session in July is nuts!), and for preference...

• a soft connector hose, not one of those coiled ones (which pull back on the brush and tire your hand out and/or pull it off your desk)

• a wee stand or something to put the brush in when you're not using it. (This is important because you can't just put an airbrush down. It needs to be kept level/tilted slightly forward or the paint sloshes back into the worky bits, dries, and then yer bollixed.)

• an extractor fan\cabinet. Don't airbrush without one of these unless you like having purple snot. And purple everything-in-the-room. Assuming you're painting purple things, obviously

• A pack of 100 or so disposable gloves, unless you like having multicoloured hands.

• thinner - regular paint needs thinning. Actually, thinning paint for airbrushes is a thing you will spend a lot of time on.

• Airbrush cleaner - you will also spend a lot of time cleaning your airbrush, and I mean A LOT.

• a squeezy/dropper bottle of water. I use an old dish soap bottle, but whatever is fine. You'll just need to be able to scoosh water into your brush to clean it pretty regularly.

• earbuds for cleaning the airbrush

• toothpicks for cleaning the airbrush

• interdental brushes for cleaning the airbrush

• tissues for cleaning the airbrush

• an airbrush cleaning kit

• airbrush cleaner

• Did I mention you'll spend a lot of time cleaning your airbrush?

optional:
masking tape/fluid. - tedious to apply, glorious to take off. I'd recommend not leaving masking fluid on between sessions, as it goes gummy and turns into a nightmare to remove.

Other than that, my advice is to approach with patience and don't expect wondrous things, at least to start with. An airbrush is a hella useful tool, and allows for techniques that are impossible otherwise, but at the end of the day it comes down to how you use it. Best of luck, and if you have any questions, by all means fire away

Thank you, this seems to be a very concise list.

Do you have any experience with tankless compressors? I hear they are much quieter.

no, unfortunately. However, for our purposes, isnt a tank necessary? Otherwise you end up with pulsing in the air flow, which would be very bad for control, no? I dunno for sure, though. I have a wee tanked compressor and it's totally fine in my hobby room, which is next to my living room and directly under my kid's bedroom. I just stack some cork mats under it to keep vibration to a minimum. You could maybe even work around by wrapping it in towels or something, although I havent found that to be necessary.

*edit* I'm not recommending this specific compressor, as I have zero personal experience with it, but this kind of thing feels about right to me. It has a tank, water trap and pressure control/gauge, and it even has the right kind of hose and a wee stand for your airbrush to sit it (although I'd strongly recommend getting a separate stand for your brush, unless you really want the compressor on your desk). I searched for AS-186 to find this, as that's the generic model name for this kind of compressor. Hope that helps

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Airbrush- ... 249&sr=8-2

Good Info, thank you very much.

no probs - best of luck finding something that suits