Looking at an aztec airbrush, are they worth the money. And do I have to buy a special compressor, or can i use my reugular compressor and put a regulator on it?
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Hello Brian! Aztec Airbrushing systems as you can see are expensive than other models because they say the product really focuses on detail work. I tried it out once and it does a really good job. But if you want to go cheaper, go with the Paashe type H Single Action Airbrush. I really feel that it performs just as good as the Aztec! One more thing. The links for the Paashe can automatically hook up to your compressor!
There is no way a person can trully compare a Paasche type H Single Action Airbrush to an Aztec double action. They in no way can do the work. I have three Paasche's and I don't like any one of them for detail work. Like I said for DETAIL work. For basic work it's fine but if your getting into detail and want to advance yourself into a higher quality work then you need one of two brushes.
Aztec will do the work well. I have two of them for I like to bust a little air hose in the trigger housing and have to send one back every six months or so. I used to do all my extreme detail work with them and had no problems.
Then one day I tried the Iwata and I do like the weight it carries. Very well balanced. The detail I get is a bit more extreme with the Iwata, not saying the Aztec doesn't do the same but I do like the Iwata better.
If your worried about costs then go for the Aztec. I will say from experence you'll never get the detail from any high quality brush unless you, yourself pratice with it. Any true artist will tell you that your paint needs to be thinned down, strained and your air adjusted. I have sprayed fine pencil dots with the air set at 20 psi and then are days that nothing works and have the air set at 40 psi and get the same spot pattern. I feel it has to do with the humidity in my shop that day. Pratice, pratice and then pratice even more till you have a handle on it. Take a whole week and play with the brush till you can pick it up and make that small dot with ease. The finger has to be trained to do this.
As for an air compressor I have my contrator one that I used when I was in doing roofs and decks. So any good one will do.
PS you do get what you pay for!
When it worked, it was great. Lightweight, great detail, etc. But, it seemed to me it clogged up pretty easily. Maybe I didn't thin my paint enough or strain it well enough, who knows. But I got tired of having to spend $10 on a new tip so often. I just couldn't get them to last for some reason. As you said, some days it worked, some days it didn't...usually didn't on days I really, really needed it to work. Very, very frustrating. I got to the point I dreaded the times I had to use an airbrush, because of the battles with it I often seemed to face, which it usually won...
I use a single action now. I can 'use it and abuse it' and it still keeps working. Fewer internal parts seem to have resulted in fewer problems for me. (The air/paint are mixed externally, as opposed to internally in the double-actions.) And it doesn't have the tiny needles that are so easily bent over time. Extremely easy to quickly and thoroughly clean, as there are so few parts to have to clean. The tip I use is the medium, but it makes a fine enough dot for bass, etc. To get an even finer point, I would need to change the tip, but usually the medium does the job well. And I often use a small paint brush to apply some of the small detail work. I run both lacquer and water based paints through it, too. (Obviously not on the same animal...I usually use the lacquer for mammals and the water-based for the fish.) What's great for me, is when I need to use the airbrush, I expect it to work just fine and not give me any problems. And, 99.99% of the time, it works great. Think the only thing I've had to buy for it was the little rubber gasket. (Very cheap, a few cents. I've only had to replace it twice in several years.) I do about 200 jobs a year, so it is used pretty often. And I do quality work (am NTA certified).
So, to each his/her own. Find what you like. Maybe buy both, to have one as an emergency backup brush.