air brush

Whats the best air brush out there?...I get too wide when doing fades with a touch up gun, use to get good results with a badger with #5 tip as a gravity feed gun. finally ruined it due to poor maintenance. It would feen pretty thick material but do the suction feed guns with the clears jars handle thicker paints? plan on doing small stripes, fades and sometimes pin line fades. no plans to do actual art as in fish or you name it. thanks,

Thanks for all the help and ifo. ordered Passche VL-5 kit for $120, includeds 2 #5 setups, hose, tools and case. Iwata is pricey especially in the HPLV but Kokua got me interested. How bout shooting speed finish without the flattening agent in HPLV or even with flattening agent. For me its always been Wal-mart $49.95 gun and felt like i was doing atleast ok... I have yet to find a finish as good as speed finish except for gloss and polish.

I’ve used the Paasche VL-3 a lot with the biggest tip but you still have to thin the paint a little. Make sure to strain the paint and use the proper PSI or you’ll be blasting chunks of paint and splatter all over your foam (actually gives a cool splatter effect if intended). The VL-3’s are pretty cheap but work great and are easy to maintain. The Iwata ones are very good but pricy. Freehanding on the foam is tough, hard to get good detail on a pourous surface. You can get great results though by masking and taping off stripes and stuff.

Paasche VL 5 is ubiquitous in the industry. You can spend some more $$$ and go for an Iwata. I have an Iwata HP-C for really fine detail work , but I rarely have the need to use it on surfboards. 

Harbor Freight sell a $15 Badger knock off that surprisingly works quite well.

Iwata Makes a variety of really nice air brush and cup guns.    The Japanese need our help and make quality stuff.  Iwata, Yamamoto etc.

     Howzit mike, The Iwata is a great brand and great airbrush for doing detail work but for fades I would get a HPLV gravity feed gun with a 0.8 tip and you can adjust the paint flow and air pressure also and I found that the only thing it was hard to do with it was whole boards and for those I used a bigger tipped touch up gun. The thing to do is buy morw than 1 size tip for the gun and if you are near a fiberglass Hawaii store just tell them what you want to use it for in all ways and they will tell you which one to buy and the tips you will need. I had a Pashe but it was to fragile and the tips bend to easy where the Iwata is like a Chevy 2 that is easy to use and fix and I think I paid $65 for mine  and a good gravity will cost you a little over $100. Alos buy some airbrush lubricant while you are at it and I found thebest thing to clean them with is a semi concentrated mix of Simple Green in a tapered tip plastic bottle so you can stick the tip right into the paint intake when cleaning. Aloha,Kokua

     Howzit mike, That HPLV Iwata is is quite expensive and not the one I was referring to but I always wanted to get that one if I had stayed in the business longer. One thing about Pahses is they are very fragile and be careful when working with the needle since they will bend very easy and that ruins them. My first airbrush was the Pashe and when I got my Iwata for about $65 I never used the Pashe again. Good luck and just be careful about the needles so you don't bend them. I also have to add that the Pashes used to cost about $55 and that was for the same one with every thing you got so I hate to say it but I think somebody took your money. Aloha,Kokua

For years I used a VL 5, in fact I still have one that I used in the 1970s.  That old Paasche has taken a lot of abuse over the years. To be safe always keepof a couple of extra needles and cones on hand.  The The Iwata is an excellent gun for detail work.