Hand painting vs. Air brushing

So in my last post I mentioned that I received something special in the mail, and that would be my new air brush! Yup, that's right I am taking the plunge into airbrushing! I figured I would talk a little bit about hand painting and air brushing and why I'm making the switch.



Lets start off with air brushing, I bought myself a Badger Patriot 105. I've been using airbrushes for a while to prime and top coat my models but I figured I would start painting with them too. Usually to prime my models I use a Master Airbrush G-233. Now this is by no means a terrible airbrush... but its cheap. the difference between a $30 airbrush and a $150 airbrush is astounding. The badger is so much smoother and just feels better in the hand. I'll keep on using my G-23 for top coating and priming but my Badger will be for color only.

Now lets talking about hand painting. I love hand painting, I find it just fun and incredibly relaxing. I mainly use Raphael brushes but I have a set from Wal-mart that are top notch in my opinion. I think you can get some incredible results using hand brushes. There are many very talented builders out there that hand paint and get incredible results. All it takes is some patience and practice.

Now lets talk about the switch, if I love hand painting so much...why am I switching? Well there are some things that you can do with an air brush that you cant do with a hand brush. pre and post shading are two things and Gradients are another big thing. But the big thing is time... it takes a lot of time to hand brush an entire kit especially something bigger like a master grade. with an airbrush you take a weekend or two and you have a kit done with hand painting it usually takes be between 3-6 months to build an entire kit. With this being said though I won't stop hand painting. I will still paint a lot of miniatures this way and I think its important to be able to paint in multiple ways. If I have time I'll paint by hand but just to get through some of my back log I think I'm going to air brush most of the kits.

I also ave several projects that I'm working on now. My entry for the Level UP! contest is complete and I just have to take final photographs. I'm also working on a MG Unicorn Gundam which has the entire inner frame ready for painting (Just have to wait for some air brush paints) and I'm going to be working on two miniatures also. I'm redoing my Nomad warjack and I'm going t be painting another croak hunter. Hope you guys have a good one and enjoy the upcoming holidays here in the US! As always if you have any questions feel free to ask :)