Tamiya Airbrush HG III review part II - how it works

In part 1 we have unboxed the airbrush, found out, that it is very well made, solid, precisely assembled and overal I had nice feeling about it. Now lets take the airbrush to the workroom, fill it with paint and see, how it works.

 

I´m not going to stretch you. It is awesome! The airbrush has 0,2mm needle which means it is capable of making superfine lines. I have achieved lines of about 0,3-0,5 mm thick without any problems. On the following photos, all the dark blue lines, dots, etc., are made with Tamiya airbrush:

 

Those are centimeters, metric system, not inches

Using 18psi and Tamiya acrylic paint there is literally no problem making lines as thin as hair (check the second and third vertical line from right on the photo above).

 

Here you can see some curves and splashes as I tried different moves, coverage and whatever came on my mind. The airbrush is able of covering larger areas as well as making detail work. Of course, there is 0,2 needle, that means that basing your Land Raider with this will take more time than with some airbrushes with larger needles, but hey, it is not unreal. Here you can see Wolf Guard terminators based with reviewed airbrush:

 

 

Here is one more photo of "testing plate", again with measure:

 

 

The control of the airbrush is fine, I was worried that it will be worse because of the slight nose heavyness I found after unboxing. But after adding quick release screw and hose, it is perfectly balanced and fits in my hand excellently. Also the weight of hose counters the weight of cup and eliminates the temting to rotate hand to the side, which i described in part 1. Simply: connecting the brush to the system eliminates all the balance problems.

It has very nice trigger, tougher than Harder and Steenbeck Evolution AL plus and about the same as Badger 100 series, but I would say that it goes smoother than both aforementioned. It is adjustable and I did´t feel the need for it. For me, it is precisely as I want it. As I said, it is very smooth. There are no obstacles, "hollow" points, bumps. During all the way down and back, you can feel the slight and constant resistance of the trigger springs. Very nice.

 

The problems: As I said, all what can be considered wrong with this airbrush is connected with its cup. It is big and thus can block your view on the model. I say, that I haven´t experienced that so far, what I have experienced though, is that I wasn´t able to paint one part of one model because I wasnt able to fit the airbrush in - because of its big cup. Yes, it was kinda my fault - it was a model I assembled prematurely, but hey, maybe it can be big problem for someone, who needs to operate with his airbrush in tiny places.

 

One thing I would like to point to, is the shape of the cup. It is not angled towards the needle in the way, that would guarantee, that all the paint goes down, to the needle:

 

 

You can see that there is a ring of colour around the feeding hole. It just doesnt go down the hole, but stays in the cup. Make your own assesment of how bad this feature is. I´m able to get over it, but it is a flaw.

 

 

Here you can see the same effect when using Mr. Surfacer 1200.

 

Cleaning of the airbrush is usual. Just put the water or other dissolvents (airbrush cleaner, isopropyl alcohol, etc.) in the airbrush, as long as anything coloured goes out. You can easily "bubble" whatever is in the cup by simply covering front, which is helpful and easy to do with cover shaped as it is on this airbrush. If you want "total" dissasembly, the only flaw you´ll find is that the nozzle has to be unscrewed from the body.

 

Conclusion:

 

I really really like this airbrush.

- it is excelently assembled,

- it has very nice, smooth trigger,

- painting performance is outstanding,

- and in relation to its price? Wow!

 

There are minor flaws:

- no box for storage/transport other than the paper box you can see in part 1,

- not ideal design of the cups inside.

 

The rest are attributes: as I said, for someone they might be advantage for someone disadvantage, someone may not care obout them at all:

- weight - it is one of the heavier airbrushes,

- cup - it is big and it is on a tall "neck",

- it is one of the "longer" airbrushes,

- it has no super advanced features like "double stop screw" on Infinity airbrushes, no holes in the side of needle cover for adjusting the trigger, it has no special front cover for easier cleaning of the needle (but the cover is removable without any limitations of the function of the airbrush, so no problem here), its nozzle has thread and you have to unscrew it for total disassemble,

- it has the "impotant" features like "stop screw", double action, removable cup, removable front needle cover, trigger adjustment,

- it is shiny :-)

 

My subjective assesment? I love it. I like the weight, I like the way trigger is behaving, I really love the whole airbrush. I really can say, that the rumour, that this is Iwata category airbrush but without Iwata category price is correct.

 

Any questions? Ask them! Have a nice day!