Infinity or Custom Micron?

[paintemall]

Hi guys!

After 2 years of full airbrush immersion with Iwata Eclipse 0,3.. I' ve decided to buy something more.. Let's say..something for drawing fine details.
The choice is between.. Infinity CR Plus 0,15 and Iwata Custom Micron Cm Cp 0,18..
The question is...Custom Micron can be more precise than infinity even if it's a 0,18 mm and the other a 0,15..?
What's the reason of the huge price difference between the two?

Thanks for your replies!

[matrixone]

paintemall,
You will not really be gaining much, if anything, by switching to the Infinity or Custom Micron if you are painting models with regular model paints. The ultra small diameter spray nozzles of these airbrushes will require the paint to be thinned so much to pass through the spray nozzle that it will hardly show up on the surface of the model.
My simple low cost Iwata Revolution BR has a 3.50mm nozzle and sprays fine lines with model paints every bit as good as my Iwata HP-B Plus and CM.
The Infinity and Iwata CM are great airbrushes and were designed and built to spray inks or extremely fine grained paints and NOT paints for scale models. The model paints will give you a lot of frustration when trying to get them to work with the small diameter spray nozzles of the more expensive airbrushes.

What I do to get fine lines from my Revolution BR and Eclipse is to thin the paint more than usual and drop the P.S.I. way down and hold the airbrush much closer to the models surface. Also removing the end cap helps reduce any blowback which might disturb the line you are trying to paint.

HTH

Matrixone

[paintemall]

Thanks a lot for your answer matrixone. It has been very useful (together with other things I've read around the web) to decide to wait before proceeding to my next airbrush step.

I see You have an Iwata BP.. It's a 0,2 right? I've found this in a website that sells second hand airbrushes with 5 years warranty:

http://www.spraypal.com/shopexd.asp?id=2336 115€ means 97 £...It sounds interesting...

What do you think? Do you suggest me to buy an Iwata BP?

Thanks again!

[matrixone]

paintemall,
Yes, my Iwata HP-B Plus has a 0.2 spray nozzle.

Without knowing how much airbrushing experience you have and the type of painting you expect to do its hard to recommend you putting out the money for a HP-B Plus when you already have an Eclipse.
No doubt the HP-B Plus is a terrific precision airbrush but as I found out the hard way when I bought mine it is very touchy when it comes to thinning paints for spraying fine lines, you must have the paint thinned perfectly to get it to spray fine lines or it will not spray them reliably. I called Iwata and let them know about some of the problems I was having with my HP-B Plus and was told that this airbrush and the Custom Micron was never intended to be used with model paints, they were designed to spray inks or very high quality paints made with finely ground pigments.

Before spending the money on a new airbrush try some painting experiments by thinning the paint more than you are used to and drop the P.S.I. down to as low as 10 and try and see how it works for painting narrow lines or small mottles. When I am spraying very small details I remove the end cap from the airbrush and hold the airbrush close to the models surface...you will be surprised at just how good your airbrush can perform!
Also, I should mention I use enamel paints and when I thin the paints for spraying fine details my guess is the mixture about 60/40, 60% thinner to 40% paint, I can't tell you the exact ratio because I never measure anything and do it by eyeball.

Check my thread in the picture post section ''Matrixone's W.I.P. pics'' to see some of the paint jobs of my models, almost all of them were painted with the Iwata Revolution BR that has the 0.35 spray nozzle.

Matrixone

[paintemall]

Thanx a lot Maxitrone!