Choosing the right source of air for your airbrush

Air propellant cans…

Ok, one blew up years ago in my face and I nearly suffered serious injury and therefore I may be just a little biased but not much, really.

Q “They’re cheap, aren’t they?”

No, sorry I don’t think that they are. You can pay between £10 and £15 for a decent sized can and just look at how the cost can and will soon mount up? So depending on how much modelling you do the cost is going to be very high indeed for using this source of air.

But perhaps the biggest drawback is the lack of control – basically the air comes out at very high pressure at the start and wanes off to very little after you use it for a while. Them what do you do? Have more cans available so you’ll have to number each one or have a great memory to remember what order you used them in.

I have tried and failed to use cans in the past to tackle subtle and complex camo schemes on my models because of this lack of control, so your modelling can become pretty staid and even boring if you’re not careful.

The cost cannot be ignored I feel because there are so many, many hobbies that you could enjoy that would all take far more money than the outlay on a compressor, kits and materials you’ll need here: golf, fishing, football the list is endless will cost you far more in the medium to long term than scale modelling, unless your expenditure is out of control – then you probably need therapy or a serious session on e-bay… but that’s another story another day maybe!??

Closing thoughts

Ok, there are lots of issues that can get in the way, excuses even, but if you enjoy your modelling, or want to move on and achieve good results then I don’t think it’s a case of if, but when you reach the decision to get a compressor. There really is no contest in my book.
Take a look at some images below…

Geoff Coughlin