Paasche HS-SET Single Action Airbrush Set - all three heads

I've been using Badger airbrushes for 44 years but Paasche has a little niche thing in affordable brushes that have heavier needle/nozzle combos in this H series and also VL series airbrushes. I turn wooden ornaments and other wooden things and the Badgers can't handle some of the thicker substrates and metallics I use . After a little playing around with reducers and air pressure I'm glad to report that this HS set is working very well. I'd give it 5 stars if weren't for a couple of niggles I have with it. But the finish is quite good for what I'm using and doing with it and with both the #1 and #3 needles depending on the actual material sprayed. I haven't even tried the #5 head yet. Another plus is that I don't need to thin acrylic urethane very much at all to spray it really nice and smooth for a gloss or satin top coat. It also handles lacquer based metallic silver nail polish well, which is often a base color for me. My Badger tends to choke on that with less than 50/50 thinning and it really likes more on the order of 40% paint to 60% thinner and finer metallic than this Paasche can handle. So finish wise I'm pretty happy with this purchase, it's a quicker coat if not quite as fine, but fine coats take many many coats to build too,so this is quicker building coats up for sure..<br /><br />So the negative: Instructions could have been clearer on the fact that the #1 tip shares the #3 needle which was not always the case on Model H airbrushes. Maybe I missed it but I ended up emailing Paasche about that , thinking I was missing a needle ( not a biggie but it IMO should have been clearly in the instruction sheet is all).. Secondly, this is a good sized air brush and I have good sized hands but yet finger placement is a little strange because the hose is so close to the jars or color cup. They have a nice reliable, good spraying design there considering it's external mix, and if they just swept the hose connection towards the rear a bit it would be more comfortable to handle right out of the box. I work around it but my Badgers just fall in place ( again not a deal breaker at all but gee it's a big brush really but feels cramped, at least in my hand). Third, it's a bit front end heavy, I'll probably get the metal back for it and balance it out a little, in hindsight I probably should have ordered an H 202s which comes with the metal tail section anyway. But I have this one now ,not giving it up, it sprays great ! And finally because this is an HS and not just an H and has the nut attachment for the jar lids, the metal color cup that come with it, you have to really make sure you have that all the way in and twist it and make it secure or it will fall off. I'm going to say for the outright real true beginner, buy the H model vs HS unless you never intend to remove that jar lid or use the metal color cup. Plus the H is 8 bucks cheaper.<br /><br />Now none of these negatives offset the positive or are enough to offset how well the brush works/sprays, it sprays quite nice and has the heads for heavy material if needed as I do, which is the only reason I bought it besides the idea it's nice to get something new once in a while. Yet with that #1 tip you can also spray very thin material, just don't look to do really fine lines. My Badger 200 is about 40 years old but being an older design, even with it's largest head installed it doesn't care for thicker clear coats or heavier metallic paints. Medium glitter type metallic clogs the head instantly, thinned or not. The same paint that clogs the Badger goes right through the H with a #3 tip on it, just open up a little bit is all. And that is without touching the #5 tip.

just what I wanted

Great for Sfx prosthetics, as well as models. Takes a little bit to get a hang of the nozzle and how much paint you want to come out. One thing to note is that the hose that comes with won't fit any of the iwata air compressor unless you have an adapter

Awesome - easy to use. Easy to clean. Great results.

Awesome, very simple. No complex adjustments. An early design but it is great. I use mine for gunkote and clean wit acetone. I have never had an issue

:)