Self-contained portable airbrush?

[Cajonpassfan]

Anyone tried one of these? They’ve been popping up on Amazon as well, cheap.
The description below talks about “relatively thin paint”. I was thinking it may be useful for weathering  track and scenery without dragging out the big gun and air line all over the trainroom.
Thoughts?
Thanks, Otto

[Spades]

YouTube, self contained airbrush.  Plenty of reviews and video in action.

[peteski]

With that rather tall "air" bottle, will it allow you to airbrush close enough to the layout surface, like for weathering rail?

[wvgca]

the compressor looks to be twice the height of the paint bottle, so maybe three inches vertical to the painthead ...
imo a bit clumsy to be real useful, unless you can 'tilt' the compressor a bit

[Joetrain59]

It's on the cover of the latest Micro Mark mailing.
 Joe D

[nickelplate759]

Isn't it essentially a refillable rattle-can with nice nozzle?

On the plus side, no hose to get in your way.
On the minus side, it seems too bulky to give you good finger-tip control.

[dem34]

It would be better in my eyes if the unit's air supply was separated from the brush. It would be transfering the bulk from an obnoxious can to to hoses but at least with it separated you can actually get close to things you intend to paint.

[Philip H]

[C855B]

It's on the cover of the latest Micro Mark mailing.

Yeah, that was my intro, too. I think the "appendage" limits its usefulness for anything you can't spray in a vertical orientation. Like @peteski mentioned, scenery and track weathering will be challenging if not clunky. I was painting track yesterday and thought about this self-contained airbrush in that context, visualizing how much scenery, structures and other stuff would be damaged due to my concentrating on controlling the spray rather than watching out for the tank banging into something as I change angles. The hose is rarely a problem, at least for me.

Also, bear in mind that one of the features of a fine airbrush is it is supposed to be lightweight and handle like an artist's brush or even a pencil, and the tank defeats that. It basically has the look and feel of a small spray pot, so not all that suitable for delicate control. Graf artists may like it since it is like a spray bomb with finer control, but for modeling, not so much.

[MK]

The guy on the video mentioned that you can connect a host to the compressor and then to the brush.  Would that solve the issue of the appendage?

Maybe I heard it wrong.

[Lemosteam]

The guy on the video mentioned that you can connect a host to the compressor and then to the brush.  Would that solve the issue of the appendage?

Maybe I heard it wrong.

Why lose the can for residual pressure reservoir?  Just plumb a 3 foot hose from the can to the airbrush and hook the can to your belt.

[Scottl]

I'm surprised by the concern about the dimensions.  It is not particularly oversized and seems to handle well for general use.  The mass means it will stand on its own too.   Given the quality of the finish in the review, I'm considering buying one.  I really like the idea of getting away from the loud compressor and hose tether and it looks to be great for track, backdrops, and general coverage of models.

[peteski]

I'm surprised by the concern about the dimensions.  It is not particularly oversized and seems to handle well for general use.  The mass means it will stand on its own too.   Given the quality of the finish in the review, I'm considering buying one.  I really like the idea of getting away from the loud compressor and hose tether and it looks to be great for track, backdrops, and general coverage of models.

You hit the nail in the head.  This device will work well for any work where the painted surface are either close to vertical, or can generally be higher than few inches from any horizontal surfaces (like a boxcar shell on a paint stand or handheld).  It is for the the ground-level scenery that everybody seems to agree that it would not do well (as I mentioned in my original post at the beginning of the thread).  I just don't see it being able to paint/weather sides of the rail (from low angle, close to the ground and to the rail)

Personally I think I would find the air-supply appendage to be cumbersome, hanging down like a piece of male anatomy.    With my airbrush, I use very light and flexible Badger rubber hose, about 3/16" in diameter (not your typical heavy stiff rubber braided airbrush hose). Wen I use my airbrush, I don't even feel the hose is attached.

Noise?  Get a CO₂ bottle - excellent source of dry compressed gas.

[wazzou]

Personally, I just think it would be difficult to hold.

[railnerd]

A friend bought one of the $35 ones from Amazon.  Felt cheap enough that I had him throw in one for me in his order— I don't have high expectations, but as a club member who often does "fix-up" work on the layout, this seems like this might help for quick touch-ups at the club without dragging too much crap around.

-Dave