I recently made the decision to cough up some of my savings and get an airbrush. I think building scale model aircrafts is pretty difficult without a decent airbrush. After searching a bit I finally settled for the Aztek A470 dual-action airbrush set. I bought it from Aviation Megastore and it arrived within a few days, in pristine condition.
Also in the UPS package was the Revell Standard Class Compressor, because your can’t use an airbrush without a compressor or airbrush propellant.
The entire package comes with an Aztek airbrush, six different nozzles, gravity feed cups, siphon cups, airbrush hose and adapters, instructional video and of course the wooden case to keep everything in. After using the airbrush today I can say for sure it’s a great tool, but I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the USD237 I paid for it.
Let’s start with the thing I liked.
Besides the cool wooden case, I liked the fact that you have everything you need to get started. If you just buy an airbrush and then discover you need a hose to connect it to the compressor, it’s really no fun.
So Aztek gave me everything I need, including six different nozzles with different functions – fine detail, general work, and large area spraying.
Now let’s talk about some of the bad stuff.
The most obvious is the instruction video in VHS cassette tape – how long has it been since I had a VHS player? I think Aztek should start shipping CDs or DVDs instead and keep up with technology, for god’s sake.
The other thing I didn’t like is the low-quality materials and workmanship of the airbrush itself. There’s a pretty obvious seam line (see pic) which is surprising considering they are selling this to modellers who cringe at stuff like this. How much would it cost them to fix the airbrush tightly and cover up the seam line?
How I wished this was made in Japan, as that would have ensured much better – or at least more consistent – quality. Bad, sloppy manufacturing. Even the plastic material felt cheap and for a moment there it felt like a rip-off.
However, the airbrush does it’s job well. Fitting and removing nozzles is also pretty easy to do, and a newbie like me would find it very welcoming. So overall I’m pretty satisfied but as I said for USD237 I expect better quality, which I didn’t get.
It comes with a three year warranty, which I can’t use since I’m far far away.
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