Scale Model Tips - Testing Harbor Freight's $10 Airbrush - Is It Any Good?? 

Was just at HF buying my first air compressor (not for airbrushing, necessarily) and saw this on clearance for $11...watched this video in the aisle, and made the decision to jump on it! Pretty cool little kit

I clicked on this to make fun of it. Instead, I'm swinging by HF after work! Thanks for posting this!

That reminds me of one of Testor's cheaply priced Airbrush Beginners Kit I bought 20 years ago from a local hobby shop.

Knowing how to use any tool goes a long way toward getting great results with inexpensive tools. Keep your mind open and be amazed at what can be obtained. Jim

And I spent $300 on a Luminess Airbrush makeup kit and this Harbor Freight airbrush works better and all I do is add a few drops of makeup foundation thinner!! Makeup looks flawless!!🙈😹

The effect you're describing (that draws the paint) is called the venturi effect (or principle). As far as I know, all spray guns use the venturi principle. It's also used in virtually all carburetors. What happens is as the air passes over the tube that goes into the paint, a vacuum is created that draws the paint out of the jar. This principle can be applied to many things. In fact, I made a smoker (for smoking meat) using the principle. Actually, I just did it as an experiment and haven't used it for meat but I could adjust the output from my compressor to either generate a mild smoke or enough to smoke the whole neighborhood. Thanks for posting this video. The next time I'm at Harbor Freight, I'm going to pick up one of these.

Makes a great little air duster for electronics.

Had to watch again, never thought of buying a cheap airbrush until now. Thank you for all your testing and info. You do a great job !!!

I have the same type of airbrush but made from Testors. I bought it from Michael's for $8 with a 70% off coupon. It comes with 5 testors paints. The cool thing about the Testors version is all you need to do is attach the testors paint jars themselves. No need to pour paint into jars and having to wash jars after painting. These are cool. No need to spend all kinds of money especially for beginners.

Everytime I open up one of this i get more and more exited to start painting my own stuff. Thank you!

You can adjust the spray amount and pattern by adjusting the brass spout up and down. This controls the amount of air going over the nozzle.

*Barbatos Rex:* Testing Harbor Freight's $10 Airbrush *Me planning on painting my ACTUAL car soon:* _Interesting..._

I had a Badger 250 and it had the glass jars (only two though). I wasn't as good as airbrushing as I am now so I couldn't tell you if it was truly good or not but now my faith in single action airbrushes has been restored!

I'm pretty excited to get one of these with the glass bottles now. Hot solvents will no longer damage my air brush and I've always hated cleaning metal flake out of my standard air brush.

I bought one and used it on my first Gundam build. It worked really well! It’s the best $10 I’ve spent for model making!

Model paints are relatively expensive for the amount you get in the small jars it comes in and what I learned by experimentation is that you can get a greater variety of colors when you buy nail polish which is really model paint marketed for a different use and the nail polish is cheaper overall if you get the bargain brands and cover as well and can be thinned with the same thinners as other types of paints which is what nail polish really is anyway .

I am as green as possible to airbrushing. Your video was so interesting I watched it several times, to see your technique and to see what paints you used in the test. Very informative. I'd be interested in a "basics" on what kinds of paint you use for different reasons. Thanks again.

i have the same airbrush for touch ups on vehicles in my shop an i found some large glass containers at michaels to replace the small plastic ones i spray about 6oz at a time

Harbor Freight owes you some money. I stopped this video half way through and went out to buy one. I had bought a $150 airbrush kit, and this $10 tool does what i need better!.

Wow, this might be better for me than an actual air brush. No cleaning when swapping between colors? That’s a game changer.

I just ran across your video, great job of showing how well it works. One thing you probably already know, you can depressurize your spray paint can and use the paint in the air brush, for easier painting. And also you can get a thin piece of brass and make a "L" bend to cover the paint uptake for air drying.

What i wouldve liked to see is the klear Kotes and aqua gloss through these

Thanks for making this video. With the covid lockdown i thought i would retry my childhood hobby of model cars. I decided that an airbrush would be best to paint the kits and watched many vids on airbrushes when yours showed up to view. I stopped my search and went to harbor freight and picked this up. Thanks also for reminding about 20% coupons !

It looks a lot like the Aztec from Testors. I’ve had one for over 30 years, and I still use it often. I also have a Badger Creshendo, but I find myself using the old Aztec more often

I build model cars occasionally and have put consideration into an airbrush. But the compressor, all the cleaning between colors... This appears to hit all the right marks and extend the pot life of the paint if you're going back and forth. Like, with a custom paint job for instance, this would be perfect!

This machine is the original art spray technique. Actually the original was to use a pipette and blow rather than using a compressor. P.S., Was used buy illustrators in stenciling and with shields for shade gradations. Look at 1950s magazine illustrations and you'll recognize it in a lot of ads. They did some amazingly sophisticated work with this simple technique.

Thank you so much for this video!! I have had an airbrush for almost 2 years now and havent used it because I didn't want to bother cleaning it. After watching your video, I ran to HF and got one -- I love it. Thanks for all the great info!!!!

Your a magician man. This AB is crap like a grenade, thats a fact and you still get great results. This weekend I gonna try my own tests

I use this exact one, to spray Cheap (Usually Black ) apple barrel craft paint for base coats on terrain. Works perfect every time.

Mr. Barbatos Rex, you are incredible! You are always coming up with all new techniques and you are right, it's all physics. Great job...

Hey, Barbatos, that spray gun looked GREAT for applying large scale paints. You mentioned the plastic 'jars' and when you did I immediately wondered, "Will those Tamiya jars fit with the sprayer caps?" You should check that out. There might also be some glass jars from the "Herbs and Spices" you use that might also fit that diameter. If the paints in the larger sizes can fit those caps, though, that could really save you a lot of time, both in hooking up the paints and NOT having to clean an extra jar. Just a thought.

I've been using this for years now and I love it. Sure its not as good as a 200$ air brush but the price is right and its so simple. After some clear and polishing its every bit as good as a real air brush.

I can definitely see myself picking up one of these for simple tasks like applying primer. Thanks for the heads up.

That blue is beautiful.

Ive been hand painting models for years because I couldnt afford an airbrush. Bonus, they just opened a Harbor Freight in my town, so guess where Ill be tomorrow. Thanks for the review.

I just picked one up today, looking forward to testing it out. I also got the Airbrush Kit, which looks like it's the badger 350 clone that has a glass jar. I was hoping the glass jars would interchange with the plastic ones, but they do not unfortunately. Overall they're so simple they'll be great to play with but the little spring loaded buttons feel so simple I'm sure they won't last super long.

Thank you so much for bring out this product. Spray paint can be really expensive for craft projects I do. This has given me a wealth of ideas. I am going to get one and try it out. Wonder if it would work on silk flowers. The mist seem to be very gentle. I'll let you and the viewers in on some of the projects I use it on.

I liked this so much I bought a second one. This works great for quick color changes. It will also work with thinned craft acrylic paint which I use on my model builds all the time.

That's some handy information man. I'm pretty excited to see a good, cheap, easy to swap, workhorse of an airbrush.

I bought a $50 airbrush 4 years ago for various projects and finally tried it last year. (I forgot about it) It worked horribly with cheap acrylics. Yet here you are, playing with a Harbor Freight airbrush. Impressive. I'm envious. I'm trying to get my dad to check this out. He's retired and building model cars and trucks and driving us nuts. He has never tried an airbrush though in 60+ years of model making. Keep up the great work!

You're on a roll, thank you for testing all of these things and sharing the results with all of us.

Old tech. MANY years ago i used a hand pump sprayer for bug spray. Worked a treat.

It is a single-action airbrush and they are really good for quick color changes and base coating. If you have ever seen t-shirt painters and other "beach" artists, they use them pretty heavily. You can tune them to a very fine line with a little practice. I still have a few that I live by for larger terrain projects or when I need to spray a lot of models and don't want to deal with refilling halfway through.

The one thumbs down was from Iwata 🤣 Edit: I'm interested to see the putty comparison. The product you showed was the kind in a tube, which is more of a seam filler. Just wondering if you were planning to include the two part epoxies as well? The ones that are more for sculpting for scratch building /modifying parts. I have used Milli-put which I don't particularly care for due to the chalky consistency. I tried one from Loctite, which reminded me more of JB Weld. It was more reminiscent of plastic after it cured, but the working time was very short and it would harden up pretty quickly. Granted, it wasn't intended for models. The yellow Tamiya seems to be the best, though I haven't been able to find it locally, so I haven't had a chance to try it out yet. There is another Japanese one I picked up recently, a water based resin clay from Mr Hobby. Seems promising, but I haven't had a need for it yet so I haven't tested it out. I got it at a local shop, but I ended up seeing it later at Hobby Town - in case you may be interested.

With the quick adapter and large paint reservoir, be great for just holding primers.

I have successfully used this Harbor Freight crap airbrush to apply Moly Resin heat cure gun coating. You need to dial it down with the MolyResin so you spray a super fine misting coat. I actually works fairly well at this “dry mist” task. The plastic bottles melt when you clean them with thinner…..

I have an old Badger siphon feed from about 40 years ago. By adjusting the nozzle on the bottle I was able to do a 2 tone camo paint job on a 1/32 F4-E. It doesn't do a fine edge but it's not a bad airbrush for base coats.

The word you're looking for to describe this rig is an Atomizer. The principle has been around for thousands of years. I wonder if baby food jars might thread up on those spray lids? That might be a cheap way to expand your jar inventory.

That's the same way all airbrushes work. This one just has the guts exposed and no nozzle for finer control of the spray. It's obviously not going to be up to par for art quality fine detail work. But for basic type stuff it's arguably a more practical design.

Great Thanks - I recently bought some for primer and base coats - I have not used them yet - Nice review and results

Those caps will likely work on standard glass bottles, I've seen some at Hobbytown. I buy the Tamiya bottles as they are Tamiya shaped, stackable and has indicator marks. But the generic bottles are about $1 each. It's hard to tell how big those bottles are that came with that brush. So I say, try every bottle type you have and see if one happens to fit it. Glas would be very much the way to go... especially with primers and clear coats. Then I don't have to worry about gunking up my brush so much. Thanks for this video, I was expecting something completely different.

"for the record, the big Mac value deal is about 10 bucks now"

I have 3 of these I bought a few years ago for multiple projects, and have used them many times. They work great IMHO.

Thanks so much for doing this video. I learned something and now I'm not afraid of buying this kit. I'll see if I can find a source for glass jars. Shouldn't be too tough.

Wouldn't have given the HF airbrushes a second look. Now, I will.

I have to say thank you. After seeing this video I went and got me one of these and it's working great for I'm still a beginner.

Pulled the trigger on this airbrush after watching your video a few days ago. I actually love this thing. It works just as you said in the video and goes on just like a can of spray paint but not to heavy. Between your video of using $1 store craft paint in an airbrush and this thing I'm going to be in hog heaven. Only down side I see is there is still a little loss of paint in the cups compared to using a real airbrush. That's a trade off I'm willing to take tho. Oh, one last thing. The fittings it came with didn't work with my Harbor Freight airbrush compressor so I had to rob a quick disconnect adapter from an air tool and use my 30 gallon air compressor lol. Actually was probably for the best since the H.F. compressor doesn't have an adjustable pressure regulator on it yet.

... 3D print a "replacement lid" for each of your common paints with the fittings and same attachment as the jars for the airbrush... then use an automotive "vacuum port cap" to go over the brass nipple to seal it... never have to clean the bottles out. Just pull the cap off, plug it into the airbrush and away you go!

Good enough for me I use to do this back in the 80s when it first came out. It's cost over 200 for it

Thanks for the review. I'm looking to buy an airbrush for models but have never used one. Don't want to spend much until I have a feel for what I am doing.

Get the $20 actual dual stage brush, it’s probably one of the best I have ever used and I spray graphics and airbrush for a living !

Just spent $15 on black spray paint. Going out tomorrow to drop $10 on this endless spray paint tool. Thx!!

I'm a first time watcher, now a subscriber. You did a great job, easy to watch, easy to understand. Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos. Thank you.

Shipping out of the US is super expensive. One of theses works out at $50+ to Australia. Found Airbrush warehouse has stock of them locally. Edit - hose thread is Badger. I use a quick connect to a common hose.

*Fun fact: The spraying covers fit exactly on gunze bottles... You will have to cut the straw shorter though. I no longer use the plastic bottle. Glass is way easier to wash. Not as good on the Tamiya bottles, but can also fits. This set works great for coverage. Lacquer will melt plastic bottles (Hard exp). Nozzles can clog, but easily cleaned with one of those needle/pin with the plastic ball. If the nozzle gets bent, don't bother to try fit it. It will break. A little lubricant on the back end, and only the back , of the O ring in the blow nozzle will help prevent it from tearing. If it does, threading tape will also work and still be able to adjust output. An alcohol moistened paper napkin, pinched on the paint nozzle, works well to keep the nozzle from drying in between coats. I like this set better than my plastic Testor's D/A air brush. So much easier to clean.

Thanks! Always seen this at HF but wanted to see it in action.

I have also used cheap rattle can paint by spraying it into a chosen small storage container and can be even better than the so called 'model' paint that is sold in those tiny jars. It can be used as is for whatever you want ....be it brushing it onto very small and highly detailed parts with a very fine brush such as the embossed seat belts on the seats in a car model kit or in an airbrush for other fine detailed work.. it is somewhat messy if you don't use due caution in vovering the process of spraying it into whatever container you want to store it in.. but that is just details,, the rattle can paint is thinned well enough already and is ready for whatever you need..

I'm a professional body and fender and we actually use that airbrush for small spot repairs awesome for rock chips and small dings

Just found this video. Great info. Looks like I found a replacement for rattle-can spray primer. 👍👍

I'm impressed! I just bought this same airbrush kit, with minimal expectations. I do automotive paint touch-ups, but can't use a loud compressor where I live now and so I also bought an airbrush one on OfferUp. Your video instilled alot of confidence and so now I'm looking forward to using this setup. Thanks for the review 👍😁

AS a pre-teen I built and modified many 1/48 scale model car kits ans found many ways to do so on a very limited budget. but some of the modifications were to suspension and steering for rel functionality..adding springs and pivot points as with the real thing rears were simple but the front was more difficult and detailed. there were also some plastic injection molded figuines call "Nutty Mads" that you could paint in detail to look somewhat realistic. Its all in how detailed you wanted to get.. my brothert and I wanted the cars to look and act the part hence the mods for realism the rolled and steered as well as suspension articulated close to the real thing as we could get it to with the limited size allowed....the larger scale kits were simply too expensive for our limited funds at 10 yrs. old.... and some of them were metal therefore not easily modded as the plastic ones... we did with what we had to work with anexacto knife and various spair parts found in other toys adapted to our purposes..yes the saying...necesscity is the mother of invention applies here..Oh and by the way we also had nearly 50,000 peices of erector set steel girders, screws, nuts, washers, wheels, gears, chains and all the other different tiny parts and pieces that came in the multiple sets that made up the amusement park ride series sets each being a complete and working motorized ride assembly ..such as the tilt-a-whirl...the Round-up the scrambler and others totaling 10 different rides that worksd just likr the real thing in miniature and you had to assemble the ride and the motor that drove it as well and all the drive gears and chains no hydrolics as in the real thing but it worked ...slowly but as close to the real thing as to amaze onlookers..a couple of times my brother and I assembled all of the rides in a miniature carnival midway of all 10 rides to see if we could get all to run at the same time we spent a week building and setting them up one summer the only help was financial in the purchase of the many D-cell batteries needed to power all the small electric motors that ran the rides....exiting to see it really work all together at the same time..

Very cool, glad I caught this. I kind of collect airbruses. I buy them new & used I find a lot at flea markets and yard sales so I have a lot of Airbrushes from the top brands new and vintage Badger, Iwata, Paasche & Harder & Steenbeck. Different types DA, SA, gravity feed siphon feed etc. I need different guns for different work. Over the years I got several inexpensive guns from Testors, Harbor Freight and several off brands I found on Amazon, Ebay ans some other sites. They have all been pretty decent they have their pros and cons some can be pretty good with a little tweaking. I even bought one of those make up ones at a yard sale and some from nail salons! After seeing this I went out and got one of these just for the hell of it. It really does come across a cheap as hell but performs remarkably well. I like the fact each bottle is separate with a separate paint nozzle. I tried some of my glass bottles and they fit perfectly. I will swap out the bottles with glass eventually for easy maintenance.

Harbor Freight are Everywhere Now. There tools used to be crap but they have got a lot better. just when hobby stores are disappearing from the landscape and all you got is Hobby Lobby to go to.

Excellent video. Lot’s of information. Thanks for sharing your videos Artie 😊

I have a Badger 250 which operates exactly the same way this airbrush. I have glass bottles that work better than plastic. I agree it’s good for overall and base coat coverage.

Your laughter caused me to laugh but it is a genius idea no more cleaning the dismantling the airbrush to clean it every time you use a different color good job bud!!!!

I got the "fancy" $20 Double action airbrush from HFreight, It works much better than my Iwata Neo (that is not really an Iwata anyway), the problem is that at that price, there is no quality control, so you might get unlucky, it never happened to me but I saw it on other videos. I might get that one next time. Also their tools are a great deal, I got a reciprocating saw to remodel our bathroom for $27, and after all the abuse it's still as good, If you're not a contractor go there and give it a try.

What type of compressor do you use?

As for the hoses in the bottles you need to adjust them prior to use. As for the bottles being plastic you might want to look around and maybe one of the other airbrush companies has glass bottles that fit the same top.

Think I could just leave primer and clear coat in the bottles all the time? Is it air tight enough?

I started learning how to airbrush on a similar airbrush. It may not be the most high tech one, but if used right, you could easily make a model kit look amazing with the right skills. You can use this airbrush to build up your skills then move up to a more better airbrush and your skills will end up being even better.

Holy sheet! I just spent $210 on a Grex airbrush. You gotta beshitting me! The quick color change makes it totally worth it! On my way to Harbor Freight now!

Ok I'm impressed. I will pick one up the next time I'm at Harbor Freight.

I've been using an old Badger air brush that basically works the same way. But the Badger has an adjustable nozzle on the jar. So you can spray near nothing or full bore. It depends on the jar nozzle setting and the air pressure. And I've used most every type paint through it that exists. And that is important to know that autobody type paints don't dissolve the tubing and fitting on that Badger air brush. The jars are actually glass and that is really important so paints and thinners don't effect the glass. Some plastics could be a problem with certain type paints and reducers, and even hardeners. They are needed for intricate paint work and small projects and detail painting. JMHO

I am a guitar pedal builder and somehow this popped up in my watch list... I've been finishing my aluminum and steel boxes with rattle cans and paint pens. I'm thinking that I may need to do this instead... it will save money in the log run!

I shop at harbor freight often, most stuff they have are a great deal, but I do stay away from most electrical items such as drills, grinders and the likes. But things like this airbrush kit is a great deal. And most tools aren’t bad either. Of course I did get some aluminum loading ramps to load my 4-wheeler into my truck, which worked a few times, but then one day one of the ramps got a bend into it and I had to put some support under it for safety concerns. But the product you tested makes me want to paint some models now. Great video.

I was on the fence about picking one up until I saw your video. Looks good to me, thanks for the review.

I have been painting my model railroad buildings with a brush and acrylics but I have been thinking of using an airbrush. I have a Paache VL and an Iwata Eclipse, but I only use them for weathering, it just seemed a waste of airbrush to paint a large slab of plastic. I would still need to brush detail the window frames any way. The brush strokes actually give the buildings some texture, which helps with the realism. But with a brush like this and as simple, cheap and easy as it is, I may give up the brush for the base building color.

I had clogging issues with my bottles which how was strange because I was using Liquitex inks mixed with alcohol for painting latex masks, might grab an extra one from HB or try to find replacement bottles.

So I just did a trip to harbor freight. I got this brush and a matching brand air compressor. I can’t wait to fix the paint on my model I foolishly hand brushed.

Thanks for posting this. I don't know how many times I looked at this HF airbrush and scoffed at it. Surely something that cheap and made in China cannot spray that well. DAMN, it does a great job, good coverage, simple, easy cleanup, etc... The Tamiya Blue looks gorgeous and looks like it was shot then buffed out. I think I need to swing by HF and pick one up now.

It operates on the same principle as the old-time fly-sprayers...pump air across the end of a narrow tube that has the other end submerged in the liquid poison. I've used a larger version paint-sprayer in houses on cabinets and it's called HPLV; high pressure low volume. It produced very smooth results. I see on google today that some of these sprayers are now gravity-fed. I'm sure that glass jars with the same size threads are available from somewhere and I see no reason you couldn't decant all your paints into them permanently.

That is brilliant.....You are a genius and just loving you channel and vids.

Man I don't paint models but it's still really interesting to watch your videos

This might be nice, i have a bunch of Badger primer which works well enough but it crusts all over my airbrush really quickly. It might be useful to have this as a way to spray it with less obnoxious cleanup. (edit - ha, yeah, it's the exact one you pulled out at the 16 minute mark)

Suprising how good the flow was,have used this type of canister air brush before.but for $10 great for a beginner to use,love the vids you do ,you have a new subscriber ,

nice! great vid, gonna go check my local harbor freight now. glad you enjoyed it so much

Reminds me of my quick change Testors. Great for large coverage.

If you're going to regularly use this airbrush see if the Paasche H glass bottles will work with those tops..................I would bet they're interchangeable...................................Thanks for the review

wow ! i was just in the market for a cheap siphon one. $10 ?? you cant beat that!! thank you!!! going to harbor freight tomorrow :)