The purpose of this thread is to detail any tips, tricks or techniques for all things airbrush. This is also the place to ask any questions you may have about airbrushing which should hopefully come in handy for people just getting started/wanting to find out more.

When it comes to airbrushing Transformers, I recommend a dual-action gravity fed airbrush. With this type of 'brush you get better control with the dual-action (allowing real-time adjusting of paint volume) and easier cleaning & the ability to spray at lower air pressures with the gravity fed paint cup (at the sacrifice of holding less paint than a siphon fed airbrush).

For those who already airbrush, I'd be interested to know which brush/compressor combo you use, what psi air pressure you set the compressor to (do you ever change the psi?) and any discoveries you've made since practicing this method of painting.

Local prices for quality brands (Iwata, Badger, Paasche for example) are a bit ridiculous so I looked online and ended up buying an airbrush & compressor combo from http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/.

I went for this particular combo which is great as it allows you to pick exactly which brush you want (I went for the CR after all the great things I'd read about it in forums). The total cost for this set was US$331 including shipping to Australia. The CR itself is a brilliant piece of kit, I especially love how you can remove the end nozzle to spray super fine lines of paint.
http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/iwre.html

One thing I will say about this particular compressor (Iwata Sprint Jet) is that despite it saying in the write up: "Working pressure from 1psi to 35psi", I've never been able to get it higher than 23psi despite everything being correctly/firmly connected (for the uninitiated, the working pressure is the psi once the airbrush is releasing air). Strangely, if I set the psi anywhere between 55-80 (idle, not working pressure) it still always maxes out at 23psi. Not really sure what's going on there but ah well.

While we're on the topic of the compressor, and being that we live in Australia, I strongly urge that you buy an 'in-line moisture trap' if you're using a small compressor such as my one (yes, even if it has it's own built in moisture trap). Trust me, when it's a hot/humid day those little moisture traps just can't cope and you will most likely end up with an airbrush that spits out water every now and then effectively ruining an otherwise perfect paint job. Putting the compressor on the ground can help with this but I still recommend the second inline moisture trap - all you need is one of these for $10 shipped http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AIRBRUSH-MINI-...#ht_1835wt_905. (don't pay 5X for a brand model that's exactly the same thing). You can thank me later.

Other than that, another essential purchase (which I still haven't bought, lol, good one DD) is an airbrush holder. I can't tell you how many times I've knocked my CR over and spilled paint everywhere! Last night I tried to balance it on the compressor, I of course then bumped it which ended up with yellow paint on the compressor, its cables and my workstation. Oh joy.

Here are some other bits and pieces I've bought along the way, all of which I'd consider must have airbrushing equipment:

-3M 6200 Respirator with 3M 60921 P100 cartridges (when spraying Enamels)
-Dust Mask (when spraying Acrylics)
-Windex (to clean airbrush)
-Thinner (Acrylic or Enamel)
-Spray booth (I made one out of an old box & sheets of plain white A4 paper)
-Paints (duh!) - I've used Mr Hobby & Tamiya only, don't have a bad thing to say about either of them although my preference goes to Mr Hobby (you can pretty much spray it straight out of the bottle it's so thin)

I could go on but that's a good enough start. I don't even know if anyone will use this thread (!) but hopefully someone finds it useful.