Airbrushes
Single Action
There are several brands of airbrushes to choose from. I started with Badger airbrushes. My first airbrush was a single-action siphon-feed Badger 350. It has been a real workhorse for me. The siphon cups can hold a large amount of paint and I use them to prime and base coat units in a fraction of the time it takes to with a manual brush. Check the price on Amazon.
Double Action
Double action airbrushes are great for the fine details that we paint on miniatures. My recommendation for a double-action airbrush is a Badger Sotar 20/20 gravity feed airbrush. Double action airbrushes give you finer control of the amount and rate of paint coming from your brush. The gravity feed cup holds much less paint than the large bottles for the siphon-feed. However, when using an airbrush you usually end up using much less paint than you do with a manual brush. Check the price on Amazon.
Other great brands of airbrushes are
Paasche Talon gravity feed. I own one of these and it is a nice set. check price here
Or if you want really high-end Harder and Steenbeck check prices here.
Paint Organizers
I have some great paint organizers. They are by a Vallejo. I like that they keep the bottles from sliding around and up off of my work area. You can find one here.
Other Tools
- Hobby knife: This will be used to remove mold lines and flash as detailed later in this article
- Side cutters: These are valuable especially if your models are on sprues.
- files: small files are useful for smoothing rough edges and removing posts that you may have missed with the side cutters
- Model-Glue: Something has to hold these things together. If you are gluing plastic pieces together I recommend Tamiya extra thin because it gets into the cracks between pieces and welds them together. If you are gluing other types of materials such as resin or metal, then plastic glues won’t work you will need some type of CA glue commonly called super glue
- Pin vise: this is a useful tool for securing large pieces that are difficult for glue alone to hold
- Magnets: These are great for creating interchangeable parts on your models (read article about this HERE)