Actekart Portable Airbrush - A quick paint cheat code?

[twopounder]

I stumbled upon this on Amazon and figured I'd give it a try. I've been hit and miss with airbrushes and have generally found that they just aren't worth my time for the level of painting I do (I'm somewhere around "okay"). I've had some of the less expensive airbrushes that jam almost instantly and have found that all of the time I'm supposed to save is spent cleaning them out. Not to mention time taken to switch paints.

 

The concept of having multiple bottles with disposable tips intrigued me. 

 

 

As you may notice, its a battery powered, portable airbrush that uses a cheap plastic bottle and air needle. At first glance, it seems pretty gimmicky. There are other battery powered airbrushes and they are all horrible. The difference here is that it doesn't really try to be an airbrush. That is, it isn't trying to sell itself as anything special. It knows what it is - inexpensive and perhaps "just good enough".

 

Is it?

 

I did a couple of tests and I'm actually rather impressed. Note - I suck at airbrushing. I haven't spent much time doing it and typically would only use it for priming indoors because humidity here is awful most of the year. 

 

First I tried using it for priming the A10s you see in the background, but with the version 2.0 kit using 0.5 nozzles. These were TERRIBLE. They  replicate the nozzle and needle of an airbrush, but jammed very quickly. Even when I dumped so much airbrush thinner into the mix that it splattered and ran, it still jammed fairly quickly. So the 2.0 kit is a no go. Also, you CANNOT backflow the air to mix the bottle. It will force paint down the handle towards the battery and pump. Luckily the paint appears to have dried before it shorted anything, but be VERY careful about this. Pre-mix the bottle and remove it if you need to do anything more. 

 

I then tried the version 1.0 needles to prime a squadron of 8mm stormblades. This went VERY well. The airbrush actually worked much better than a rattle can and kept a very smooth, consistent layer of black primer. There was some splattering, but I'd say on par with the average rattle can - except without the propellant the flow was much more smooth and even. I'll try to make a video of the priming process at some point, but here are pictures of cenobium with a carbon basecoat over the black primer. You can see the model in the middle still has the black rattle can primer I put on them:

 

 

Its a little hard to see, but you can tell the difference. The base coat went on very smooth and even. Far more than I could have done with a brush (I know many people can, but I can't brush that smooth yet).

 

For the Stormblades, I wanted a somewhat light tricolor camo scheme using green, black and brown, so I picked Vallejo Heavy Carbon black, along with Army Green and Onyx Skin of the army painter fanatics line. Sadly, the last two proved to be a bit too light and pastel, but still went on really smooth. Again, I'm not an airbrush pro, and this was my first time attempting this kind of camo pattern.  I'd definitely use darker colors and apply a slightly heavier coat, but it does show that the airbrush does the trick.

 

 

 

 

Best of all? The cleanup was just rinsing out the bottle and the tip. Technically the tip is "disposable", but I didn't see a reason to. I suppose it will eventually have an issue that requires throwing away, but I'd guess that the tip can last dozens if not hundreds of hours of use before needing to be replaced. Since you get several bottles, you can actually  queue up your paints and get through multiple colors pretty quickly on the model. They do come with silicon stoppers, so the needles won't clog with dry paint.

If you're a pro airbrush user though, I'm not sure you'll see to much point in this. Maybe if you are travelling and want something you could easily use in a hotel, especially for the priming and basecoat ability. The accuracy is not great and its handle shape is not very good for control or precision. With some practice, you probably could become decent at using it for detail work, but I'm guessing you'd be better off getting a real airbrush at that point.

 

Pros: 
Fast to start
Easy to clean
Quickly switch colors with several ready bottles

Battery lasts a good amount of time, even on high
Great if you're still uncertain about using an airbrush
Very portable - no compressor to haul and its pretty quiet
Can prime/basecoat pretty much anywhere, even hotel rooms

Cons:
low precision and accuracy
Definitely has some splattering and can be worse if you aim it too far down or get paint dripping near the air nozzle

Does require gravity, so not ergonomic or easy to use at extreme angles

Not going to outperform a quality airbrush

Need to be very careful not to accidentally get paint down the handle

Meh:

Its $108 (about the price of a cheap airbrush and compressor)

Handle gets warm after 10+ minutes of constant use (not sure if it gets any worse if you keep it plugged in and spent an hour or so)

Does require power and charging

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by twopounder

[Bung]

So let me get this straight, you buy cheap chinese knock off airbrushes and complain you have Problems and they are not worth your time?

Sorry you fell for some influencer telling you airbrushing is magic Skill improvement.

It isnt. Its a set of skills you need time to learn.

 

Even for traveling i would rather invest in a Fengda AS 186 Compressor and carry my normal airbrushes.

[twopounder]

No, you didn't get that straight, but okay 

[sbarnby71]

I appreciate the time taken to review this.  I have an airbrush and compressor but only use mine for base coats, so I find I break it out less and less these days due to the clean-up.  As I only work on maybe 2 or 3 models at a time, something like this might work for me.  I also noticed the older version has he needle attached to the bottle and it has a cover so in theory you can keep your paint sealed in the bottle for days, maybe even weeks.  Big win for me as I use one colour.

[Firedrake Cordova]

It looks like an intriguing idea, and it looks like you've got decent results from it