Precision double-action airbrush, nice
balance, conventional trigger control, super easy to clean
and reassemble
Cons
Nothing noted
MSRP (USD)
$265.00
When I first started airbrushing [garbled
text] years ago,
I was thrilled with my single action airbrush and pressurized
air cans. These got me through my early days in the Air Force,
though I learned a bitter lesson about those air cans when
I heard a loud bang come from my parked VW Thing in the parking
lot at Nellis AFB. I quickly determined that the hot desert
sun had cooked off one of those air cans which had blown
a nice hole through my convertible top as it launched itself
downrange. Luckily nobody was near it nor did I get a callsign
out of that experience. I switched to an air compressor after
that.
A decade later I had graduated to double action airbrushes
and had used several brands. I endured the reliability issues
with these given that spare parts were as close as the nearest
hobby shop. Even so, there came a point when I knew my lone
surviving and trusty airbrush was shot and the spare parts
weren't bringing it back any longer. That's when I discovered
there were other brand name airbrushes out there and my quest
for the ideal airbrush continued.
In the nearly 12 years of Cybermodeler Online, I've had the
pleasure of trying out different airbrushes, several of which
are now part of my workbench essentials. One day a few months
ago, a colleague called to see if I'd heard of Harder and Steenbeck's
line of airbrushes. I had not at that point, but I quickly
got in touch with them and they were kind enough to send out
this airbrush several weeks ago. I confess I haven't wanted
to put it down long enough to write about it.
Harder & Steenbeck has been around for decades, but their
airbrushes have not made it into the scale modeling world until
recently. What you see here is their (infinity) Two-in-One
airbrush set. It comes in a metal case, and that is already
a step up from the cardboard or plastic cases in which other
airbrushes are packaged. Straight out of the box, you see that
the airbrush comes with an airhose quick disconnect, which
was an immediate hit since I'd converted to quick disconnects
on my other airbrushes. The quick disconnect is the same as
those used by Iwata, Grex, and others, so you don't need a
special airhose. If you don't have a quick disconnect system,
Harder & Steenbeck have a nice airhose available separately
for their airbrushes.
Moving on, my first impression was that the airbrush engineering
was similar to Iwata and Grex, but was that ever wrong! The
look and feel of the airbrush is similar to those guys, but
the similarity ends there. The engineering of this airbrush
is definitely showing its German heritage. Precision all the
way! When you pull the airbrush apart, you can feel the difference.
The seat of the needle is much tighter, but this doesn't affect
trigger movement at all.
The nut in the open part of the handle allows for adjustment
of the trigger pull tension. Do you want light movement or
more tension on the trigger? Just dial it in. The gold knob
on the back of the handle allows you to dial in the maximum
trigger pull, so you can limit your needle travel to suit the
level of precision you're working to achieve.
The airbrush comes with a 2 milliliter (ml) screw-on top-fed
paint cup. For small jobs, you can simply remove the cup and
put a few drops of paint directly into the top. The needle
and nozzle are 0.4mm in diameter. This airbrush comes in a
'solo' edition which includes what I've described above. The
Two-in-One edition here adds some additional nice options:
Second set of nozzle/needle at 0.15mm diameter
5 ml paint cup (in addition to the 2 ml cup)
All of this is great and can come right off of a spec sheet.
The proof is in the operation, which brings me back to why
I took so long to finish this write-up. As I mentioned above,
this gem simply snapped onto my airhose so I was running different
tests through it. The airbrush moves Testors enamel, thinned
to the viscosity I shoot out of my other airbrushes,
just fine. Ditto with Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics. The Vallejo
Model Air acrylics are especially nice since you can simply
drop it as much or as little directly out of the bottle. Playing
with different combinations of viscosity and air pressure didn't
reveal any issues. But there was one test that remained - cleaning!
How many of you with your different brands of double-action
airbrushes have had challenges getting your airbrushes back
together again easily? The single-action airbrush should be
a no-brainer, but some of the double actions were a royal pain,
especially if you removed the trigger. I won't name any names,
but those of you with those brands will understand. Iwata did
something different and their triggers came out and when back
together with little fuss. How could you top that? Well Harder
& Steenbeck did just that. That unique-looking gold mechanism
attached to the trigger stem is part of an ingenious ball-joint
pivot that is now THE easiest trigger to remove and re-install.
In fact, it took longer to disassemble the airbrush for the
image above than to reassemble it again. The engineering, the
feel, and the quality of this airbrush has made this gem my
new favorite. Given the airbrushes I've looked at in the last
few years, it is hard to believe anyone could do it better,
but I am impressed.
If you are looking for a solid, reliable airbrush that is
going to last, take a look at the Harder & Steenbeck (infinity).
This Two-in-One version has a street price of around $260 USD
while the Solo (one needle and cup) runs about $200 USD. The
company also offers a line of accessories including airbrush
holders, air valves, and clean-up stations. Replacement nozzles
run about $16.50 and needles for about $11.00. You can learn
more about the company and its products here:
http://www.germanairbrush.com/
