Despite a lot of info on the topic, I wanted to describe everything you might need in one place. So you don't need to assemble an informational jigsaw puzzle watching dozens of YouTube videos. This guide (hopefully) covers it all.

Buying an airbrush usually means spending around $200-300 and also investing a few evenings into learning the thing. So, first of all, let's check if you should do it in the first place.

So should you get yourself an airbrush? If you already enjoy painting miniatures and/or wargaming terrain, and you want to do it both better and speedier — then definitely yes!

My only regret about buying an airbrush is that I should've done it earlier in my hobby career.

And if you've read the LazyPainter Method PDF — you might remember that airbrushing is an integral part of "Speedpainting SAW". If you haven't, check this out (it's free and takes about 15 minutes to read):

Ok, so you're getting yourself an airbrush, but which one? My best advice would be to stick with the most popular brands: either Harder & Steenbeck or Iwata.

It doesn't necessarily mean all other airbrushes are bad... But with these two you know you're getting yourself a good one.

There's a pitfall of "I'll buy myself a cheap airbrush just to try it" — please don't do that. A cheap trashy airbrush would only harm your skill and set a wrong impression. It would do fine for undercoating or terrain painting (at most), but most likely, you won't paint any miniatures with it. So...

If you're buying an airbrush, buy a decent one. You don't need the most expensive model, you don't need all the bells and whistles out there, just a decent airbrush (which at the moment of writing cost around $150-200). Any basic Harder or Iwata model would do just fine, and will serve you for years to come.

I've bought my Harder & Steenbeck Evolution back in 2013, and up to this day, I haven't found a reason to buy myself another airbrush. It just works.

But before you buy...

Make sure you have access to replacement components. I'll get to that in a minute, but you should know beforehand: there's some parts you will most definitely replace after some usage, and that is normal even for the best brushes out there.

So you should make a quick research to learn what brands are available in your region, in your local hobby stores, etc. Sure, you can buy everything online, but it is still more convenient if you have replacement parts somewhere nearby. You never know when you'll bend that needle.

In regards to choosing the model...

You'll want a double-action airbrush with gravity feed. "Double-action" is a lever mechanism that allows you to separately control the flow of air and the flow of paint (that would be important a bit later). "Gravity feed" is just a fancy way to say "the paint cup is above" (opposed to "below" or "on the side").

The next question you'll inevitably encounter is choosing the nozzle size.

Nozzle size of 0.15..0.20 is optimal for miniature painting. You might also want 0.40 nozzle for painting terrain or undercoating in large amounts, but 0.15..0.20 is your main nozzle size for minis.

My best advice would be to get an airbrush with interchangeable sets (as the one above), so you can switch nozzle & needle from one size to another, as needed.

Apart from that...

And that's it, your shopping list isn't really long here: buy an airbrush, buy a compressor. You'll also need a connecting cable, which is usually included in the compressor box (but that's worth checking out).

Apart from that, you might want to get some airbrush primers (like Vallejo Black / Grey / White primers), some Flow Improver (essential for some techniques, like Directional Glazing for example), a lot of tissue papers and q-tips, and a breathing mask.

And when you've bought all of these, and you're eager to start painting miniatures right away... you'll have to slow down a bit, since there's some stuff to learn first. You'll have to spend an evening or two to become comfortable with handling, cleaning and basic spraying.

First of all, you'll need to know how to disassemble (and assemble back) your airbrush, what are its parts, and what do they do.

This is how you'll disassemble your airbrush most of the time (for cleaning or troubleshooting). It can be disassembled just a little bit more, but it would be rarely needed (if ever):

Of course, yours might be a little different, but this scheme should give you a general idea, and your airbrush manual should answer the rest of your questions.

Let's do a brief rundown on the main components:

This also means, that eventually, you'll bend the needle, and the nozzle would deform and/or widen. That's why these are marked with red as your replacement components. Try to keep replacements at hand, since shit usually happens at the most inconvenient moment.

When you're familiar with your airbrush and successfully assembled it, it's time to turn on the airflow and get some practice.

Connect the compressor to your airbrush with a cable (usually included with the compressor), and turn on the compressor. The thing would start to rattle, and the gauge would show gradually increasing pressure. Give it a minute to get to 1.5..2 bar, and adjust it with the pressure regulator if it stops too low or climbs too high.

After that, if you would push the lever on your airbrush (without any water or paint), pure air would come out hissing.

Here's how you should hold your airbrush:

Next, you should familiarize yourself with a double-action lever. Let me remind you: pressing the lever down would let the air flow, pulling the lever back would let the paint flow.

To make a controlled spray of paint, the order of operations should be this: press down, then pull back, then press forward, then release:

Try this with pure air first (with an empty cup). Then pour some water in the paint cup (just water, with no paint), and try spraying some water. Notice how the amount of sprayed water changes when you pull the lever far back.

Practice this motion until you're comfortable with it: press down, pull back, press forward, release.

Then it's time to mix some paint and try spraying it. Usually, even paints made specifically for airbrushing are too thick. You can pour them into the cup and spray them as is at high pressure, but they would be hard to control. So...

Usually you'll be thinning your paints with Airbrush Thinner. Most of the time, something like 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 ratio would do just fine. You'll have to experiment a little bit here — there's no strict formula or a rule. You'll need different paint consistency depending on the technique you use (basecoating, blending, glazing etc.), depending on the paint itself, depending on the current nozzle size and so on.

To give you something to start with: if you're using 0.20 size nozzle, set the pressure to 1.8 bar, thin 1:1, spray from 3-5 centimeters (1-2 inches), pulling the trigger approximately 30-50% back. See what happens, then adjust as needed.

You'll get something like this:

If the paint is too thin, it would splatter into "spiders" and "millipedes" — meaning you might want a thicker consistency.

If the paint is too thick, it would look chalky and coarse — meaning you might want to thin it down a bit.

Don't worry to much if you can't get the right result from the get go. It takes some time and practice. And even with experience, you will still always test your paint and the flow (on your hand or a piece of paper) before actually spraying anything on the model.

Couple of paragraphs before, I've said that, depending on how your paint looks when sprayed, you should make a thicker mix or thin it down. This level of understanding is ok to start with, but actually, it's a bit more complex than that.

When you're spraying with an airbrush, the result is dependant on several things:

• Paint consistency, which we discussed.
• Pressure in the compressor. That is only the initial pressure to work with, but not the same pressure that actually blows the paint from your airbrush (since you'll be controlling and limiting the flow of air using the lever).
• Lever position. Meaning, what you actually do with your finger — how deep do you push the trigger (how much air do you allow to flow), and how far back do you pull the trigger (how much paint do you allow to spray).
• Spraying distance. Meaning, how far from the surface do you hold your aibrush. Smaller distance means that paint hits the surface harder, at a higher speed, which can lead to splatters. Bigger distance means that paint slows down and even partially dries while still in the air, which can lead to chalkiness.

Now, let's get back to the previous image:

TOO THIN might mean that you should mix a thicker paint OR decrease the pressure in the compressor OR don't pull the lever so far back OR spray from a bigger distance OR do a combination of these.

TOO COARSE might mean that you should thin your paint OR increase the pressure in the compressor OR pull the lever farther back OR spray from a closer distance OR do a combination of these.

For starters, stick to 1.5..1.8 bars pressure, pull the trigger 30-50% back, spray at 3..10 cm (1..4"), and experiment with paint consistency.

Yep, airbrushing take some time to grasp, and you might well spend a couple of evenings just trying this out and doing basic exercises.

Your goal is to reliably control the flow of air and paint, knowing what to do to get the correct result — when to change the pressure, when to change the consistency, and when to change your lever operation.

The next unavoidable thing you'll encounter would be airbrush cleaning. In the beginning, there would be a lot of it. Sometimes, you'll spend more time cleaning than painting. That's part of the deal too.

But ultimately, you'll master this aspect of working with an airbrush, and cleaning would become irrelevant in your time costs. And I'll give you some tips on how to get there faster.

First of all, some painters are a bit obsessed with cleaning, and do more cleaning than actually necessary. Please don't do that.

Your airbrush is an instrument, and not a holy grail. It must be clean enough to work properly — but no more than that. Yep, that's my "speedpainter's take" on airbrush cleaning.

That's why there's several options for airbrush cleaning, and you should use the next one only if the previous one is not enough:

No cleaning
If you can avoid cleaning — you should avoid it. No need to spend time and Cleaner between spraying close colors. Is it working? Is the paint flowing nicely without any clogging? Just keep on spraying then.

Needle cleaning
Some paint will usually dry on the tip of the needle while you're spraying. This build-up of paint will eventually prevent the flow, and needs to be cleaned. The easiest way to do that is to gently remove the paint from the needle with your own fingers. This takes literally seconds, and you can continue spraying immediately.

For this reason, it might be convenient to work without the needle cap — this way you can easily access the needle with your fingers. But, bear in mind, it's also much easier to damage and bend the needle this way.

Cup cleaning
If there's some clogging, or you need to make a substantial change of color, then you should clean with water and / or Airbrush Cleaner. I called this "Cup cleaning", since you'll be pouring some water or cleaner into the paint cup, and then spraying the resulting mess into the cleaning pot.

The optimal way to do this is to start with some water: pour a few drops into the cup, use an old brush to gently clean the cup, and then spray it all into a cleaning pot. If that is not enough, repeat this process with a few drops of Airbrush Cleaner.

If some paint dried in the cup, you might want to rub it with a tissue paper or a q-tip (with some Airbrush Cleaner).

Air cleaning
Sometimes you'll need to get rid of the paint that stays inside the airbrush: somewhere in the nozzle or the body. In this case, you won't get there with a brush through the paint cup, and you should do "Air cleaning".

The idea is to let some cleaner circulate in the airbrush without getting out. Pour a few drops of cleaner, then use your fingers or anything suitable to close the air head (Harder & Steenbeck has a specific plastic thingy dedicated to that), and then slowly push the trigger and let the air flow. You'll see bubbling in the cup, keep it going for 30-60 seconds, then spray into a cleaning pot. After one or two passes, your airbrush should be clean enough.

Mechanical cleaning
If all the previous options were not enough (which usually means the airbrush is clogged), you'll have to partly disassemble your airbrush and clean it mechanically.

Detach the end piece, pull out the needle, detach the middle piece, detach the nozzle and air head. Clean the needle with cleaner and tissue paper. Clean the body with pipe-cleaner brushes. Clean the nozzle with nozzle cleaner (looks like a short needle) or with a thin brush and Airbrush Cleaner.

Then check if you can see through the body and the nozzle, and that there's no visible obstructions:

This mechanical cleaning would be enough to solve almost any problem you've got with your airbrush.

Usually, this is a result of paint that dried somewhere: in the nozzle, on the needle, or in the body channel. Also, this could happen due to a dry chunk of paint that got into the airbrush from the paint bottle.

To solve the clogging problem, first, try to blow the paint using high pressure: put the airbrush into the cleaning pot and pull the trigger back completely, few times, in short bursts. Sometimes this is enough to blow off the dried chunk of paint, and this way you can avoid cleaning. But if this is not enough, go through the cleaning options: Cup cleaning, Air cleaning, Mechanical cleaning (as always, move on to the next option if the previous was not enough).

To prevent clogging (or at least lessen the frequency of it), try thinning your paints outside the airbrush, thoroughly stirring all lumps with thinner. No need to be fancy here, a piece of plastic blister (leftover from your minis) would be enough for paint mixing.

No flow. Sometimes you might encounter no flow at all, even no bubbles in the cap. First of all, disconnect the airbrush to check if the compressor is working properly. If the compressor blows air, then there's some issue with the airbrush.

This usually means some mechanical problem, and if it's not a severe one, it is usually solved by disassembling and assembling your airbrush again. While you're doing that, check that every piece looks intact, that there're no visible cracks on the nozzle or on the gaskets, no bent to the needle. Also, tighten everything, because a loose connection between parts can also be the reason.

Distorted spray cone. If the cone of paint is distorted, spraying would produce an uneven print: an ellipse or a distorted blob instead of a circle. This almost always means a problem with either the needle or a nozzle (or both).

Disassemble the airbrush and check the condition of these two parts. You might notice that the needle is bent, or that there's a crack in the nozzle. In this case, you should replace that part with a new one (although the needle could be straightened with some luck and finesse).

Now, after all these boring preparations and procedures, we can finally do something close to the actual painting. I would love to offer you some shorter way, my friend. But sadly, I believe, there's no shortcut here.

When you're familiar with your airbrush and comfortable with the lever operation, start with these simple exercises:

Dots. Try doing some dots of different diameters, ideally in some kind of grid, equidistant from each other.

Lines. Try doing some lines of different width, both straight and curved. Practice opening the air flow first, and paint flow second, so there's no blob of paint in the beginning and the end of your lines.

Gradients. Try covering some surface with a gradient (as smooth as possible), from the maximum opacity to almost pure white.

This will help you to get a feel for spraying, and to achieve some measure of control over the paint flow. And when you feel comfortable, move on to the next stage.

It's a good idea to start your airbrushing practice with terrain painting, before taking on miniatures. The surfaces are much bigger (and thus easier to control your paint application), and there's usually less stress involved. So it's a nice opportunity to experiment, get the feel of the airbrush, find out the right paint consistency and other stuff.

My first airbrushing project was exactly that — a table of terrain for Infinity. Or, more precisely, a big set of mostly Micro Art Studio stuff:

The level of painting was pretty basic, and took me much more time than it would take me now. But still, I got a table ready for gaming, with nicely painted buildings and scatter terrain.

After a few years, I was doing some terrain for our local gaming club. That included painting the same Micro Art Studio crates, so it was fun to compare the results:

When you feel comfortable with an airbrush, you've learned the basics of handling and cleaning, and you're able to control the flow of paint — it's time to try your new skills on some miniatures.

Start slowly, try some Zenithal Undercoating first, then basic Airbrush Blending (doing only one surface on a miniature).

My first project, involving this exact approach, was PanOceania Starter Set from Operation Icestorm box. I used an airbrush to paint that shiny blue armor — and only that:

Then, as your skills grow, try more complex stuff like Directional Glazing (although I should say it is a technique quite fit for beginners), Angled Spraying (check out Kairic Acolytes) and Masking (like in this Combined Army guide for example).

Airbrushing does indeed require investments of time and effort, but as soon as you're comfortable with the process and can produce a stable outcome, it would be totally worth your while.