KB02
Well-Known Member
In my post Rechargeable Portable Airbrush, I said that I would try it out and let people know what I thought. Well, after roughly 4 hours of ownership, here it is! 
This is my review of my PortableOxygen Injector Airbrush:
I came across it online and thought it looked extremely novel. Turns out they've been on the market for a number of years. Found a bunch of reviews online. I got this one from Walmart, but Temu seems to be the hotspot for them. For less than $25, which included the shipping and Walmart's 2 year protection plan, I now own and Airbrush.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never even held an airbrush before, let alone owned or used one, so please consider that knowledge when reading this review.
First impressions: I like it.
I set right in on playing with my new toy. I happened to have a spare canvas lying around, so I grabbed some darker paint and used most of the charge that came in the unit through the mail. Once I got a feel for it, I grabbed a cheap cattle car I had lying around and started dressing it up. From my research, this appears to be a single stage air brush; meaning the air is always flowing through the tip. The trigger controls paint flow only. I found this to be a little limiting on some of the finer points I was trying to paint; like the car's wheels. I had to paint them from a bit of a distance and at an angle. It sort of worked, but something I will definitely need more practice on.
I have been using mainly the cheap water based acrylic paints from Walmart. I found a great recipe online for a simple paint thinner: 2 parts distilled water and 1 part 70% isopropanol; this mixed 50/50 with the paint. As I happened to have both items on hand, it was perfect! One review I saw online said that they had clogging problems using water based acrylic paints with this type of gun and I did experience that myself as well. It was his recommendation to use the Tamiya alcohol based acrylics. This may be an airbrush thing in general, I don't know. I only had one clog, and it may have been a bit of paint that hadn't mixed well, too. Again, I'm on ownership hour #5, so time will tell if this continues to be a problem. There is a gaming shop on the other side of town (D&D, Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, etc.) and I'm pretty sure they have airbrushing paints on hand. They're located right next to the grocery store... I'm sure there's something in the kitchen I need...
When I was done playing, I had come up with this:
I meant to take a "Before" picture but forgot. Trust me, though, it was just as bright and plasticky as the red car sitting behind it. I know it's a pretty crappy weathering job, so if you feel the need to comment on it, just be kind. It was my first time, after all.
******************
If you happen to be Airbrush curious, but don't feel like shelling out the dough for a full on set up, but want to try one out, I would highly recommend this product. It's cheap. It's easy. It seems to work well. And I now have the capability to do things I didn't have before.
As Steelwheels said in my other thread though:
As I grow in experience and knowledge, this may become the back-up unit if I expand get a more professional style set up. I don't see it being thrown away, though, as I can definitely see where this will be useful around the layout where a regular compressor based unit would simply not work. For now I'm going to use the heck out it, get to know it, and see what I can do.
But like I said, I've only had it 5 hours.
This is my review of my Portable
I came across it online and thought it looked extremely novel. Turns out they've been on the market for a number of years. Found a bunch of reviews online. I got this one from Walmart, but Temu seems to be the hotspot for them. For less than $25, which included the shipping and Walmart's 2 year protection plan, I now own and Airbrush.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never even held an airbrush before, let alone owned or used one, so please consider that knowledge when reading this review.
First impressions: I like it.
I set right in on playing with my new toy. I happened to have a spare canvas lying around, so I grabbed some darker paint and used most of the charge that came in the unit through the mail. Once I got a feel for it, I grabbed a cheap cattle car I had lying around and started dressing it up. From my research, this appears to be a single stage air brush; meaning the air is always flowing through the tip. The trigger controls paint flow only. I found this to be a little limiting on some of the finer points I was trying to paint; like the car's wheels. I had to paint them from a bit of a distance and at an angle. It sort of worked, but something I will definitely need more practice on.
I have been using mainly the cheap water based acrylic paints from Walmart. I found a great recipe online for a simple paint thinner: 2 parts distilled water and 1 part 70% isopropanol; this mixed 50/50 with the paint. As I happened to have both items on hand, it was perfect! One review I saw online said that they had clogging problems using water based acrylic paints with this type of gun and I did experience that myself as well. It was his recommendation to use the Tamiya alcohol based acrylics. This may be an airbrush thing in general, I don't know. I only had one clog, and it may have been a bit of paint that hadn't mixed well, too. Again, I'm on ownership hour #5, so time will tell if this continues to be a problem. There is a gaming shop on the other side of town (D&D, Magic the Gathering, Pokémon, etc.) and I'm pretty sure they have airbrushing paints on hand. They're located right next to the grocery store... I'm sure there's something in the kitchen I need...
When I was done playing, I had come up with this:
I meant to take a "Before" picture but forgot. Trust me, though, it was just as bright and plasticky as the red car sitting behind it. I know it's a pretty crappy weathering job, so if you feel the need to comment on it, just be kind. It was my first time, after all.
******************
If you happen to be Airbrush curious, but don't feel like shelling out the dough for a full on set up, but want to try one out, I would highly recommend this product. It's cheap. It's easy. It seems to work well. And I now have the capability to do things I didn't have before.
As Steelwheels said in my other thread though:
I've got the feeling he may have hit the nail on the head.
As I grow in experience and knowledge, this may become the back-up unit if I expand get a more professional style set up. I don't see it being thrown away, though, as I can definitely see where this will be useful around the layout where a regular compressor based unit would simply not work. For now I'm going to use the heck out it, get to know it, and see what I can do.But like I said, I've only had it 5 hours.
Last edited:
Apparently I missed a few spots... 
