Grex is an amazing young airbrush company making impressive products and starting to spend more time catering to miniature hobbyists. I met these guys two years ago at the first Monsterpalooza convention in LA and immediately bought an airbrush and compressor. What is unique about the Grex line is that they make pistol grip DOUBLE ACTION airbrushes that allow you to use an airbrush in a different way than a traditional double action airbrush.
With a traditional double action airbrush you have to push down the top lever to create air flow and then pull back for paint flow. It isn't intuitive and takes a while to learn.
A Grex pistol grip airbrush changes all that. You simply pull the trigger to create airflow. You hit a friction point, sort of like on a clutch, and then you pull it even more to create the paint flow. The more you pull, the greater the flow.
There are a bunch of advantages with this.
1) The ergonomic design means your hand doesn't get tired holding an airbrush in an unnatural position.
2) You don't have two planes of movement which you need to move the trigger as with a traditional airbrush. No down and back, just back.
3) The mechanism is much easier to clean.
4) Superior paint control with fine line and general coverage performance as well as the air brush being less prone to clogging. Here's why: when you release the trigger the paintflow shuts off before the air flow, therefore you don't have residual paint in the gun nozzle when you start the flow of air again like with traditional double action air brushes.
There are a bunch of advantages with this.
1) The ergonomic design means your hand doesn't get tired holding an airbrush in an unnatural position.
2) You don't have two planes of movement which you need to move the trigger as with a traditional airbrush. No down and back, just back.
3) The mechanism is much easier to clean.
4) Superior paint control with fine line and general coverage performance as well as the air brush being less prone to clogging. Here's why: when you release the trigger the paintflow shuts off before the air flow, therefore you don't have residual paint in the gun nozzle when you start the flow of air again like with traditional double action air brushes.
Tritium TG - Dual Action Pistol Style Airbrush, Top Gravity Feed
Tritium TS - Dual Action Pistol Style Airbrush, Side Gravity Feed
Grex does make a range of traditional double-action airbrushes
Grex also makes an amazing air compressor that is very quiet
http://www.spikeybits.com/servlet/StoreFront
Good painting!
Loken
I've been thinking about these guys. What is the difference between the side load and top load for performance?
ReplyDeleteAll personal preference. The side load does allow use of Azteck paint pots too (with a small adapter) which can be VERY handy. More coming.
ReplyDeleteAlec
Very nice blog, thanks for your generous info. More power to you!
ReplyDeleteThe Grex Tritium TG (Trigger/Gravity feed) is a stand alone airbrush as are all gravity feed airbrushes. There is no compatibility with bottles or color cups from other manufacturers. However the Tritium TG does come with three color cups (small,medium & large) to accommodate appropriate amounts of paint for your project. In fact The TG can be used without a color cup at all for those tiny touch ups or using very small amounts of paint.
ReplyDeleteThe Tritium TS (Trigger/Side feed) has the ability to adapt to other products. For exampled in the box comes two color cups (Small and medium) and a siphon bottle. The cap for the bottle is the same thread size as that of Badger bottles. So if you have a quantity of Badger bottles, you can use them with the Tritium TS.
Not included in the box are a couple of adapters that work really well. The AD31 as mentioned above works with the Aztek press fit color cups. This allows quick color swap out with a quick flush of thinner in between.
For those that have Paasche or Badger press fit bottles or color cups, the AD32 adapter accommodates those nicely. It is possible to attache Paasche's large 3oz bottle without any interference with Triggering or general performance of the airbrush. This could be a valuable tool when painting your maps and large quantities of structures.