I just picked up a Badger 155 Anthem double action for general modeling work this week, here is a brief review for anyone who might be looking at one.

I got the 155-7 kit locally for 110$. You get three large glass containers and one 1/4 oz bottom feed paint cup, as well as a braided hose with standard 1/4" fittings. You can probably find the set on the web for considerably less, I've heard 60$ if you shop around.

The Anthem's party piece is a cone-shaped needle and tip that allows a full range of line thickness without swapping parts (as far as I can tell, there are no fine/medium/heavy needles available). This might sound like a gimmick, but it works. Using properly thinned paint and correct air pressure (15-20 pounds works well) you can go from about 1mm to rattle-can firehose blast, with perfect control and minimal overspray. Keeping a steady line is tricky with this setup, you'll need to practice your trigger pulls to make sure you don't accidentally deluge the surface when you are trying to get a fine line. Fortunately trigger tension is a snap to adjust, with a knurled knob in the body allowing you to set trigger tension. The action on my brush was butter smooth once I turned down the spring tension a bit.

Cleaning and field stripping is easy, the needle can be removed without taking apart the body (though it is easier to remove the rear of the body first). The rear of the body unscrews for easy access to the spring adjuster and needle, without disturbing the main body.

I mainly use the paint cup for ease of filling, mixing and the fine paint control. Even though this is a bottom feed, paint consumption is very easy to control if you are light on the trigger. The three glass jars are handy to keep thinner/cleaner on hand for immediate cleaning, swapping takes a second as the cup/jars press fit into the feed tube.

The main cons of the brush - the location of the paint cup (which sits on the side, just ahead of the hose connector) makes handling a bit cumbersome, the nozzles clogs easily if you are using acrylics (though this is probably unavoidable), and it will take practice to maintain line control with the variable needle setup. The apparent lack of multiple needle sizes is a con if you only want to do fine work, and a quick scan of the interweb shows complaints about fast needle wear (fortunately Badger parts are easy to find, and new needles cost around 5$).

Overall I'm pleased. This is a great general-duty brush that can do very fine work right up to large area spraying straight out of the box. The price is reasonable for a quality brush, and the only gripes I have are relatively minor. Recommended.

Thanks for the mini review, Jason! So, why aren't you writing more reviews that would be more permanent?

I've had this brush for about a year now. Haven't had a problem with needle wear, but of course I don't use it on a daily basis either. Agree, parts are inexpensive and this is the easiest brush I've ever cleaned.

There is a fine needle set up for the Anthem, though I haven't tried it yet.

The Anthem can, and will, spray a lot of paint in a hurry if you're not careful. With the fine needle, it may be much easier to control, and with the paint cup (which is halfway between a gravity and siphon feed), lower air pressures can be used.

Good to know there is a fine needle, I tried looking around and didn't find much. Everything was for the 150 or 175, nothing was specifically noted as for the 155. It is nice to have the range right out of the box though, for most model work you will be fine with the standard needle.