I have had a few airbrushes in my time. All have been ok, with different degrees of skill required. The only double action I bought was far to technical for me to clean and put back together, so I went back to a single action Badger. After spilling far to many paint cups onto the floor, I recently picked up an Aztek 4709. It comes with six color cups and six different nozzles. I had never had an Aztek before so it was a new experience to me. SOFAR, it has been the EASIEST airbrush I have ever owned to operate and clean! It is both a single action and double action depending on how you operate the flow control. I have found it to be very user friendly in the dual action mode. I am an impatient modeller, and cleanup was always a problem for me with the other airbrushes. Not so with the Aztek. Just clean the color cup out with whatever thinner you have used to thin the paint, and its pretty much ready to go with the next color!! The gravity feed cups have been a godsend for me, because the vacuum siphon cups I am used to using always fell out or spilled when I was trying to do something intricate. The Aztek cups have neat covers on them, that allow air in but not paint out. I run mine from an air compressor with a 3 gallon storage tank, and it provides endless air supply. I would reccomend it to anyone doing plastic modelling and not wanting a ton of pieces to clean.

Brian

I am glad to here you are enjoying your Aztek, I had one for many years, before I got my Paasche and Iawata. I did enjoy it, worked well, I was not impressed by the dual action, I never got it to work correctly. For dual action I prefer my Iwata. The point I wanted to make, was that one thing I found about my Aztek, is it was not very Acrylic friendly. I find my Paasche and Iwata alot more Acrylic friendly. Hope you enjoy you new toy, and can't wait to see some of your work.

Kevin

I ran acrylics through it tonight for the first time. I actually used the general purpose nozzle, not the ones specifically for acrylics.... it worked as good as any other airbrush, but I WILL SAY... very finicky when it came to the mix.. I had it to thin the first few shots... but it evened out nicely... I have two leopards in the mix and once theyre done I will post a few pics!

Hi Brian

One word of advice on the Aztek: it's VERY important with this brush to avoid letting paint or dirty thinner work its way inside the body of the brush. Try to avoid spilling paint on the body at all costs, and keep the area inside the metal collar where the nozzle screws in meticulously clean. With bad airbrush hygiene, paint residue will quickly collect in the works, gumming everything up and making the brush a royal pain (if not impossible) to use. While the body can be disassembled, it's risky and problematic, and will void the warranty.

I had the metal bodied version, which is actually screwed together and much easier to take apart. Try as I might, I could never get by too long without getting paint in it and having to dismantle it for cleaning. You might have better luck, as I'm simply spill-prone.

And I agree, when the Aztek is in a good state of repair, it can be a very user-friendly airbrush.

Regards;

Automaton

Here are some results of my first attempt to paint camo with it,... I learned hard edged masks arent my thing yet. Time to find some silly putty!