Badger Model 200-20 Detail Airbrush Review
By Dave Manter
| Date of First Look | December 2013 | Manufacturer | Badger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Model 200-20 Detail Airbrush | Pros | Nice solid design |
| Cons | 'Fast Blast Jar Adapter' is all plastic | MSRP (USD) | $92.99 |
Review
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The Badger Model 200 Detail Airbrush is a bottom feed, single action, internal mix airbrush. The kit comes with a ¼oz. color cup, a ¾oz. jar with the "Fast Blast Jar Adapter", a ¾oz. jar with cover and the wrench for removing the head assembly. No air hose is included. This is all packaged in a nice fitted hard case.
The airbrush features a .3 needle and will allow you to paint lines from about 1/8th inch to about a 1½ inch spray. The airbrush does feature a Detail Dial adjustment screw on the rear that will let you adjust your spray pattern. The airbrush itself is made very well and feels solid in the hand.
I owned a couple of Badger 200 in the past and was excited to see if they still worked as well as they did many years ago. I started by mixing up some Tamiya paint with my normal thinner to paint ratio, 50/50. I started with the air pressure at about 23 pounds. What I found was that the paint was still a little too thick and it was spattering at the edges of the spray pattern. I readjusted my mixture to a 70/30 thinner to paint ratio and increased the air pressure to 27 pounds. All of the problems went away.
With the spray pattern set at about ¾ of an inch, I laid down a solid base coat of color. I made several passes and gradually built up the color. The airbrush sprays beautifully! A nice thin layer of color that lays down very smooth was the result. I then dialed the adjustment screw in and tightened the pattern down to about a 1/8th of an inch and sprayed some thinner lines. Badger has equipped this airbrush with a modified crown cap that while leaving the needle more exposed, eliminates the air turbulence that occurs when working in close to the subject. This is normally a feature that you need to purchase with other airbrushes.
Clean up is fairly easy with this airbrush. I flushed out the color cup with thinner and then proceeded to spray clean thinner through the airbrush until it was clean. After flushing the color cup with three batches of thinner, I removed the needle and it was clean.
This Badger airbrush sprays really nice and would make a great first airbrush for anyone. It will also make a great general purpose brush for those painters that are more advanced. It is built very solid and is easy to operate and maintain.
My sincere thanks to Chicago Airbrush Supply for this review sample.