Hello! If you’re here, you probably have seen my first tutorial, “Bodypaint 101: Starter Airbrush Equipment.” In that tutorial, I covered some of the best options for getting started in the world of bodypaint and airbrushing. When I started in cosplay, those tools served me well for a couple of years while I was still learning, and I still keep them around to this day because they still come in handy on some occasions!
But eventually, you outgrow that starter gear, and then it’s time to look at upgrading your bodypainting arsenal. And in this tutorial, we’re gonna talk a bit about what gear I’ve fallen in love with, that both save me precious time as well as make sure my paints come out looking fantastic.
Badger 155-7 Anthem Airbrush
I used to use the Badger 150 Airbrush, and while I highly recommend it, it looks like it’s been discontinued. Once I got the 155 model, though… it was pretty easy to see why!
This airbrush was designed for simplicity. I’ve been able to get it to spray just about any kind of paint I put through it, and it only has a single nozzle! Other models I’ve used have different nozzles depending on whether I want small, medium, or large spray areas. But the 155 did away with that and now it changes spray size just by how you twist it. It’s comfortable to use, easy to clean, and easy to find spare cups for as it uses pretty standard sizes for just about everything. I cannot recommend Badger more highly. It’s not a brand that gets sold in local stores very often but it’s one of my favorites.
Mini Airbrush Compressor by Timbertech
The other major upgrade I made was to a better air compressor. While the Testors air compressor I recommended in my 101 guide is still very good, I really needed an upgrade.
The biggest thing that makes this an upgrade is that is actually has a tank for compressed air. Which means that it doesn’t run at 100% all the time like the Testors one does. This one fills up the tank and then goes silent, until it needs to fill up again. It’s so much quieter, and the air pressure it pumps out allows me to get much thicker paints through my airbrush. This was an upgrade I was very happy about.
