Approaching Airbrush Heaven
(December 2018)
I think I may have found the airbrush of my dreams. It arrived only yesterday and right away I fell in love with it. It is, like all my other airbrushes, a Badger: this one is the Xtreme Patrtiot 105.
Here is a photo of the four airbrushes in my arsenal. The top one is the old Badger 155 Anthem that I’ve had for longer than I can remember and does a mighty fine job. It’s only defects are the 0.5 needle that is a bit much for some jobs and the syphon feed which is a bugger to keep clean. Next down is my trusty Badger 105 Patriot which is basically a Badger 155 but with a gravity feed which is a lot easier to clean. It’s only defect is that its needle lets through a lot more paint than I need for many smaller projects. In an attempt to overcome that problem I bought the Badger Sotar 20/20 which is a beautiful airbrush and a marvel at the small details, but not terribly useful for larger scale work.
So what I was looking for was something between the Patriot and the Sotar, and here is it, the Xtreme Patriot. It slots right in between them and seems just right for the models that I make which are almost exclusively 1/144 airliners and 1/72 aircraft. The nozzle is just the right size for the amount of paint I want the airbrush to deliver and that high roller trigger gives very good control over the amount of paint that is delivered to the model.
All four of my Badgers are on call. The 155 Anthem comes out occasionally when I need to cover a lot of area and can attach a bottle to it, and the Sotar 20/20 will come out when I need to do find detail work. Before buying the Xtreme Patriot I saw a review that said one really only needed two airbrushes now, the Patriot and the Xtreme Patriot. I’ve got a feeling that the reviewer might be right. For me at least because, after all, finding the right airbrush for you might take a lifetime. Love is like that.
Leigh Edmonds
