Badger Renegade Krome - The airbrush that makes me look good.

Yeah, that's it.  That's my new Airbrush.  The Badger Renegade Krome.  After listening to Joe from the Screaming Heretics (pre-Accident) and other podcasters, I decided to take the plunge.  Now listen, I'm not airbrush expert, not even that good really, but I am easily swayed to try things.  In the model railroad world, some podcasters convinced me to try the Iwata line of brushes, and I did.  I popped for an Iwata Revolution CR.  I like that brush, it's really nice, but I have to give the big nod to the Krome… WOW.  I got mine from MrJustin over at Secret Weapon Miniatures for a pretty decent price.

Mine came just like you see, a nice black box that housed the brush, plus an adaptor to go from the badger connector to the normal sized air connector, a spare needle, spare tip and a nozzle cover that was nub-less.  I shouldn't say spare needle and nozzle, since they are actually .33mm whereas the one installed is .21mm.  All told, you get quite a bit of awesome with this thing.  I ended up pulling out the fitted foam in favor of being able to store both the Iwata and the Krome in the same box.

The first thing I did with it was take it apart.  Remember, you don't really own it until you can take it apart and understand it enough to put it back together :).  Glad I did to, as advanced and great as this thing is, it needed lube.  After putting it back together, it worked a good bit smoother.



On first use, I shot A LOT of water at cardboard.  I was VERY impressed with the fine lines I was able to make with this brush after just a few moments.  The double action trigger felt right and natural in use.  The fineness of the spray pattern was very impressive, even at distances of 3-6 inches.  Getting in tight led to very fine lines and an exceptional amount of air control to produce pinpoint or blurred lines.  I was getting pretty excited about using this thing.

I moved on to some plastic and was really impressed.  I thinned some Valejo model color to about 50-50 with my patented (and secret) mix of Windex, Acrylic thinner, distilled water and airbrush medium.  Ok, it's not so secret;

• 5cc Windex (to break down surface tension)
• Screaming Heretic says this might be bad idea, Windex may lead to paint cracking.  Switching to Iso Alcohol)
• 10cc Acrylic thinner (to make the paint break down a bit)
• 10cc Airbrush Medium (From any Art Store, to help suspend the paint pigments because there is a lot of water)
• 25cc Distilled Water (to thin it all down)

The spray pattern was great and I had really fantastic control of it.  The real test came when I shot the inside of my new Land Raider … after I had built it all.  Needless to say, the approaches I could use to spray the interior were limited.  Mainly the assault front hatches, and the overhead hatches.  The side hatches were also still open.  The brush was able to shoot the interior without pooling it all up or over-spraying.  I was very impressed.

So now I had to flex my airbrush muscle a little.  I have been sitting on a Necron Night Scythe for some time, all primed and ready to paint, but the idea of brush blending something that big turned me off.  Now, I have never, ever blended with an airbrush before, that is important to understand.  So, I shot my lightest color on the piece with no problem.  Now came the middle blue color…  nerves aching, stomach roiling, I started to shoot.  Wow, was that ever easy!  Got out the darkest color, shot that blend line and seriously began to think of myself as an expert.

Now, I know that the airbrush did not blend the paints, it just gave me the confidence to do it.  It is so smooth and easy to control, I was confident enough to try something new.  Here is the result...

Not too bad, huh?  So, if you're in the market for a brush, you can't do much worse than the Badger Krome...