Iwata HP BH - Unboxing and Review

[@justarandompenguin]

Hey there, very nice review and comparison! Quick question: I just got the hi-line one and found that the trigger has a side free play which my Eclipse does not have. It works, but the feeling is strange, as if an airbrush of this segment should not have this much of a free play on the trigger. What’s your experience with it in this regard? Thanks!

[@workingwithminiatures0706]

Thank you for the visit. If I am understanding the question, by free play I'm thinkin you are saying that if you shake the air brush, the trigger is a little lose or wobbly. There are a couple of hi-line models (ch, bh, th, etc...) and if you have the BH model like I do, there should be only a tiny amount of wiggling on the trigger, as the spring's forward tension should keep it relatively stable. If its very wobbly, then something isn't seated right. It could be the trigger isn't seated in the body correctly, you put the wrong size spring in there (i've do this sometimes when cleaning multiple airbrushes at the same time), or the threaded spring housing isn't twisted in all the way. All of these instances happen to me periodically, even when i'm sure I put it back together. Especially if I try to clear a clog by taking the back off and pulling the needle back and forth with my fingers while blowing air through the nozzle. If I forget to keep the nozzle pointed down, what happens is the paint can flow back into the airbrush body. Little dried flecks of paint can build up where the trigger sits, or the into the threading of the spring housing, and even onto the spring itself. It can clog the needle path also, causing it to stick and not allow the spring to push the needle all the way forward when you release it. In any of these cases, I generally resolve it with a full disassembly and deep cleaning of the airbrush. I try to lubricate the spring and spring housing with a drop of the lubrication iwata typically packages with their airbrush models every other cleaning, also. If I misunderstood the issue you are describing or if you have a different model, let me know which model number it is and I can try to find out for you. I'll even head out to the shop and try to reproduce the issue, that way I can try to help and figure out what the fix you need is.

[@justarandompenguin]

@@workingwithminiatures0706 thanks for your reply! I double checked, and there's a very slight wobbling when shaking the airbrush, it doesn't look as if it's loose, so to speak. I think that this may be something to stop the trigger from rubbing off against the body of the airbrush?. I'm probably going to take it to the shop, I've been testing this one out with multiple combinations of air pressure, paint dillutions and different thinners and i'm still not able to get really fine lines with it (although, I'm no expert at airbrushing at all, but my kit, paints and compressor are decent). Also, there seems to be a sort of "bump" in the airbrush body, just below the cup. I'm not sure how to describe it, but there's also a sort of weird white kind of finish around it, as if there was some issue/defect in the electroplating process. Not very noticeable, but enough for me to see when cleaning the airbrush. I'm not sure if this is also normal, but this sort of things are not what I expected from a high end airbrush since, well...my crappy chinese airbrush, or my Iwata eclipse don't have any of these details.