So today a wonderful little gift arrived in the mail from that wonderful place called Amazon. A few days ago someone on the Facebook group Warhammer for Grown-Ups said that Amazon had a great deal on Badger Sotar 20/20. I read through some of the reviews saying it was a great airbrush, perfect for fine detail, and many people said that it was like all other well made and well supported Badger products. I'm really happy with how quickly the airbrush arrived and especially that since I bought the last one on Amazon it was 90% off! I've heard of other people getting these deals but it's the first time I've ever gotten one.
Like many have already said, the Sotars 20/20 does not come with a hard case like many other badger airbrushes, but the cardboard box it arrives in is sturdy and adequate. As you can tell from the picture above, it comes with an extra needle, a few other replacement parts, and all the tools you need to take apart and clean the airbrush. I actually think the replacement needle might be a different gauge so that you can change out the thickness of paint you can use in the gun. I'm not completely certain, though, as I haven't had the chance to switch out the needles and compare the spray patterns.The main reason I got an additional airbrush was to do very targeted pre-shading and highlighting on models without bleeding into areas I didn't want to affect. The Patriot 105 is a great airbrush but I couldn't figure out a way to make really thin and consistent lines so let's see if the Sotar 20/20 can help!
In the picture above you can see that the 20/20 ends with an additional nut that has numbers circling it dash marks periodically. This is the coolest feature of the 20/20 so far. What you do is screw this nut in all the way and it completely locks the two-stage trigger from pulling back and sending any paint through the airbrush. Then, as you unscrew the nut pictured above you slowly allow the trigger to move more and more, making your spray pattern larger. This is great because if you are going to make a lot of lines the same thickness you can simply set this nut at say 1.5 and pull the trigger back all the way knowing that every line will be the exact same thickness. I know that if I were a better airbrusher it wouldn't matter but for a beginner this is awesome. You can even adjust it as you go so you can switch from a 1.5 to a 3.0 in two seconds. You can see the effects below.
This picture shows you the consistency and control available to you while using this airbrush. I was amazed at how simple it was and how it made putting paint where I wanted it to go so much easier and quicker. With the detail available there are a few things I've noticed that are different than my Patriot 105. First, the paint dries on the needle tip a lot more quickly. I think this may be because I need to thin out the paint more and also turn up the PSI on my compressor a little more but I haven't tested that out yet. However, I did learn that if I use the two step trigger to stop the paint and then stop the air, rather than just letting off the trigger completely, it did help. This may be something that people already know, but I've never seen the tip to let the trigger push all the way forward before letting off the air so I thought I would include it.
Overall, after one day I really like this airbrush. As a beginner it is simple to use and really gives me a lot of control. The one downside is that it doesn't come with good instructions about the airbrush itself. However, my Patriot 105 didn't come with good instructions either so it must be a Badger thing. Would I recommend paying $400 for the airbrush? Probably not unless you are going to be using it for your job. However, right now on Amazon it is 80% off and will likely keep being reduced. For that price I would definitely recommend you purchase it if you want to do more detailed airbrushing and don't trust your own ability to maintain consistent, small lines.
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