I do remember for the year they released it they made a funny multi-barrelled version for April fools - it fully painted a mini in 1 spray to eavy metal standard! Oh how I longed for one of those! :)

I was a manager at a GW store when this thing came out. We painted a couple of Realm of Battle boards with it. When it worked, it worked. It is not an airbrush. We never tried to embellish it as anything more than a spray gun. It applies a solid basecoat and nothing else. We always recommended two cans of propellant to get around the problem of the can freezing over and losing pressure. If your can froze over and pressure dropped, simply switch to the other can and dunk the first one into a bucket of warm water. Rinse and Repeat. The real problem with it was that it was more often than not broken straight out of the package or broke pretty darned quickly after the first use. We probably replaced every second spray gun that we had sold. And then we probably had to end up replacing the replacement as well. And chances are, the replacements as well as the other ones that didn't come back probably ended up getting broken but the customer was just couldn't be bothered to bring it back. The part that broke most often and sometimes even came broken straight out of the package was the flimsy hose that would connect to the propellant. That thing deteriorated pretty quickly. The very process of moving it around causes kinks in the hose and then the plastic around those kinks would split. And then it becomes useless.

only GW would see an airbrush and go "but what if we can sell the air"... :'D

The design is great, shame they fucked up everything else

It’s a single action, siphon feed spray gun, running off a can of compressed air…. Similar products are available even now from humbrol and revell, and they have exactly the same issues as the GW one (they are slightly cheaper, obviously, but they also don’t look like a hand flamer - pay your money, take your choice etc). The problem here isn’t so much the product, more people expecting it to act like an airbrush set up which would cost at least 4 or 5 times the price (ie £20-odd for this vs £90-£100ish for one of the AS186 airbrush and compressor sets off Amazon)

The nozzle design in nearly identical to the Paasche H-1AS, a single action airbrush. Once you hooked it up to your compressor, you got roughly the same results as the Paasche. A few airbrush manufacturers put out air-can propelled "paint guns" around the same time, all suffered the same consequences as the CSG. :)

A useless GW tool ? Is that the person incharge of cursed city distribution

I think the main issue is that it’s a condensed version of an industrial/diy airbrush not a model airbrush so should be used outside for base coating en masse. I remember the GW video and the guy even hooks it up to a compressor so I think GW’s intention was that the air cans were a support product to make the air gun work rather than ideal solution. The other issue is back in 2008 most war games miniature painters (myself included) didn’t have a clue what an airbrush was let alone how to use one so user error could also have been a massive contributor to its failings. Great video as alway Benji and wonderful trip down memory lane.

I still own a very old Badger air brush that is essentially the same thing, even down to using the air can. It came with separate lids you could use to mix the paint, so it wasn't a guaranteed mess in that regard.

I remember almost buying this with my brother for basecoating our armies, we thought the flamer design was so cool! 10 years later and I have a proper airbrush now

I fell for it as a kid. I thought it looked cool, tried it once at it didn't work. I have to take a look if I still have it somewhere.

I had this. I was new to hobby and had painted orc waagh without even rattlecans (did not know that was even a thing). I did not know anything about airbrushing, but when i saw this in local store, i was like: This is sooooo cool. Anyhow. I painted whole army of Taus with this bad boy, and was really happy with the result. Main issue was the freezing cans. I had like 3 in rotation, so i could change warmed up can when current froze. No any other issues. And i still have that Tau army!

me walking around the house going ''pew pew pew...die heretic ''

Back when these were around you had Chaos Black and Skull White spray cans and that was it. When it came to basing my tanks Catachan Green or Eldar Wave Serpents in Blood Red this did the job I needed it do. That's about it, it did make a mess getting it ready. I soon learned to mix in the jar with a stick and watering down metallic paints to go through it was a terrible idea because it separated.

seeing the the voxcast guy with that 2000s spiky hair was like an electric shock lmao

i had one, tried to base coat a Tau Forgeworld flyer, made an awful mess and never touched it again, or the plane.

This was my first and only foray into airbrushing. The nozzle continuously clogged, the propellant valve leaked and the trigger kept sticking. Having wasted an entire pot of paint, can of propellant and approximately six hours of my life attempting to figure out where I was going wrong (plus probably the same amount of time scrubbing my hands clean), I simply gave up. Everything related to this endeavor went in the bin and I simply assumed that airbrushing was not for me. Over a decade later here I am, learning that it was a faulty product all along! Thank you for enlightening me.

“Father, why have you forsaken me?“ was comedy gold. And so is the first Amazon review. Absolute numpty.

Honestly, I’d love to see GW re-do this one. It actually seems like a great idea/product to get kids introduced to airbrushes, and getting zenithal highlights, and especially army painting!!

"I might be grimdark, but I still like bubbles!"

With those kinds of punishments, it sounds like you’ve been watching Foundation

I bought one when it came out, just to prime models faster. It rather impressively decapitated a bloodletter, just blasted its head clean off.

I remember this coming out. It always felt like more time was spent trying to make it look like a hand flamer for cool points rather than making it actually work well.,

Ok for primer, single colour base coats or terrain. Have a 350 and rarely use it because atomisation is pretty rough. Syphon feed need 30+ psi so using a can was a bad idea.

I mean might make a good cosplay thing with a bit of work

I have one. The main issue is the cans of propellant are unreliable. Hook it up to a compressor and it’s fine for undercoating terrain / vehicles.

Oh wow. My local store has had several cans of propellant for a long time. Now I officially know what its used for.

That's a wash down gun, meant to spray cleaning agents, purple power, mineral spirits, etc. Yes. They CAN be used to spray a simple base coat but no not its real intended function. Someone knew a little about something and tried turning it into something else...seems to be common in gw lol

I was a GW staff member when this came out I got one for free. Tried it and it was RUBBISH 🗑

I purchased this the day it came out. I really liked it for basecoating. The new foundation paints they had released along with this worked really well.

I remember when I first got into the hobby I entered a gw store in Tennessee. One of the store workers told me this tool was essential to begin painting, so I bought it.... I haven´t even opened the box in about 10 years. I feel betrayed.

Still have mine somewhere, ready to douse any intruders in holy promethium

I did use one of these back in the day for base coating minis in color as this was before GW sold color primers. Did a fine job base coating mini as it was intended to do 😊. And it shaped like a hand flamer 🔥🔥🤘🏻

I saw these for sale at my local hobby store a few years ago. I was just getting into airbrushing for Gundams and was kind of morbidly curious, although I never actually purchased it. To be honest, prior to about 2016 there was virtually no consistent information on using airbrushes for miniature painting. At least not for free online. I had to figure a lot of stuff out by trial and error. Or look into tips from other hobbies like diorama modelers (technically a different hobby) or even airbrush make-up and t-shirt artists. Or order a book which might have outdated information. I can really see the appeal of GW releasing a product that is aimed towards people who want an airbrush for base coating, but don't want to shell out $200+ on a brush and compressor. The weird thing is that, functionally, it kind of eats into the same space as their spray paint basecoat range. This might have come out before they released their colored spray paints, so it could have been filling a market niche.

Didn’t have this exact one. But I did have a Badger 350 that I used for years when I was a kid. I didn’t have an airbrush compressor. But I had the spare tire valve adapter. Used to just “power up” the tire with a bike pump and I could happily spray for at least an hour if I was efficient. Those were such blissfully simple times.

I actually bought this thing when it first came out. Used it once to TRY and prime a rhino. It didn't go well and I didn't use it again.

I won one of these at a local GW store for a painting contest, It's still in the packaging because I never had plans to use an airbrush or anything, but now 10 years later I'm actually thinking it would work great for large terrain pieces with an adapter like you used. If I ever manage to get myself a game table, I'll probably abuse this thing to do all the basecoating, but for now it stays out of sight

I have nothing but good things to say about this. Without it, I might never have bought an airbrush and a compressor.

To be fair to it, it was never intended for detail. It wasn't "Games Workshop's answer to the air brush", it was only intended for applying base coats

Y’know the concept ain’t awful pretty interesting actually, just really poorly executed.

Got one when they came out. Took a lot of arm twisting. Was a cheap alternative to an airbrush at the time. But yeah inconsistent results when trying certain colors. Did great with my valkyrie and immolator though. Used it about 4 times. Hose was cheap, and huge waste of paint. Which i think me storing a custom mix is ehy i stopped using it lol. Barely use my actual airbrush ingot many moons later though so.

testors made an airbrush that used a can of air like that

Considering how easy it is to base your models with a spray can its baffling that they thought there would be a market for this

lol I remember having that naughty hairstyle in college back in like 2001.

Only clicked on this because of that killer thumbnail!

These brushes are based on the old Badger air brushes which actually work well, but as you say it IS a single action airbrush. It was never meant to be a detail brush. I started using one of these in the mid 1960's; it was also supplied with a can of air. I actually keep one around so I don't shoot certain types of paint through a good airbrush (like a H & S Infinity) and clog it up. These work really well for clear coats and large areas like dioramas and terrain. They DO spray paint like a fire hose, so keep this in mind. I have several airbrushes, each with a specific range of tasks that it works best at. I still do use a brush to pick out certain details. Use the correct tool for the correct job and don't complain about results if you don't. Using one of these for detail work is like using an atom bomb to kill a mosquito, just don't try it! It's overkill.

I have never had an airbrush, not yet anyway, but this things cosmetics are cooler than an airbrush, I just wish it worked as well as one

I didn't have one but the biggest turn off would have been the compressed air cans. £5 a pop no thanks. Dial me in a half decent compressor. For what it's worth it seems to have done the job but doesn't have the flexibility of a proper airbrush with multiple needles etc so you're probably better off going all in on an actual airbrush than something half arsed like this.

It was my first airbrush, and I still have the paint bottles floating around. I've been using them as painting handles for years. It worked well enough for basecoating, just needed to be on a compressor because the propellant cans were trash.

I must say, this does take the cake. Next to the spray stick. LOL

If I remember correctly, about 3 month after it’s released it had to be recalled, I head the pipes could burst under pressure. The rereleased it later with a fixed version.

So... I only want this for one thing... A hand flamer cosplay

I have similar type of airbrush that goes inside that thing, You control amount of paint by tightening this angled knob-nozzle-thingy that sucks paint.

Had one of these. With no airbrush experience I had major issues getting a consistency that worked. Mess was a huge problem as you mentioned but there was another problem that surprising didn't come up for you. When I washed the pot the measurement markings washed right off. Did exactly the same on my friends one too.

one of the main draws for this back in the day was not having any spray paint other than white or black. sometimes you got limited runs of sprays but they became gold once they stopped selling them

The problem with it is the same problem you face with any single action airbrush. They are a high flow, high pressure- basing tool. You can’t adjust the flow on the spot like you can a double action and the high pressure means that detail work is almost impossible. Wouldn’t mind using this for terrain though

Great video .Iv never used an airbrush .I’ll have to have a look at getting one .

I still have mine used a lot back in the day for base coating things when I lived in an apartment in a cold rainy climate where I had a hard time finding the space to use a spray can. It did the job but was a MESS in the end and yeah wasteful with paint. They stopped selling the air-cans in my area pretty quickly though so that was the end of this for me. It now just collects dust and is mocked by my Airbrush.

I had one of these. I think it still exists somewhere in my basement.

Eugh, I had indeed forgotten about this. My uni house shed probably still has some unused cans of propellant that I just abandoned

I remember being told by the blue fleece to only use it on Terrain pieces when I bought it, I only really purchased it for the novelty of having something look like a hand flamer.

I had a Badger airbrush that this was based on... needles to say my younger self lost interest and pocket money was more likely to be spent on a White Dwarf than a tin of compressed air that was only available in Beatties locally.

Seems to be based on Badger 350 airbrush with that clumsy gun part added. Badger 350 is solid airbrush if you paint bigger objects like model tanks and cars, or use it to basecoat minis. I bought 350 as my first airbrush about 23 years ago and still use it when basecoating bigger minis or lot's of minis at once. Goes without saying that compressor is the way to go no matter what kind of airbrush you use. Great thing in 350 is that it is very easy to clean compared to double action airbrushes.

that naughties haircut is coming back into fashion now lol

I still own one of these. Its more nostalgia on what a sucker I was for GW named stuff when I was a teenager. Used it once, it was a spray gun, ill give it that, but my craft table at the time was painted with a more consistent flat black than the Leman Russ I was trying to base coat with the thing. So I cleaned it out and never attempted to use it again.

I bought something similar from a local art supply store about 3 years ago. I paid about $25 USD for it and it worked once. The video is pretty indicative of my experience.

Anyone with a background in airbrushing is shouting at the screen, "put the compressed air in a bowl of warm water!" its what you had to do before you could afford a compressor

Bought one when it came out, used it for the first time this year - it basically exploded at every seam and cable!

Enjoyed the video Seth ,👍😂

Doesn’t look anywhere near as bad as the GW hobby vice… And if it’s just a Badger reskin then it’s probably pretty good at what Badger designed it to do…

Have never used an airbrush and likely never will. Not because I don't like them but because I paint so infrequently I will never justify the cost. But to honest when this came out I loved it for base coating my miniatures. Air brushes weren't even really a thing as far as I'm aware and so I wouldn't even have contemplated using it to paint a miniature. Essentially for base coating models in whatever coulour you liked I liked it. Never had any trouble at all.

Used one back in the day to spray terrain. It did the job but soon upgraded to a proper airbrush. I didnt hate it, but never tried to paint minis with it.

I really wanted one of these back in the day. not only was air-brushes stupid expensive and hard to get, i have never had a good hand with rattle cans. But i never found the right time or place to get one and in hindsight i am happy. But i am looking at getting one of it´s spiritual successors. The usb charged hand held compressors. They suck but i live in a small apartment and my neighbors would most likely have me yeeted if a ran a full on compressor.

I was stupid enough to buy one of these from the Games Workshop at Bondi Junction, Sydney around 2009. Absolute piece of garbage.

I thought it would be either this, liquid green stuff or imperial primer.

One of these that attaches to a regular spray can would be fun

I had one of these, and I don't recall it having any instructions for maintenance and proper usage - it got clogged up pretty quickly and that seemed to be the end of it. I'm pretty sure that's what gave me my aversion to using an airbrush.

I think if these had just been marketed as basecoat tools, and GW had maybe done something like sold bottles of their more common basecoat/undercoat colours in special bottles that accepted the sprayer nozzle or their own properly sealed lid, they could have been more viable. But the reliance on the propellant was the real killer for the most part IMO, because it's going to cool down. And ultimately a cheap airbrush and compressor would have been cheaper long-term, though from what I can tell cheap compressors back then were almost universally awful.

This product seems really useful to me. I just need something to base coat my minis inside, and an airbrush seems unnecessarily complicated just for that. Is there any products like this still available?

I love how it's a tiny flamer

I had considered it when I was looking for something that I could use for big models, terrain and priming. When I was looking at it in my friendly neiborhood hobby shop, the clerk there said that I would be happier with the Testors Aztek A220. It was cheaper and easier to clean when finished. Plus it came with an adaptor for a compressor. He was right.

I have one still in its original packaging. Found it recently when sorting a box out.

I bought one but never used it. I expected a full kit with everything included. Since the delivery was just the gun I never used it. Eventually just trashed it when I moved.

I wonder if you could take a modern siphon airbrush and just fit the coolflamer body around it. Honestly they’d be worth buying just to go “haha look at this cool flamer paint gun I have”

I think you made it look better than it probably was, because of experience and proper preparation. If it had a gravity feeder, that alone would have made it much more functional (but that didn't go with cans of 'propellant.' Yeah that's pretty bad tech! Especially for the time period. I used a can-based propellant on airbrushes not after 1987, when I joined the military! It was near-dead tech then!

I was given something like that for a B'day present. The same design but not GW so they were out there way back when. I could not get it to work though I did not understand the premise of thinning paint at the time and the product had no instructions. So GW probably were not even the designers of their release but just another copy.

The only real problem is the marketing behind it. All the issues are the same you would get from a cheap single action airbrush. My first "brush" was a badger 200 series, this is very similar. I found all the same issues and quickly got a set with compressor and chinese brush for massive improvement. 10+ years on I now have a hs evolution which is again a step in quality and control.

i remember this product from white dwarf

I actually still have this... as an "air brush" it was trash, but as a spray gun it was decent

I owned one of these. I still have the drop pod I tried to basecoat with it lol. I tried it once, it sat in my garage for a few months, then threw it out.

Haha! This is amazing because Bandai has one of these for their Gundam Markers.

I still have one. It’s in its box, and I laugh at it frequently.

Bought one on clearence, was warned it is a pain in the rear to use and seeing how I was looking for something other than spray cans, yeah it worked, but holy cow the mess was more than I want to deal with. It works to a mass base coat or primer tool but that is it.

i am cursed to have owned one of these heresys. it never worked. The paint came out in in large drops or not at all, no tweeking could make it spray a fine mist of paint.

I still have one and it works well for priming larger groups or larger painting projects like terrain.

This came out when I was starting to lose interest in warhammer. When I saw it on the shelves at the local gw I hoped it would make paonting faster and would bring back joy for the hobby. A staff member told me to not even think about buying it because it sucked so bad...

For pressure dropping due to cooling I suspect you could place the can in a bowl of lukewarm water

GW always loves finding ways too scam new people, I think I saw some mum buy one of these things for their kid.

Thanks for reminding me of this piece of crap, you glorious bastard. You’ve earned this sub.

Yup, had one, still do, and the original can of propellant I bought with it, literally never once got it to work, genuinely might go dig it out on the weekend and give it another try, although I doubt the can is still any use 🤣