Supply line

Airbrush equipment

The bench the hats are painted on.

A dual-action brush, a compressor quiet enough to keep indoors, water-based colour, and the jig that holds a curved crown flat while you spray it. Bought once, used for years.

Airbrush starter kit

$245

Everything to spray your first cap and nothing you will outgrow in a month. The brush and the compressor in here are the ones still on this bench four years later.

ABR-KIT-01Ships in 2-3 days

In the box

  • Dual-action gravity-feed airbrush, 0.3 mm needle
  • Quiet piston compressor with a 3 L tank
  • Moisture trap and regulator
  • Six Createx colours — black, white, transparent blue, burnt umber, olive and red oxide
  • Cleaning pot
  • 6 ft braided hose and a quick-release coupler

Specification

Needle
0.3 mm — fine enough for a fish's eye, wide enough for a sky
Action
Dual — air on the press, paint on the pull
Feed
Gravity, 7 ml cup
Compressor
Piston, 3 L tank, auto cut-off at 57 psi
Noise
47 dB at 1 m — quieter than the room it lives in
Working pressure
15-25 psi for stencil work

Dual-action gravity-feed brush

$135

The brush from the kit, on its own, for a second colour station or a replacement. Same 0.3 mm needle; the 0.2 mm is a swap, not a different tool.

ABR-GUN-03Ships in 2-3 days

In the box

  • The airbrush
  • 0.3 mm needle and nozzle fitted
  • Spanner, needle-seal wrench and a spare O-ring set

Specification

Needle fitted
0.3 mm
Needles available
0.2 mm, 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm
Cup
7 ml, lidded
Trigger
Dual action, adjustable preset stop
Fitting
1/8 in BSP

Quiet compressor with tank

$179

A tank is what makes a compressor quiet: it fills, it stops, and you spray off stored air instead of listening to a motor for an hour.

ABR-CMP-02Ships in 2-3 days

In the box

  • Compressor
  • Moisture trap and regulator, fitted
  • 6 ft braided hose
  • Quick-release coupler

Specification

Tank
3 L
Cut-in / cut-out
43 psi / 57 psi
Noise
47 dB at 1 m
Duty
Continuous — the motor rests whenever the tank is full
Free air
23 L/min

Twelve-colour water palette

$88

The six from the kit plus the six a river painting keeps asking for — two more greens, a warm sand, and the transparents you glaze a sky with.

ABR-COL-12Ships in 2-3 days

In the box

  • Twelve 2 oz bottles of water-based airbrush colour
  • Opaque: black, white, red oxide, burnt umber
  • Transparent: blue, olive, sage, sand, amber, slate, deep green, rust
  • Reducer, 4 oz

Specification

Type
Water-based acrylic, ready to spray
Bottles
12 × 2 oz
Thinning
Most colours spray straight; transparents like 10% reducer
Heat set
Not required on fabric — the clear coat does that job
Clean up
Water while wet, restorer once dry

Cap jig and mylar blanks

$64

A curved crown is the hard part. The jig holds a cap under tension so the front panel is flat while you spray it and springs back when you are done.

ABR-JIG-01Machined to order, about a week

In the box

  • Aluminium cap jig with an adjustable crown strap
  • Twenty sheets of 7 mil mylar, A4
  • Low-tack masking film, 12 in × 15 ft
  • Two cutting mats

Specification

Fits
5- and 6-panel crowns, structured or soft
Blanks
Classic trucker, Low profile, Waxed canvas
Mylar
7 mil — stiff enough to hold an edge, thin enough to cut by hand
Layers
Registered for the five-layer sequence the hat pages use
Jig
Anodised aluminium, 1.9 lb

Cleaning station and respirator

$99

Two things nobody photographs and everybody needs. Acrylic dries inside a nozzle in about four minutes, and atomised pigment does not belong in your lungs.

ABR-CLN-01Ships in 2-3 days

In the box

  • Vented cleaning pot with a brush holder
  • Airbrush restorer, 8 oz
  • Needle and nozzle brush set
  • Half-mask respirator with P2 particulate filters
  • Two spare filter pairs

Specification

Pot
Glass jar, vented lid, holds two brushes
Restorer
Dissolves cured water-based acrylic
Respirator
Half mask, silicone seal, P2 particulate
Filters
Three pairs total — change them when breathing gets harder
Also wanted
Cross-draught ventilation. A mask is not extraction.

Before you order

See the hats