I have owned an Actekart “no-clean” airbrush now for around six months. The Actekart airbrush includes a compressor in the airbrush handle that also has a battery which they claim will last up for up to 2 hours of spraying. It recharges via USB-C port at the base. This airbrush mounts the paint bottles on top, which effectively gives the user a gravity-feed airbrush instead of a siphon-feed airbrush.
Actekart offers three sizes of needles – 0.2mm, 0.3mm, and 0.5mm. The bottles come in one size. The starter pack includes an assortment of all three sizes of needles and four bottles. Additional bottle/needle packs include all three sizes of needles and eight paint bottles. As far as I can tell, the bottles and needles are not sold separately. Additionally, while Dspiae no-clean airbrush needles are usable with the Actekart airbrush, the bottles are not. The trigger for the airbrush is a button on the front, resulting in a very natural “pistol” grip. Towards the bottom of the unit there is a knob which is used to adjust the pressure, up to a nominal value of 30 psi, although I could not independently verify this value.
I used this airbrush as my only airbrush when I built my Revell 1/25 ’57 Chevy Bel-Air. I found that the thinner-to-paint ratio required for this airbrush is comparable to other airbrushes. I found the quality and smoothness of the finish to be likewise comparable. I did not notice a great deal of tip-dry, but I also painted almost exclusively with Tamiya acrylics, Tamiya Lacquers, and Alclad Lacquers. I did not airbrush Vallejo or other pure acrylics for that model and only experimented using the airbrush with them recently. Still, the initial results with Vallejo Air appear comparable to those of the paints I used for the model itself. For the best results, I find it highly advisable to change to a fresh needle before each spray session ? since the base pack and the expansions include plenty of needles, running out should not be an issue. Additionally, before spraying, make certain that the needle is properly anchored in the groove in the airbrush. This is simple to do, and so long as it is properly seated and the paint is properly thinned, it should spray smoothly and evenly.
I placed the “no-clean” part of the description in quotes, because it is not entirely accurate. Obviously, any paint that gets on the airbrush base unit itself should be cleaned off. Additionally, since the paint bottles are specialized for this airbrush, and they come only in packs with the needles, disposing of them is uneconomical and unnecessary. Consequently, they will need to be cleaned. Nevertheless, cleaning them is much easier than a traditional airbrush. Moreover, unlike a traditional airbrush, paint needed for a project can be stored in the bottles until the project is completed. The bottles only need to be cleaned only at the very end. For my ?57 Chevy, I ended up with fourteen different bottles of paint on top of my spray hood. To paint with any of them, I just needed to take down the bottle, change to a fresh needle, place the bottle in the airbrush and start spraying. Every few days I would plug in the airbrush to recharge the compressor battery. I found the 0.2 mm needles to be a bit finicky, and required the airbrush compressor knob to be set to full power to work. The 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm needles, however, worked very well at a range of compressor settings. I found very fine detail work to be a bit challenging with this airbrush. For the best results, I would start the spray away from the model and then aim the spray at the model surface to be painted. Starting the spray aimed at the model itself would always result in large splatters of paint.
While I cannot at this point recommend that this replace all traditional airbrushes, it certainly can be used for approximately 80-90% of airbrush uses, in my opinion. A high-quality traditional airbrush may still be needed for fine details.
This airbrush is available on Amazon using the following links. IPMS San Diego does not receive any compensation or consideration from the manufacturer or distributors of this product.
Link to airbrush starter-kit – https://a.co/d/05u2ff0I
Link to airbrush bottle and needle set – https://a.co/d/0iB2mpcn
Post-script – I have found the the following bottles work with the Actekart bottle tops, and even come with their own gaskets. If you only need bottles and are willing to clean and reuse the bottle tops of the Actekart bottles, then these Bekith 1oz dispensing bottles are a much more economical replacement – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KZK6JRW