Do you remember a while back I’ve posted Paasche Talon airbrush review here? If you’ve read it you surely got the feeling that it is an amazing airbrush.
I’ve also had mentioned it before couple of times. It definitely doesn’t compare to any of the Chinese knock offs, which I mentioned in my last article.
Just a few days back I’ve received an email which changed my opinion on this.
I’m not saying that a good airbrush suddenly became a bad one, that’s not the case. If you carefully read my previous post about airbrush prices you will see that not just me but even my bro who actually does more airbrushing than me has switched from Iwata to that Talon I reviewed simply because it fits the purpose.
So, what has happened?
Here is the whole message from Bryan:
Sergej,
As I promised, here is the bad-venture I had with the Paasche Talon.
Bought it along with the Neo for Iwata from a reputable airbrush supplier.
First things is that post offices had some issues and the package arrived one month later, instead of 15 days max as usual. That’s OK for now. I was really excited when I received all this so totally forgot about the time spent waiting for package.
When it arrived home I opened the Neo box first and was really impressed with the brush itself. Nice finish, good balance and smooth trigger known from the Iwata product.
Put some water in it and sprayed to see if everything was OK and no bubbles in the cup. All went fine and I was even so pleased that I tried it with some ink to see how it sprays. Fine lines were constant and trigger control very smooth. I had the Walmec airbrush before which was not so smooth in control.
OK, I packed everything after a nice flush cleaning as it was only ink and with some cleaner, everything was shinning as new.
Time for the best now. The Paasche Talon. I bought the TG set with the 3 nozzle and needle setup (.21, .33, .66 config). The .33 was already installed on it.
First thing i noticed with the brush is that the name Paasche Talon engraved on it was not aligned as in the picture from the net. It was not even straight, almost like the brush moved during engraving. The engraved part was higher in location and from the numerous Talon photos I’ve seen, I have never seen one engraved in that position.
OK, I told myself that this was perhaps just a minor issue and perhaps from the photos on the web, optically wise the curves on the brush made the positioning different.
Put my finger on the trigger and I immediately noticed that it was not as smooth as the Neo. I had to press a little harder on it and this without air pressure on the other side. But paint control movement was OK. Turned the head of the brush towards me and I could see that the nozzle was not aligned and had a weird round formation. Not belled or bent but not normal either. From first sight I thought it was normal for this brush.
I have a x20 magnifier and a closer look showed me that the nozzle was damaged right out of the box. This really pissed me off and I was really mad that I did not even swapped the other nozzle for tests.
I told myself that I waited too long for a faulty brush to come and I could not even try it. So I decided to give it a try anyway and hooked the supplied hose to it. Another surprise, the thread on the hose or the one on the air valve is somewhat too new and will not screw completely leaving a big air leak. I had to use a rubber fitter pliers to screw it completely and only then the leak stopped. I screw, unscrew and screw again till the connection was acceptable and I was able to do it with my fingers.
Now upon trigger press for air, I could hear another air hiss somewhere in the airbrush other than the head. I looked for it but could not find it. The thing is that I can hear it like two air stream within the same brush and I can even stop it if I don’t press completely on the trigger but this cannot be as we want to completely press and control only paint.
As I expected the brush performed badly with some water in it and bubbles in the cup, along with water coming out upon air action.
I was really angry about this as it was supposed to be the best between the two and i found myself with the Neo being 100x better that the Talon. I love my Neo for Iwata btw :)
I mailed the shop where I bought the nightmare and explained to them the situation and sent the same mail to Paasche customer service. They replied the next day and asked me to send it back for warranty. They would replace it for me and send me a new package with no additional cost. I posted it the next day and they received it 10 days later.
I accepted but the experience was so bad that I started to look into other brands and perhaps same setup with different needles and nozzle. I started reading post on other users with faulty Talons and I can say that there are numerous faulty Talons out there.
This made me start looking into an alternative and I fell onto the Badger Renegade series. I started first looking at the issues users are getting with them and I could find none till now. I asked the shop to ask Paasche to send them the package instead and that i will take the Badger Krome instead.
That’s it Sergej about my bad experience with Talon. I think this one slipped the QC dept or has been just mishandled in factory, during package or engraving. Don’t know where but it will not land in my hands anymore. Never ever a Paasche again. I have been told by an experienced artist that they are neglecting the quality of their brush and rather focus on cost now. This is bad as for only 20-30USD less they lost a customer.
I warned you this was gonna be a long story man but hey, you like long stories and I think I gave you a nice detailed situation, hahahah.
Also I would like to thank you as I started a DIY silent compressor and I followed a part of the process from your blog (diy compressor). I do have a 24lt piston type compressor but that one I built out of curiosity and by the time the package I ordered arrived. It let me paint at night and it is very very silent.
Regards,
Bryan
Thank you Bryan,
Well guys as you can see not a pleasant experience. I would not want to experience the same, especially when expecting a good quality product.
I would point out that Bryan has been happy with Paasche customer service. But mistake has been made somewhere and I had to share this because stories like this can actually raise awareness and trigger investigation. The Talon I’ve got for my review didn’t have any of the issues described by Bryan above.
My thoughts are that every production line should have quality control at the end before they put it into the box. I know for sure that Harder and Steenbeck and probably many others do that in their factories all the time. Paasche probably doesn’t have anyone checking their Talons for mistakes at the end of the line that’s why this cases occurs.
Do you have a Talon? Or a Neo? What are your thoughts on it?
Please leave a comment or share it with your friends!
Cheers.
