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Gaahleri GHAD-39 Airbrush
Gaahleri GHAD-39 is a dual-action, gravity fed, Chinese made airbrush. The chances to not have heard yet about Gaahleri in general are relatively small, but if you haven’t, they are the new airbrush maker out there, just recently appeared and viciously attacking the market with their range of products. Later one is not small at all, varying from several airbrushes, through spray booths and compressors, available widely and for some most importantly – on Amazon.
Gaahleri spread the word throughout showing off all over, supplying famous and not-so-famous modelers with their products, for testing, evaluation and of course – marketing. Somehow couple of Gaahleri airbrushes ended in our hands, for which we are both – flattered and grateful. And now its time to share with you our experience with one of them – GHAD-39.
We picked model 39 to start with, because it seems that this will be their most selling product according to our expectations and experience with airbrushes and airbrushing tools. We will also take a look at their Trigger-type pistol-grip a-brush, but not today. This article here, is all about GHAD-39, which came in a set with two nozzle/needle combos, 0.35mm & 0.5mm, and a box full of nice things that we are about to unfold for you.
The box
that Gaahleri is packed is made from thick cardboard-like material, with nice features and rather expensive appearance, especially compared to the standard “transparent top” plastic ones that Chinese airbrushes usually come in. Gaahleri box is a top-opener and on the inner side of the lid, there is a thorough part break-down made in cool blue-violet-black colors. This is a rather nice and stylish touch.
The instructions
are in English, which is a definite step-up from what we are used to. From China, sometimes airbrushes come without instructions what so ever or, the better case scenario – with such in Chinese. Unfortunately, since not many of the modelers we know speak or read it, this is a let down. Gaahleri however, made the effort and presented an instruction sheet in English, with nice and thorough explanation how the airbrush should work, what to look for and complimented it with good pictorial add-ons.
Perfect for a new buyer and airbrush user.
In addition to that, there is a Test card, which allegedly shows how this exact gun works, tested in the factory itself. The card explains that if you have any issues with the airbrush, you should contact Gaahleri directly, and after confirming the issue, they will take over. You should not worry. Smooth move on their end. The only thing we didn’t like is that the test-card looks like printed, but we cannot be sure of it. In the end, we tested GHAD-39 ourselves. That’s what we got it for.
The goodies
GHAD-39 set that we received features two needle/nozzle combos. 0.35 and 0.5mm. There are also two paint cups, but they are actually three that you are getting. If you wonder why, well, the airbrush itself holds a cone like bed in which you screw in the abovementioned cups, but by itself, it is big enough to hold paint for finer work. If you check Iwata or Grex for example, they have airbrushes that come with that size of a paint cup and that’s it. Here, we get three in total.
There is a tube of lube. It looks thicker than the blueish one that Iwata offers, but supposedly it should do the same job. There is also a quick connect, or at least half of it, as well as four o-rings careflly packed in a transparent envelope. But these can be found in many airbrush packages. What is rather specific about Gaahleri is the nozzle. More accurately pointed, not the nozzle itself, but the threads around the cone. This was made, to allegedly improve the air flow, technically working like a vortex generator of a sort, improving the atomization. It is a self-centering nozzle, the likes of which can be found with other airbrush applications, but the threads are something rather unique for Gaahleri.
Test results
Testing GHAD-39 gave us results that we expected, which guarantee its place on your bench as a workhorse, or at least that title if you already have one from a different brand. This airbrush, as described on the side of its black box is made for Medium & Fine work, so we never expected it to perform like Harder & Steenbeck infinity. But it seems to have demonstrated sufficient results for the purposes it was made and most importantly, it is 8 times cheaper than the H&S gun. Varnish, primer, single-tone layers, that is all more than perfectly covered. This is only modeling-wise of course. There is more to airbrushing that that.
For more vivid presentation of its performance, you can check the video we’ve made on it, testing it in borderline impossible-to-test conditions, with high-temp, low-humidity environment, in which it performed better than expected actually. With black paint over white canvas. It doesn’t get any trickier than that.
Many others have failed in similar conditions, but that by itself is very clear representation how it will do the job in more “normal” environment.
With that said, we have concluded, that sooner or later it is more likely than not, to have to polish the needle and fine tune it during its working career. But for that price and the fact that it is not the A-brand airbrush, this is rather normal and expected procedure. We all had some needle accidents or similar in our airbrushing careers, haven’t we? Of course we have, that’s why airbrush makers make spare parts.
Conclusion
This seems to be very nice airbrush. The price is justified, the package Gaahleri gives is sufficient for a starter set and even more. Model 39 can be a work-horse for the experienced airbrusher too, armed with the Iwata Custom Micron or something of that stellar caliber. So why not? For that price, it is a deal. Also, GHAD-39 is definitely a part of a larger operation that Gaahleri is working on, supplying various airbrushes, compressors and spray-booths, covering the basic needs and more. They aim high, that’s for sure.
So, iff you are not shooting for 72nd scale mottling on a Bf109, with extreme precision and not-so-good hands like most of us have, this dual-action airbrush should do the perfect job. Make-up, food industry, stencil painting – everything is doable. It should be able to do even more. You just have to trick it out a bit and fine-tune it according to your need, so to squeeze even more than the producer planned. It is definitely possible. Even that 72nd scale Messer spots.
