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Giraldez Infinity Airbrush
Giraldez Infinity is an airbrush made by Harder & Steenbeck and created specifically for miniature painting. Modified for the purpose, the concept was designed by Angel Giraldez – a name in the business, which most of you probably are familiar with. The goal was to reimagine the famous “Infinity” line and turn it into its best possible variation. An airbrush, capable of satisfying even the most tough requirements by artists all around the World. Something, that only Iwata Custom Micron can compete with. An extremely precise, affordable and reliable tool. But let’s have a look and get a grasp of how well they managed to do it:
The Box
Giraldez Infinity comes in a hinged box made from plastic, /initially/ wrapped in cellophane that holds its colorful cardboard wrapping sleeve protected. On the outside the sleeve is rather vivid compared to the standard edition, but both are in general – made with taste and thought. There is a description of the specifics, the serial number and some artwork. In it, the black box itself is a high-quality product, which only very few brands can compete with. Smooth, posh and from our experience with previous H&S releases – long-lasting.
Inside, the foaming material is stiff enough to protect everything, yet flexible to keep it intact from accidental events. Each and every part has its own bed, resembling a display box of a vintage weapon, not holder made for painter’s tool. On the inner side of the top opening there is silver letters saying that this is “Made in Germany” and it is “High-quality”, both statements usually seen in one sentence. No surprises here.
There are two options to get – Infinity Giraldez and 2in1. If you are familiar with H&S airbrushes, you might know what that means, but for those who are not – Germans offer their airbrushes with single or two neddle/nozzle combo, hence the name. And since you can always buy some more needle/nozzle setups, that is an open door to create your own 3in1 or 4in1 sets.
In our case, we got 2in1. It just seemed more logical, considering the price and the fact that this makes the airbrush more versatile from the get go. The sizes of the nozzles are .2 and .4 respectively. The airbrush comes with the finer one installed.
Instructions
Unlike most of the airbrushes on the market, H&S Infinity offers superb multi-language instruction sheet. Everything is pictorially described, just to eliminate any doubts that you might miss something in the text itself. The booklet is made out of high-quality material, leaving no doubt that you will get probably the best tool that you can imagine. If the instructions are that good, what’s left for the metal contents? And that is not far from the truth. Such small luxurious supporting things are rarely seen in expensive products lately. Heck, even the high-end smartphones come without charging bricks last couple of years. Who would care about an instruction booklet. But nevertheless, Harder and Steenbeck did. And they did it well.
The Airbrush
The body of the Giraldez Infinity is striking at first look. It is like a H&S CR Plus, but with tattoos. The main body is the triple chrome plated finish, well known from CR Plus airbrushes. Then there is the tail, which is in rich red color, wrapped in those mesmerizing tattoo lines, with the cutaway made for you so to be able to reach and work with the needle screw. A work of art!
On the front part of the tool there are the letters “Infinity CR Plus”, but H&S also placed “Giraldez” beneath them, honoring the master painter and immortalizing his creation. This somehow completes the front and rear parts of the gun. This way, they look more as a whole.
Both these are separated by gold nut, combined perfectly with a tail adjusting screw, again – in gold. That all ends with a cute little Smurf-like button in blue, accompanied by the same blue, but on the bottom of the trigger. Latter one – among the most important features of the Giraldez edition.
Color-wise we thought that it was perfectly made, even though people can be hardly convinced about what is a good color combination and what isn’t. But we can probably agree on the fact that it is quite original. It is different than anything else. Even from other H&S Special Edition releases.
The Trigger
We mentioned that this is among specific features of the Giraldez gun. It is more vertically positioned compared to standard Infinity, it has shorter range on that axis too and finally, there is a wave-like end towards the front of the airbrush, which allegedly help you with the control. And control is what this edition is all about. According to Angel Giraldez, that setup of the trigger gives you the most of what you wish in terms of miniature painting. There are videos on YouTube with him showing exactly what he meant. But that’s not all.
Angel Giraldez partnered with Harder & Steenbeck to redesign the non-visible parts of the airbrush, making the disassembly and the assembly easier, leaving no room for misalignments or needle-related accidents. That was truly, an issue with standard H&S airbrushes, but even high-quality products have their imperfections. Here, the whole internal setup of the airbrush was re-made. The parts were more thoughtfully scaled one to another, making the flimsy movements in between them almost non-existent. All that with one sole goal – higher precision.
The Tail
The adjustable tail stopper is created with finesse. It is marked with numbers and that helps you remember your setup on paper. Write it down in other words. That is simply impossible when you have nut on a thread and nothing else. Unfortunately, the latter is what you get with most of the other airbrushes on the market. Experts tend to dismiss the value of this feature, but for some this is rather important. Here, it is not just a simple nut. It is a dial. A sophisticated one, we might add.
The very best feature that we can highly praise is the button at the very end. When you are done with the limiting work or you just want to make another setup, there is this magic button. You press it, you hear a delicate click and there you go – you are back where you’ve started. A clean sheet for a new setup. That often happens several times on a daily basis of course, especially if you are working with different types of paints and different environments. Quick re-arrangements made easy here. Easier if you wrote your desired setups down.
The Add-ons
Let’s start with the second needle & nozzle combo. That comes in a transparent cylinder, featuring additional crown cap. As you can tell from the picture, this is not a custom Giraldez needle, but a part interchangeable with any infinity airbrush technically. The difference between late and early versions /here we have ver.2/ are the threads at the end of the needle, part of which are too – visible on the picture. With those you can help yourself discovering the needle size you have at hand. Long story short – even with some mishap, you will be able to get spare parts, because they are the same. Encouraging is the fact that Angel Giraldez accepted what’s OOTB with Infinity, which means that needle & nozzle that H&S make are….well, perfect.
There is a quick disconnect, standard crown cap, three additional distancers /aka weird crown caps/, small paint cup with a lid and a tool for unscrewing the mid /gold/ section of the airbrush. The lack of large paint cup is due to the changed design of the Giraldez Infinity. The airbrush is with shortened distance from the trigger to the business end, which left no room for bigger cup. Mind that this is only logical compromise, considering that the main goal of Giraldez version is painting miniatures. Those require no large quantities of paint. Nor does any high precision work for that matter. Every paint job in that style is rather minimalistic, hence only few drops of paint are needed. Worst case scenario, that same cup, filled to the top.
The triple chrome coated cup has a lid, with Giraldez logo on it, but trust us when we tell you – this is the last thing you will pay attention to when you first lay your eyes on Giraldez Infinity. It is beyond gorgeous.
As a clever bonus, there is this cool metal cover to protect your needle. It seems like they thought about everything.
To make things even better, three distancers /horn-like extensions from the lower end beneath the nozzle/ are included. They are different in length, allegedly to separate your needle and your project from any potential /catastrophic/ contact. With those, you have practically no cap around the needle. That helps making finer lines, which is also more risky. But not really, especially with how Giraldez equipped it. It seems to be the best technical method to have both a spacer and clean /unobstructed/ needle in the same time.
How does it spray?
This is indeed the million-dollar question. Well, we can give relatively short answer: Like Harder and Steenbeck Infinity. Same needle, same nozzle. But slightly better. There are tons of reviews on the web, so you can watch for hours. The thing with Giraldez Edition is, that unfortunately, you cannot get the difference by looking at it. You must feel it. The trigger is different and it feels better. The feeling of control is abundant. The ergonomics are improved. It is more of a sniper. The range of the trigger is just where you need it. You are closer to your object of painting, thus everything is more precise.
So how does it spray? Better than Infinity. And the latter one is arguably one of the very best out there. We think Giraldez might get even better than that, if you get yourself .15, which is the smallest H&S needle/nozzle option available. But the real magic is in the shortened space between the trigger and the tip of the needle. Remember, that in art school they teach you to hold the pencil as close as possible to its tip. This airbrush is designed that way.
Conclusion
Harder & Steenbeck are arguably one of the two most desired airbrush brands on the planet. The only real competitor of Germany’s finest is Iwata Custom Micron. Latter one, undoubtedly a Great White in the airbrush ocean, bears a price tag that is hardly… bearable. Unlike that, Infinity is a tool that is more consumer-price friendly, while offering similar performance. With Angel Giraldez fine-tuning the Infinity, it seems that Custom Micron and their Takumi custom shop gun has a new competitor.
Of course, there will be two sides of that argument. As anything in life. Some will prefer the square trigger of the Iwata, while others will prefer the feather-like feeling of the H&S. But we can all agree, that whichever one you might get, you will receive no wrong answers. That goes especially for Giraldez Infinity. This is an airbrush addressing any potential issues that Harder & Steenbeck allowed with their initial release. Giraldez also makes it crystal clear, that is not an all-purpose tool, but rather laser-sharp weapon, dedicated to those who want nothing short of flawlessness.
Since this seems to be a Limited Edition thing, we think you might want to get one. And knowing what Harder & Steenbeck has to offer originally, it is well worth the price. Besides, where else will you be able to get such a colorful and beautiful tattooed airbrush? Whatever the competition makes, it lacks the art-ness of Giraldez edition. But don’t let that fool you. Cheerfully colored, this airbrush is a scalpel of a tool, designed only for the best surgeons.
