New Galleries: BotCon 2014 Flamewar and Transformers Prime Cyberverse Flamewar

Va'al wrote:complete with weapon, flames and ..war?

Mindmaster's sig told me to.

Don't ban me Va'al.

now the females do not just have boobs. they have boobs with flames on them.

griftimus prime wrote:now the females do not just have boobs. they have boobs with flames on them.

You must have missed the furor during the con.

They jiggle, too.

I believe that they have chose the right mold for Flamewar. Let me check:

Yep.

Zeek99g wrote:

Va'al wrote:complete with weapon, flames and ..war?

Nice catch!

Midnight_Fox wrote:They jiggle, too.

I may be thinking to hard about this, but does that mean they're made of something soft, or they have jointage/springs that allow them to bounce/ articulate. Do transformer women where Brassieres? Does that mean there's a transformers clothes/fashion industry, if that's the case do transformers as a race wear clothes, are clothes vehicle kibble? How do we know when they're wearing clothes, does that mean there are cybertonain decency laws? If that's all entirely false does this imply transformers are constantly nude all the time? Why's the prospect of transformers with jiggle physics open this many question

holy flaming bras batman!

Midnight_Fox wrote:

griftimus prime wrote:now the females do not just have boobs. they have boobs with flames on them.

You must have missed the furor during the con.

They jiggle, too.

Two words, shock absorbers.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:I may be thinking to hard about this, but does that mean they're made of something soft, or they have jointage/springs that allow them to bounce/ articulate. Do transformer women where Brassieres? Does that mean there's a transformers clothes/fasion industry, if that's the case do transformers as a race wear clothes, are clothes vehicle kibble, or if that's all entirely false does this imply transformers are constantly nude all the time? Why's the prospect of transformers with jiggle physics open this many question

Dude, they're bewbs. To 99% of the male population they are beyond the concept of logical reason-

...

Sorry, I was *cough*staring at the awesome bewbs*cough*, what was I saying?

Yet more high quality, detailed Seibertron.com galleries of BotCon 2014 exclusive figures! Click on any of the images below to access the full works of Starseeker Pirates Hunter, a repaint of TCC Rampage, in itself a repaint and remold of Transformers Prime First Edition Deluxe Megatron, and Brimstone, a repaint of the Air Raid remold of Fall of Cybertron Shockwave!


Convention & Club Exclusives Pirate Hunter














Convention & Club Exclusives Pirate Brimstone

For whatever reason, the small head doesn't look as bad on Hunter/Shockawhatever

Brimstone seems to lose a bit of his visual appeal with the lack of asymmetrical legs, but I'd totally have gotten him if he was a mass-release figure. And fan-moded a pterodactyl mode.

Brimstone's range as a rail gun is five-billionths of a kilometer?

Caelus wrote:Brimstone's range as a rail gun is five-billionths of a kilometer?

That's "Klick" with a "K". Here's what I found:

In "military-speak," the term "click" (spelled with a "c" instead of a "k") is used when sighting-in a weapon, such as a rifle. On most weapons, one "click" equals one minute of arc, or -- in other words, one inch of distance at one hundred yards. So, moving the site adjustments of the rifle "one click" will change the point of impact one inch for a target 100 yards away, two inches for a target 200 yards away, and so forth.For the detailed oriented, 1 MOA at 100 yards is actually a tad over 1 inch (There are 360 degrees in a circle and each degree is divided into 60 minutes. If we round to the nearest 1⁄100 of an inch, at 100 yards 1 degree measures 62.83 inches. One MOA, 1⁄60 of that, measures 1.047 inches), but rounding it works for quick calculations. The term comes from the clicking-sound made by the sight adjustment knobs as they are turned.

Hunter/Shockaract is beautiful. I've been planning on picking him up, but may be unable to wait for a Club sale.

So how much would a Flamewhore be going for?

Toralei_De_Nile wrote:So how much would a Flamewhore be going for?

Between $75 and $100 on eBay, currently.

Brimstone matches his original figure better than I expected.

I was always disappointed the original Brimstone wasn't used for an exclusive. He would've made a good Swoop or Cutthroat.

So he isn't Shokoract? Or is he and Trademarks are getting in the way?

hinomars19 wrote:So he isn't Shokoract? Or is he and Trademarks are getting in the way?

That's Shokaract before he became known and named as such. 3H fiction said he was nothing but a Hunter before the discovery of the Matrix of Conquest, and FunPub took it from there.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

hinomars19 wrote:So he isn't Shokoract? Or is he and Trademarks are getting in the way?

That's Shokaract before he became known and named as such. 3H fiction said he was nothing but a Hunter before the discovery of the Matrix of Conquest, and FunPub took it from there.

Yeah, and in this story, he's Cannonball's tracker beast "pet". Known only as "Hunter", for he has no real name, Cannonball "won" him in a game of cards with uncooperative player (though "won" is more like "cheated every time and then killed his opponent when he got called out for his cheating, and then negociated with his prize into joining his crew" in this case).

He would not take the name "Shokaract" until acquiring the Matrix of Conquest and upgrading into his BotCon 2000 toy body.

The story of life aboard the Tidal Wave is quite a fascinating one, IMO. It's what made Tornado the most forward looked to figure of the convention for me.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Caelus wrote:Brimstone's range as a rail gun is five-billionths of a kilometer?

That's "Klick" with a "K". Here's what I found:

In "military-speak," the term "click" (spelled with a "c" instead of a "k") is used when sighting-in a weapon, such as a rifle. On most weapons, one "click" equals one minute of arc, or -- in other words, one inch of distance at one hundred yards. So, moving the site adjustments of the rifle "one click" will change the point of impact one inch for a target 100 yards away, two inches for a target 200 yards away, and so forth.For the detailed oriented, 1 MOA at 100 yards is actually a tad over 1 inch (There are 360 degrees in a circle and each degree is divided into 60 minutes. If we round to the nearest 1⁄100 of an inch, at 100 yards 1 degree measures 62.83 inches. One MOA, 1⁄60 of that, measures 1.047 inches), but rounding it works for quick calculations. The term comes from the clicking-sound made by the sight adjustment knobs as they are turned.

So really, the sentence in Brimstone's bio just doesn't make any sense, as the unit "nanoclick" would really only be used in reference to calibrating the weapon's aim, and (I assume) summarizing the weapon's margin of error (its spread). "Nanoclick" would not be used in reference to a weapon's range.

Still, that makes me curious as to what sort of ranges would necessitate 'nanoclick' accuracy.

1c = 1 inch change per 100 yards to target
1c = 2 inch change per 200 yards to target

So:

1c = 1 inch change per 3600 inches to target

One click represents a 1:3600 adjustment to range ratio, which means one nanoclick represents a change to range ratio of 1:3600*10^9 or 1:2.78*10^13. So, a one nanoclick adjustment to your targeting would yield a one inch change at a target 2.78*10^13 inches away. Or 3.33x10^12 feet away. Or 1.76x10^8 miles. Or (and this is when it sounds cool):

A one nanoclick adjustment to the weapon's aim would yield a one inch change in the point of impact on a target that is 1.636 astronomical units away.

Mars, by the way, is 1.523 AUs from the Sun.

So if we were to willfully ignore the wording in Brimstone's techspec, and assume it was supposed to say something like, "Brimstone fires a solid Cybertronium slug, accurate to within five nanoclicks while in independent flight, and his accuracy improves when wielded by his crewmate Pirate Scorponok," then we would infer that Brimstone transforms into something functionally equivalent to a sniper rifle with a range that's measured on the interplanetary scale.

Does anyone know the names of the Microns that come with the Pounce and Wingspan clones?

Seibertron wrote:Does anyone know the names of the Microns that come with the Pounce and Wingspan clones?

In the Facebook story, many of the crew members have these "Arms Minicons" that Ferak created, but the ones belonging specifically to Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder respectively were named "Pillage" and "Plunder".

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Does anyone know the names of the Microns that come with the Pounce and Wingspan clones?

In the Facebook story, many of the crew members have these "Arms Minicons" that Ferak created, but the ones belonging specifically to Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder respectively were named "Pillage" and "Plunder".

What Sabrblade said. The Arms Minicons have specific names when tied to specific Dread Pirates, but there's no official name for them beyond "Arms Minicon".

They're not even characters/sentient, being programmed with the basest of AIs.

If it's for naming their Galleries, may I suggest Arms Minicon X, where X is the first letter of either the Clone they go with(W/P, like Frenzy and Rumble's Microns) or the first letter of their color like Igu S or the individual pack recolors.

Midnight_Fox wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Does anyone know the names of the Microns that come with the Pounce and Wingspan clones?

In the Facebook story, many of the crew members have these "Arms Minicons" that Ferak created, but the ones belonging specifically to Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder respectively were named "Pillage" and "Plunder".

What Sabrblade said. The Arms Minicons have specific names when tied to specific Dread Pirates, but there's no official name for them beyond "Arms Minicon".

Plus, even though the promotional images for the Clones 2-Pack called the toys "Pounce" and "Wingspan", respectively, the fiction and toy bios for the Dread Pirate Crew indicate that they aren't exactly those two individuals.

At first glance, they just seem to be generic drones developed from the technology of the original Pounce and Wingspan (essentially "clones of the Clones"), but in actuality, each one of them is a named individual with his own identity and job.

All of named car-based ones are Cutback, Drydock, Neurotoxin, Rolling Thunder, Stormcharge, and Wheel Lock.

All of the named jet-based ones are Boltcaster, Lockpick, Skyduster, Thunderclap, and Turbolift.

Thunderclap and Rolling Thunder are known as the "Thunder 'Twins'" who cause all sorts of racket aboard the ship, racing up and down its corridors, and are foremen of Scorponok's work crew. Cutback and Lockpick run a secret black market aboard the ship unbeknownst to Captain Cannonball. Drydock is Scorponok's chief mechanic. Neurotoxin is a boatswain. Stormcharge and Turbolift act like they were both forged on some backwater planet, but are easily occupied when given guns. Wheel Lock once lost his right arm to a Klud beast. Skyduster is Cannonball's ace pilot who has the ability to release a gas that reacts with local weather patterns to create unnatural atmospheric storms. And Boltcaster, well, he hasn't been focused on much, so we don't know much about him.

So basically... they design them after one character but fictionally use them as a dozen different other characters, in what I assume is a crazy ploy to get fans to buy the same exact toy far too many times over.

Noideaforaname wrote:So basically... they design them after one character but fictionally use them as a dozen different other characters, in what I assume is a crazy ploy to get fans to buy the same exact toy far too many times over.

To be fair, they ARE this year's Troop Builder set.

Noideaforaname wrote:So basically... they design them after one character but fictionally use them as a dozen different other characters, in what I assume is a crazy ploy to get fans to buy the same exact toy far too many times over.

Well, I did just recently purchase five more 2-packs just to get all 11 of the named pirates (and one extra).

Sabrblade wrote:

Noideaforaname wrote:So basically... they design them after one character but fictionally use them as a dozen different other characters, in what I assume is a crazy ploy to get fans to buy the same exact toy far too many times over.

Well, I did just recently purchase five more 2-packs just to get all 11 of the named pirates (and one extra).

Just looking for what to name their galleries ... open to suggestions. Need a name or designation for each one.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Noideaforaname wrote:So basically... they design them after one character but fictionally use them as a dozen different other characters, in what I assume is a crazy ploy to get fans to buy the same exact toy far too many times over.

Well, I did just recently purchase five more 2-packs just to get all 11 of the named pirates (and one extra).

Just looking for what to name their galleries ... open to suggestions. Need a name or designation for each one.

Well, the toys are labeled "Dread Pirate Crew" as a set. Individually, though, they can be any one of the car or jet type crew members. These two are a rare case of just two toys meant to represent several named characters.

Maybe something like "Dread Pirate Crew (Pounce type)" and "Dread Pirate Crew (Wingspan type)", to use both the real name and to acknowledge the promotional images using the Clone names?

Also, a couple other shipmates are repurposes of existing toys.

Axor is a repurpose of the 2010 figure that was a retool of ROTF Lockdown.

Rockhopper is a repurpose of the Beast Wars Neo Break figure, with a few cosmetic changes like an eyepatch and big Star Seeker insignia on his penguin belly. And he never transforms out of penguin mode.


Eclipse is a repurpose of the special white version of Beast Wars II Moon, also with a Star Seeker symbol.

Noideaforaname wrote:For whatever reason, the small head doesn't look as bad on Hunter/Shockawhatever

Brimstone seems to lose a bit of his visual appeal with the lack of asymmetrical legs, but I'd totally have gotten him if he was a mass-release figure. And fan-moded a pterodactyl mode.

ill second that. the rampage/hunter head looks better for some reason on hunter. i liked the TFCC rampage figure in spite of the small head, but when i saw hunter my reaction wasnt much more than "oh. ok. neat." then when i got him in hand and i started really notice the finer details. the colors are really nice, and fade just as nicely as the red and orange in rampage. the only negative for me is the big pirate symbol on the chest (which i can live with). i actually like him better than rampage!

and i found brimstone quite underwelming. but again, once in hand i remembered everything i liked about air raid. and hes a great homage to the original.

Sabrblade wrote:Maybe something like "Dread Pirate Crew (Pounce type)" and "Dread Pirate Crew (Wingspan type)", to use both the real name and to acknowledge the promotional images using the Clone names?

Not for the Pounce and Wingspan Clones, for the Microns ...

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Maybe something like "Dread Pirate Crew (Pounce type)" and "Dread Pirate Crew (Wingspan type)", to use both the real name and to acknowledge the promotional images using the Clone names?

Not for the Pounce and Wingspan Clones, for the Microns ...

Oh, those.

Hmm... well, Pillage and Plunder are the only ones with known names, and collectively the Facebook story called them "Arms Minicons", but neither really has a general designation to refer to each one by individual type, officially.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Maybe something like "Dread Pirate Crew (Pounce type)" and "Dread Pirate Crew (Wingspan type)", to use both the real name and to acknowledge the promotional images using the Clone names?

Not for the Pounce and Wingspan Clones, for the Microns ...

Oh, those.

Hmm... well, Pillage and Plunder are the only ones with known names, and collectively the Facebook story called them "Arms Minicons", but neither really has a general designation to refer to each one by individual type, officially.

Hence my "Arms Minicon X" suggestion earlier, X being either W/P like Rumble/Frenzy's Microns, or W/T(White/Teal) like the single pack recolors. It mixes the generic designation of FunPub with the naming style of the Arms Micron series.

Seibertron.com is proud to present not one, not three but four new BotCon 2014 exclusive figures galleries! Click on any of the images below to view the full works, from the Knights faction including the Transformers: Prime Thundertron repaint Alpha Trizer, the Prime Arcee repaint Flareup, and swinging in from the branches of Universe Optimus Primal, Apelinq and the Custom Class figure Primal Prime!


Convention & Club Exclusives Primal Prime






Convention & Club Exclusives Knight Apelinq












Convention & Club Exclusives Knight Flareup












Convention & Club Exclusives Knight Alpha Trizer

I love Alpha Trizer's colors, but it's not as good as Leo Prime's.

Ok, now that I've got Primal Prime posted ... it's driving me crazy that painting Transformers has been such a challenge for me. Maybe it's time for an airbrush, which is required to do Primal Prime's chest properly.

I know very little about painting. I add clear coat to Beast Wars figures that have chrome paint worth saving and I do small little touch ups here and there. I did the custom class Longarm figure at BotCon 2012 with mixed degrees of success. I felt like the clear coat in the class went on really rough with the airbrush so I've been too chicken to do much more than what I've done.

However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need? I was doing some research yesterday and found the following on Amazon but I have no idea what the difference is between all of the different airbrushes that this company offers:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?tag=seibertron07-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=iwata%20medea%20airbrush&sprefix=iwata+medea+%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aiwata%20medea%20airbrush



Does anyone have any websites that show tips and such on equipment that I need to purchase?

I don't mind spending up to $500 if I can get a quality airbrush and compressor. But I don't want to spend much more than that unless you guys say I really need to.

Hopefully some of you guys can help me out!!!

Personally Seibertron, I'd commission a guy to do it. I tried painting several figures, all of which turned out miserably.

Between the Cheetor photos in the gallery and cheetah comment in his bio, I take it Alpha Tizer is post Beast Machines Cheetor? Or some version of Cheetor?

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I love Alpha Trizer's colors, but it's not as good as Leo Prime's.

I can't help but wonder if the grey swords that came with Alpha Trizer were colored that way to provide more color accurate swords for Go Prime and Alpha Trizer if you do a swap. The "red" swords that came with Go Prime look like an identical match for the red color used on Alpha Trizer.

With the swords each figure came with ...




With the swords swapped ...



What's odd about this to me is that the red swords came with Go Prime in the first place since the red wasn't used on Go Prime at all. Might it be possible that both figures came out of the factory at the same time and the swords were swapped at some point or am I putting way too much thought into this?

Seibertron wrote:However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need?

When it comes to painting plastic, I would recommend Krylon Fusion paint, which are in spray cans. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it's good for painting plastic even though they are spray paints. You can buy them in different sizes at your local Walmart, Amazon, their official website, and other websites online. The official website has a how-to video for using the paint. You can click it here. Or you can go to other how-to websites and videos, your choice. I hope this helps.

Yweggo wrote:Between the Cheetor photos in the gallery and cheetah comment in his bio, I take it Alpha Tizer is post Beast Machines Cheetor? Or some version of Cheetor?

That's correct. Alpha Trizer is a post-BM Cheetor who somehow merged sparks with Alpha Trion.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:However, it's driving me crazy that I've got a BotCon Blastcharge and a BotCon Primal Prime. What do you guys recommend for an Airbrush and what other tools or equipment do I need?

When it comes to painting plastic, I would recommend Krylon Fusion paint, which are in spray cans. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that it's good for painting plastic even though they are spray paints. You can buy them in different sizes at your local Walmart, Amazon, their official website, and other websites online. The official website has a how-to video for using the paint. You can click it here. Or you can go to other how-to websites and videos, your choice. I hope this helps.

I definitely want to go the air brush route. Just need to know what equipment to buy that others suggest. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

I simply went the route of having my Primal Prime painted for me at BotCon, by this awesome guy. His works are very professional-grade, and I highly recommend him for anyone considering commissioning someone to paint their figures for them.

Last year, he painted people's Blastcharge figures and this year he did the same for the Primal Prime figures. Hopefully he'll continue to paint people's custom class figures at future BotCons.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

Just looking for tips on airbrush. $60 for a commissioned work is a lot of money when I could be spending 200 to 300 to get the equipment and figure it out myself which would also be helpful for repairing figures for seibertron store.

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work.

My brain can't process this sentence. I've never seen that happen in 20+ years of painting plastic things. Not saying you're wrong, I've just never seen it.

So I'm late to the Flamewar and Brimstone/Hunter gallery updates party...

I like the way Brimstone looks. So based on his bio, I understand he's basically an over-sized Targetmaster buddy for Scorponok? If that's the case, I was disappointed to learn that there were no images of Brimstone being "wielded" by Scorponok in "weapon mode".

Hunter/Shokaract is neato. Not a character I'm attached to, but it does look nice.

Primal Prime is okay, but not quite the right mold for that certain character, IMO.

Ape Linq is awesome, and have been waiting for this redeco for a while. Just wish it wasn't a BotCon exclusive. Though I kinda wish the bio card's colors and the deco matched up a little bit better. Him having a lighter-colored face on the bio card compared to the actual figure is bothering the crap out of me.

Alpha Trizer... eh. Cool for fans of 3H potential exclusives, but, like Hunter/Shokaract, just doesn't appeal to me enough to warrant the amounts of monies they're asking for. Same goes for Flareup.

Flamewar is epic. Beast Hunters Arcee was practically destined to become Flamewar. And it works really good. Might have to hunt her down one day. Maybe one day.

That's all I can say about the BotCon galleries for right now. Can't wait to see the box set and the Decepticon Clones/Dread Pirate Crew. The Clones especially, since those are the ones I'm legitimately tempted about. Gotta build up that Classics shelf!

Seibertron wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:I searched for airbrush paint for plastic and I found this: Creative Airbrush Colors. It's legit and highly reviewed on Amazon. From 3 to 5 stars. You can see their list of items here and you can search for their color sets on Amazon here. Do not get Wicked Colors, Createx Illustration Colors, Auto Air Colors (unless the plastic is hard), or Auto Borne. This was the only result that I could find. It's a tough search for airbrush paints for plastic. Well, I hope that this helps you.

You can dilute any acrylic on the market and make it an "airbrush paint".

Well, sometimes acrylic paint doesn't work. I'm just putting down some suggestions. That's all.

Just looking for tips on airbrush. $60 for a commissioned work is a lot of money when I could be spending 200 to 300 to get the equipment and figure it out myself which would also be helpful for repairing figures for seibertron store.

Well, there's somewhat of a learning curve to airbrushing, and the cleanup and maintenance can also be frustrating if you're not very disciplined or patient. Depending on the person, sometimes it's just too much trouble, especially if you're not particularly interested in customizing figures.

Also, besides the obvious airbrush and compressor set, you'll also need a spray booth and/or respirator, as well as a cleaning pot. Some cheap lacquer thinner or IPA just for flushing the AB will also help keep costs down. I usually recommend a 0.3mm airbrush, as it's versatile enough for detailing as well as base coating.

Don Wheeler of donsairbrushtips.com, on the other hand, is more fond of 0.5mm airbrushes, and is even able to do detailing work with them.

As for brands, Iwata's Eclipse HP-CS is one of the most popular AB's among hobbyists. You can also try Tamiya's HG line of airbrushes, which are also made by Iwata.

Badger and Paasche AB's are also quite popular, but just be aware that American-made AB's use a 1/4" diameter hose connection (Type L) whereas air hoses that come with Sparmax or Iwata compressors are 1/8" (Type S), which the AB's from their own brand are obviously compatible with. You'll need an adapter joint in order to use a Badger or Paasche AB with the hoses from the brands I just mentioned.

In the long run, getting an AB and compressor set is indeed the most cost-effective route. If you tough it out through the beginner phase and start getting the hang of airbrushing, the equipment will start paying for themselves.