Yes you can use any craft airbrush, but the most important thing is that it has to be brand new. I bought mine at the hardware store. As for the colors, you can get special airbrush colors where ever you get your regular food coloring.
Try Americolor brand or KopyKake brand. KopyKake also sells airbrushes and projectors and edible inks for printers. You should check out KopyKake.com
I just got a kopykake one for my birthday. Couple of things I'd wished I'd known before I got it. The least expensive one they have is the one I got. It only has one well for color and it's on top of the pen? and it's open and I'm not exactly coordinated 
. There is another one that you can get that the color is on the bottom of the pen and the color is easily exchangeable in these tub things (they just snap in from what I understand) or there is one that has two wells. I hope that helps.
for ab on cakes you literally need just a drop or two of color so the cup ontop of the gun is perfect. if you choose a gun that has the syphon feed, bottles under the gun you will need alittle more psi to suck the colour up.
Hiya Trevie,
Yeah what Sweet cakes said, the cup on top is known as gravity feed and most if not all the time are single action guns. The syphon or bottom feed are usually double action.
Single action is easier to cut yer teeth on. Double action is more for detail work and is more complicated to use.
I use the gravity feed single action all the time and I am just fine with it. With practice you can also do some detail work with it also. I have never used stencils on my works and they are all freehand with the single action gravity feed. If you have color left over just pour it back into the bottle n rinse yer gun with some hot water n go on to the next one. I would only get the syphon feed if you were doing mass quantities and fast production. Not to mention they are more expensive and yes do need more pressure than what is recommended for cakes to work.
You might also try to see if you can find a little plastic cap to go on top of your gravity feed cup and see if that helps with the drippees.
Another advantage to the gravity feed is that you do not have the bottle on the bottom that might touch the cake when doing very close up detail. You need to get real close to do fine 'eyelashes'!
Thanks guys!! And see I thought I screwed up and got the wrong one...Where do I get a cap for the well? I've only played with a couple of times but I'm one of those dorks that if I lean over to look at something my whole body leans over and there goes all the color, on the floor, oh and I got my dog too, burgundy, should've taken a picture and posted how to airbrush your dog... 
I recently got one for my Birthday from my husband, he had gotten it from Harbor Freight, it was pretty inexpensive....does anyone have any suggestions about practicing...I don't want to just practice on a cake...
I thought about just putting water in it and practicing on my sidewalk....I am thinking I will not be able to really see the details that I would want to see on my cakes though
Harbor Freight, we have one here. Please let me know how it turns out, as I would love to try my hand at that also. Everyone is such a great help on this site.Thank you all.
i have the same gun, and the same problems with jerking my hands back and forth too harshly or tipping it forward and there goes a big blop of color right where i just airbrushed. if you try to clean if off it will take the color you've already done right off and you have a white spot...trust me on this! what i found was that you can take a paper towel and just lightly touch it to the "puddle" and it will wick the paint up into it. i just delivered a female torso 
cake to a client yesterday, and i had the skin looking so good, and then BLOOP!! right on her left leg...the paper towel did the trick, but the whole time i'm sitting there thinking "why in the hockey sticks does this darn thing not have a lid!!!"
I have both types of airbrushes and yes, I too 'kerplopped' a glob of 'paint' out the top! Luckily, I'm only practicing on paper. But it was a lesson I learned! I'm determined to do this since hubby bought me so much stuff for it! Looked at so many cakes that it just adds a real beauty to it. Keep up this thread, I'm enjoying learning about airbrushing on cakes from all of you experts. Any tips or tricks on fine lines from anyone? I know it's just a matter of practice, but I want to do it right now!! Impatience!!
Hello I saw your post about your husband getting one from harbor freight?? Is it like kopykakes? How well does it work? We have a harbor freight here, so if it worked pretty good, I would go and get myself one.Thanks. This is a great site, and I have learned so much from everyone.
I used the Harbor Freight Airbrush last night for the first time, I have the Central Pneumatic, Quick Change Air Brush Kit (it came with 5 Quick change color cups....
I just did it and did not practice so this will be a silly little story to share for all of you....my 5 year old wanted to watch mommy...I took a dollar store table cloth and hung it behind where I was spraying and under the cake as well....I didn't practice out of impatience and just didn't want to have to color my fondant black....soooo, little did I know that I had it at such a fine mist (it worked great on the cake) I go to put my daughter to bed...and her feet are black...it had put a very fine mist over every horizontal surface in my entire kitchen...including the floor, my stove, sink, countertops...my husband and I cleaned it up last night so this morning I could not figure out why my feet were black again...it was all over every surface in the nearby bathroom as well, toilet, washer,dryer, sink....so needless to say does anyone have suggestions on what I did wrong? Where do you spray your cake? And how do you prep your area?
I look forward to hearing from anyone that can help......I hope it will help everyone else too!!!
(I should show you all my black feet...)
I bought a project display by Elmers ( they are those folding cardboard things they sell at Michaels for about $3 that the kids use for their school projects.) Set one up on a table in the garage and then when I want to airbrush, I take the cake out to the garage to my mini-paint booth......
also be sure that you have the pressure turned down hun. Overspray is most usually caused from your pressure being too high and the excess has to go somewhere (on yer feet ). If anyone has any questions pm me and I can go into detail or just post it here and we can share with the world. I have to go n delliver a cake right now so don't have time ...........right now.
K, I'm baaaaccckkkk!!!!!
If you want fine lines, practice on a piece of paper first with how far you pull the trigger and how close to the medium(cake) you need to be to get the line you want. Do that a couple times and you will get the feel for what you do for what you want.
I always do a preview spray on a papertowel or something before I apply to the cake. Also, if you have a larger compressor, make sure that you have the air pressure turned down. There should be an adjuster screw at the end of the nozzle where you attach your line to your compressor. Turn that down so you won't have as much pressure. And then do swirlies till you get the feel for it on your paper towel and then do your deco on a cake.
O.K. I have a question, which airbrushes are pretty good. I just went to Harbor Freight, and I didn't see anything that was under 15 psi's. Kopykakes etc? Thank you
I have the little kromajet and it works just dandy for me. I don't have to worry about blowing holes or blast patterns and I can do fairly fine detail with it. At work we have the phiel n holing one and it's noisy, the color comes out in little spurts and I just plain don't like it. But that's me.
Most of those larger compressors have the air control valve there (is a brass screw) and you can control you air with that.
Does anyone know if you can just use the wilton gel colours diluted with vodka to use in an airbrush?? I am looking to get on with the compressed air can to try my hand at it. Does Michaels sell anything special for edible paint for airbrush guns? Thats my only resource. I need to airbrush Black.
Going shopping this afternoon to use my 50% off coupon at michaels. Yeah!!!
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