hi guys, My DH has offered to buy me an airbrush set, to aid me in my cake decorating, i have never airbrushed cakes before and i am concerned it will be a waste of money if i am absoloutly hopeless at it,

I was wondering what are everyones general views on airbrushing, is it really as easy as it looks, what is the best type to get and also are the possibilities endless, any info or ideas regarding airbrushing would be gratefully recieved.

Well..It definelty isn't as easy as it looks.I have had my airbrush several years now and I use it for almost every cake and there are days I am lousy st it it too....It depends how mcuh you think you will use it..There is many brands..Paasche,Badger,Kopykake and several other smaller ones.You just have to do some research.They also vary in cost...

I use my airbrush almost everytime I do a cake!! I never thought I would use it as much as I do. I love the ease of not having to color icing all the time.

I pipe white icing on cupcakes and then airbrush the color on
I use it to give me an overall base color to sheet cakes
I mask off certain areas of cakes and airbrush the rest, giving them more interest

Even when no color is necessary on a cake I use my airbrush to spray a pearl sheen over the whole cake (requested a LOT with wedding cakes)

I have an iwata airbrush gun and a kopykake airmaster compressor. I got them both free so I can't complain, however I wouldn't trade them for anything....they're wonderful!

DH got me an Airbrush kit, and I love it!!!! I do cakes as a hobby and for locals friends here....Ive learned to use it on my own....so Im still very RAW.....

but man I love it!!!! We got an awesome deal on it, compressor, pen that comes wth it and then choice of two others, I went with the GD 100 pen that is used by most, got to pick it at the time free of charge

This is the one I have:
http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/cakesys.aspx

and this is the airbrush pen
http://www.airbrushcity.com/gd100.htm

if you take a peek at my cakes you can see Im soooo new, but Ive used it and just taught myself what I do know, and THANKS TO KIDDEKAKES for always being helpful!!!! HELLO MY FRIEND!!!!

This is the one I got, and from this place, sorry I had been looking at both....

http://airbrushcity.com/kits24/popular_featured1.htm
SECOND ONE FROM THE BOTTOM, for 135.50
and has the pen GD-100

I got mine after Christmas and am trying to figure out 1 thing....how to prevent/contain the mist from getting everywhere. I ususally "tent" off the area I am woring in, but I still find that the mist gets on other areas like the floor, table tops, etc. Do any of you use an exhaust or air filter near by to catch the mist?
TIA

thanks for your imput guys much appriciated, im definatly gonna give it a go now,

I really don't have any trouble with overspray at all!! Maybe you guys have the compressors turned up too high?? My compressor isn't adjustable, however , depending on how far back I pull on the nozzle on the gun it determines how hard the air comes out...I use a nice soft touch when I airbrush and haven't had to so much as even block the wall behind what I'm spraying, I do get a little overspray on the counter just around the cake sometimes but I just wipe with a wet cloth and I'm good to go.

Even when no color is necessary on a cake I use my airbrush to spray a pearl sheen over the whole cake (requested a LOT with wedding cakes)

pearl sheen, i know what it looks like but how do you get it????