Badger Renegade Krome airbrush review

Badger Renegade Krome with quick connector and spare needle

Once I had decided to purchase a decent airbrush I wanted to buy something from a local physical store in case there were any issues.  Also I was finding that there wasn’t too much price difference between online and physical stores once postage was added in for quality airbrushes.

The short list was down to a Badger Renegade Krome (maybe a Patriot) or a Paasche Talon.  Both had the features I was after and were in the $150-200 price range.  I went for the Renegade Krome as the paint cup on the Talon looked a bit big.  I knew I would only be using a small amount of paint so a large cup wasn’t needed.  If the Paasche VJR had been available I probably would have gone with it due to my past experiences with the Paasche model H.

My LGS The Combat Company sells Badger airbrushes (Krome/Patriot/Sotar) and accessories.  I also purchased some Badger airbrush oil as once you are paying $150+ for an airbrush $5 for some oil is a pretty obvious purchase.

The Krome comes in a nice padded box (dense foam on the bottom, soft foam on the top) with a clasp to keep everything safe.  In the box it came with a M5 to 1/8 inch adapter which was good.  By default the 0.2mm needle/nozzle was installed and there was a 0.3mm needle/nozzle included.  A slight confusion was that the 0.2mm needle needs to be used with the end cap with horns.  However the 0.3mm needle needs to be used with the end cap without horns.  This isn’t really made clear in the instructions.  Note that you can buy a 0.3mm needle adapter kit that come with an end cap with horns.

Firstly I striped down the Krome and oiled it.  The small bottle of oil is going to last a lifetime as you only use a drop or two.  The feel of the Krome is great.  A nicely balanced weight and the pull back action is very smooth.  The paint cup is rounded at the bottom of the cup so you don’t get any paint stuck in a corner (unlike my cheap airbrush) and thus cleaning is much easier.  The nozzle isn’t screwed in, it just sits in via friction so be careful during strip down as the nozzle is really easy to lose and is the size of a grain of rice.

I used the 0.2mm needle for awhile which was fine.  I swapped over to the 0.3mm needle as that worked better when priming figures and doing varnish sprays.  For the most part I run with the 0.3mm needle and find that it works great for general coverage work.

So would I recommend the Renegade Krome to others?  Absolutely.  It works well, comes with two needle sizes and in use really feels good.  I’ve run it at from 15-40 PSI and have had no issues.   The strip down is easy but you need to be careful with the tiny nozzle.  Always do your strip down over a catchment container.