Master Blaster II Airbrush Compressor by NO-NAME Brand

Bought this in 2020 to do some Pandemic painting. It arrived and functioned well but it was so loud I had to move my paint station to the living room so I wouldn't wake the neighbor downstairs. I'm a night shift worker so my nocturnal hobby emissions were causing old Ed some consternation. The poor old codger was a typical day walker and slept just beneath my hobby cave. I bit the bullet and bought a 20 ft hose, moved my desk to the living room and put the compressor in a closet so I could shut the door and isolate the noise better. Worked a treat then a couple weeks ago it stopped retaining pressure. I barely even use the thing since most of my projects are long since finished and I just do a few models a month to keep up with the meta. Now I have to buy a new one. Don't think I'll be trusting Spraygunner.com this time around though. Nice while it lasted with this noisy beast.

I've bought this compressor as a replacement for my old Aztek AC500 which served me for almost 20 years while crossing multiple borders. When it finally gave up to rust, I wanted a more powerful unit with bigger tank and similar noise level. This "No-Name" one appears to perfectly satisfy these requirements. Well, it does indeed in the power and tank size department. It quickly reaches shut off pressure and rebuilds it in no time when needed. Unfortunately, in is not nearly close to the promised 44 db noise level, it perceived way louder than my old AC500 rated at 48 db and a sound meter app on my phone shows 60-62 db at 1 meter distance while AC500 shows 48-50. Thus just 4 stars.

I needed someone to dream…….

The air compressor works fantastic, I just have one small detail. You cannot see the pressure gauge when the cover is on the compressor.

This compressor offers a LOT of capability for its price. It's heavy and well-made, and the metal shroud feels very sturdy. This could very well be the last compressor you need to buy.

The Master Blaster II pushes a TON of air; this makes it suitable for Grex's miniature spray guns or their 0.7mm nozzles or even their 0.7mm fan cap. With the CFM it's capable of, you could even run two 0.2 or 0.3 brushes simultaneously with a splitter, much like some of the more expensive Sparmax compressors (that push less CFM than this unit) do. It never gets hot, and never feels particularly stressed no matter what you throw at it. Even when I drain the tank at the end of the day, there's only the tiniest bit of condensation that comes out; not even a full drop of water. A lot of condensation would indicate either a very high humidity environment or the compressor getting very hot, causing it to pull in more moisture that then condenses inside the tank as the air cools.

This is my first tanked compressor and compared to my cheaper Master Airbrush compressor this replaced, I'm shocked that it has noticeably improved the quality of output on my airbrushes. I had to test both compressors side-by-side to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I can cleanly atomize the same paint at lower indicated pressures than before and--especially when spraying heavy media like primer--I get zero tip buildup, compared to a ton I get with the Master (that only gets worse as that unit heats up, and then it also has added issues with water condensation in the line even with a secondary inline water trap). I think this comes down to it supplying a cleaner air pressure flow without the pulsations of a single piston tankless unit.

It's quiet as well, and with its tank size, when you're running one airbrush, it only comes on for a few seconds every few minutes of airbrushing. 99% of the time it's perfectly silent.

Full disclosure: my first compressor did have an issue with the check valve from the pistons to the tank, causing air to leak backwards out of the system that developed after about the second time I used it. This is a pretty easy fix--you can disassemble and clean the check valve or replace it, but I called Spraygunner as it comes with a warranty. They went above and beyond, sending me a shipping label and shipping me a replacement unit in under a week at no cost to me, no hassle or questions asked. I've used the second one for about a month now with zero issues. Normally, having a problem with the first unit might compel me to drop a star off the rating, but defective parts are an occasional inevitability with anything mechanical. What matters is how problems like that are resolved. When you buy something like this, you're not just buying hardware; you're buying after-sales support as well. Spraygunner came through and this replacement unit has been flawless.