Stencils, are a great tool in the arsenal of airbrush artists. But with so many stencils out there, where is your money best spent, so that you don’t buy something that will send the rest of eternity in a drawer? Pain Inc. gives you our top five stencils.

#5. True Fire by Mike Lavallee – Manufactured by Artool

This is obviously a big set of stencils to be used by artists in the creation of true flames, and seeing the success, style and skill behind the innovator of True Fire Mike Lavallee, it only makes sence that he would put together a good set to created the effect. Artool was nice to pack in a “semi” instructional video with the stencils, which is a nice touch. These stencils are also great curves for any project that requires some freehand shielding, and is by no reason limited strictly to flames.

While a good set it takes the bottom spot for a couple reasons. for one, you have to seperate the shields with an exacto knife, and sand the tabs down, which is a huge pain in the ass, and makes me wonder why when they were laser cutting these guys out, why they just didn’t cut them out completely. I am sure we could figure out which was the positive and which was the negative by the labels on the stencil. The other major disadvantace is cost, as they are sold as a set of 18 stencils in various sizes (3 sets – 3 different sizes) for approximately $150.

#4 Six Pack O’ Skulls by Scott MacKay – Manufactured by Devilbliss

I couldn’t help but put a set of skull templates in there. With so many skull stencils this selection was made on the basis of which stencils could be the most versatile. Scotts got the nod as it provides you with a great variety of head positions, they are not super crazy stylized, giving you a lot of artistic freedom to build upon a solid base human skull, and that he had the forethought to add other cool little things that could be used, even when your project has no call for some boneheads. The addition of things like broken glass, curves (for flames and more), bullet holes, and circles for things like rivets and eyeballs is a nice touch.

The disadvantage is that when packaged they broke them into two sets of six (essentiall 6 skulls of two different sizes), I wish they had just packaged like size heads in one set, rather than breaking them in half. I am still holding my breath for a mini-set that Scott had made up, but has yet to be sold as a commercial package. Again at $65 a set makes it a bit pricy, but considering you get 6 stencils in a set, overall a good deal.

This set will help speed up any project involving skulls in your shop.

#3 Super Shield by Andrea Mistretta – Manufactured by Artool
It’s simple. It’s inexpensive (approximately $15), and is probably the shield that I have used the most while painting. My only wish is that they had utilized the abundance of space in the middle of the shield a little more effectively, and maybe given me some more circles or even a couple of rectangles or lines.

#2 Match Makers by Michael Cacy – Manufactured by Artool

This set wins in the same way that Supershield does, with the additional plus is that because the stencils are four separate interlocking positive and negative shapes ideal for airbrushing hair, smoke, foliage and other unique effects.

#1 Pocket Grafx Link – by Scott MacKay

This set is the big winner in my top five, as set includes six template for all those little details you need to add into your work in a nice little carrying case about the size of a business card. The set has stencils for rivets, bolts, flames (curves), tears, ammo,bullet holes, and a good straight edge with circles. What makes the set a winner is the cost. You can pick this bad boy up for under $15, meaning the set will pay for itself the first time you ever have to use it in a project!