Hi Dean , sorry the price has gone up since I bought mine back in the olden days
They are listed at Stanbridges at $89.00 . As a model club member I get 20percent discount which makes it about $60.00

http://www.stanbridges.com.au/shop.AIRBRUSH-SETS-AND-COMPRESSORS
I just use a cheap compressor with a moisture trap from Bunnings generally around $99.00

I've just had a look at the Paasche website and found that theres two types of Paasche single action airbrushes (H and HS) and 3 sizes of aircap and colour adjusting part.

There's also the choice of getting just the airbrush, a single aircap and colour adjusting part size, paint cup and some basic tools, or a set which has all 3 sizes of aircap, some plastic paint bottles, and some other stuff that I don't have a clue about.

Hi Dean , I started with the basic Paashe H with the number three nozzle . Later I brought a number one nozzle for fine lines .

Dean, do you have any Hobby Lobby craft stores near you there? They have Badger, Passhe and Iwata AB's and frequently have a 40% coupon that you can use on anything...that's how I got my Iwata Cr.

Standard garage compressors will work but can get noisey, but if you can run an airline from the garage compressor to your work table that'd be quiet! An air tank is another way to go for cheap/quiet operation - when it gets low just dash back to the garage and refill it, then go back to painting. Run a regulator on it that will go down to 5-10 psi and has a guage that shows this pressor since very once in a while you'd want to dial down that low for fine lines. Usual work is done in the 15-25 range with some folks hitting the 30psi range.
The two common types of AB's are gravity feed{fixed cup on top} or syphon feed{pulls from a cup side or underneath}. I like the top loaders myself but used syphons for quite a while too.
Next is "single action" or dual action";
Single is that you nave to mix the paint/thinner, pour it in and then you control the air pressure on the AB. It fired the apint and air at the same time and the more you pull the more it sprays/draws.
Dual action is where you dump the thinned paint in the AB, but you can open and close the paint volume and control the air delivery from the AB via the top button.Push down on the button and you get air....the more you push the more you get. Pull back the button and you start delivering paint - hte more back you pull the more paint will come out...some have fine adjustments for paint control in back as to how much you can pull for fine lines and the like.

@ Brian; Okay thanks for that. I think I can get an older version of the Paasche airbrush kit for a good price (the same stuff in it, but different packaging). Otherwise I'll just get what you did.

@ Bob; I don't think there is a Hobby Lobby in my city. I've had a look on Google and I can't find one.

With the compressor, I'll probably be using it outside, so noise shouldn't be a problem. The air tank option could also be a good idea. I have one of those electric bike pumps that runs off a car's power socket, but I don't know if that would work. It might just be more simple to buy a "propper" compressor.

As for the airbrush, I'm looking at the Paasche single action syphon feed airbrushes.

What about internal vs external mix? I read somewhere that internal mix airbrushes give a finer "mist" of paint than the external mix airbrushes. Any thoughts?

Hah! Nevermind, I just bought my first airbrush from ebay for a steal (the shipping to Australia from the US will cost 3 times as much as the airbrush itself! ).

It's a Paasche H in one of the older style kits. Here's hoping it gets to me in one piece

Hi Dean , I think external mix airbrushes are old school . I got a book from the local library about airbrushing and it showed this method . I cant really remember , I hope someone else can help you about this .

Yeah, any info on this would be good for future reference, but I've already gone and bought the Paasche H airbrush, so it's probably a moot point.

I also bought it for a very good price, which becomes even more apparent when I compare the price I payed for the airbrush compared to the price I payed for some of my medium-priced 1:43 scale diecast cars.

Hey, old school or not...it's only gonna work well once you learn how to use it...even the best AB will give the worst results till ya learn her.

So dean, what's your plan of attack on an air source?

Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about safe travels from the states to you, I've purchsed 5 resin truck cab kits from a gent in your neck of the woods{backyard shed} and they've all arrived fine.

Charles, good man! Your talking my language here with a truck...I have a truck campaign that just started in the truck section of auto modeler...care to join in with us and build that puppy?

I'm probably going to go down to Bunnings and look for a small-ish compressor with a moisture trap and a pressure regulator. Failing that there's a few hardware stores around, as well as Supercheap Auto.

I'll do that after the airbrush comes in the mail so I can get a compressor with the right fittings for it.

hey dean

supercheap auto sells a small airbrush compressor- dont bother with it i bought one and ended up throwing it away as there is no tank and it pulsed when i was using my air brush

i bought a compressor for abot 160 from mitre 10 and it has asmall tank and its not too bad for my needs

good luck

Dean;

I would suggest you could look at what's available in auto-parts stores or at Sears and the like. Here in coastal Louisiana-cajunland we have Harbor Freight, who sell a good tank-compressor for cheap. The tank solves those pulsing problems and buying a general-service shop-type compressor gets you a bigger compressor for less than about any "airbrush" compressor goes for. Bigger tanks also offer more pressure reserve and help keep down the compressor start-up disruption (matters if you are shook by the sudden rumble as your comp starts up in mid-spray).

Just an opinion, folks! Bob