Be cautious of the volume of some of them. They can be incredibly loud. If you could possibly turn it on in the store that would be good.

I had a tiny Badger compressor at one point. It didn't have a tank but it was fine for airbrushing, cheap, and was fairly quiet.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006FQCBZK/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item

I recently placed a large order. That is the air brush system I plan on trying out after a bunch of research and trying to find a compromise between cost and quality.

Iwata brand is pretty much the best it seems but they also can be very expensive

Createx paints are the way to go.

Check out this thread by vid for lots of good info on pf restoration and including stuff surrounding airbrush info and supplies
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-ultimate-playfield-restoration

I get most of my art supplies form jerrys artarama or dick blick. Many times amazon will have better deals depending on what you are looking for. Lots of online coupons for dickblick and artarama.

If you give me a little while I can report back on my new setup.

Yes, I'd recommend Iwata. You definitely want something fairly quiet. Check your local Craigslist. That's where I found good airbrushes and compressor.

Air brush compressors sould either be oil-less or have an inline seperator/filter.

I remember liking the little airbrush specific compressors when I was a kid because they are small, efficient, and quite compared to running a standard pancake.

I use Iwata guns and compressors.

I went to hobbylobby and they have both createx paints and iwata guns.
Just make sure to take a 40% off coupon for each item.

I think vid says to stay away form oil-less when dealing with a big compressor because the old school quality ones are oil ones and they are the best. My understanding is that when you use an oil compressor that some of the oil will pass through the hose and can have a very bad impact on your project >>oil/water don't mix and can probably cause bad things with 2 part auto ccoat?? Thus you would need an in-line seperator to pull out any oil in the air.

For your purposses and if you are going to get a dedicated airbrush set-up then you should be cool with oil-less and then don't need to deal with the seperator. Small quite system for inside the art workshop is best from my POV.

I could be wrong but that is my understanding from reading vids posts and researching on airbrush info online before buying.

Wife and I will be at Expo on Thusdat night and ALL day friday. Hopefully make it to PBL before they close down at 6pm?

There are several types of compressors.

In the Garage type, you have oil and oil-less.

The oil-less are not know for their longevity. If you even get a year or two of moderate use out of them, that would be a miracle. A guy who fills his tires up, and uses a finish nailer a couple of times a year would be the target consumer for oil-less.

The oil compressor, just like your car engine, has pistons and rings. You change the oil and it almost runs forever.

You use a trap to get any moisture/oil out of the air before it hits your hose.

If you are getting a bunch of oil in your trap, you need to install new rings.

The bigger the tank on your compressor, the better. This holds the air in reserve, so less noise and cycling from the motor.

An oil compressor with a 30gal+ tank is also big enough to spray Clear Coat.

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There is also a compressor type that is made just for detail airbrushing :

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-6-hp-40-psi-oilless-airbrush-compressor-93657.html

These run all the time, are oil-less and would be used in a house environment.

They don't have the pressure, or the volume needed to clear coat a playfield.

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So in an ideal world, you would buy a garage type oil compressor so that you could airbrush and clear coat your playfields.