Ok first. Pictures
you put a tag which would be the word 'IMG' inside brackets [ img ] without the spaces. That goes infront of the URL of the IMAGE itself. After the image you put the same tag with a backslash / [ / img ] without any spaces
[ img ] blah blah blah . jpg [ / img ]
like that.
Ok handbrushing. I have handbrushed A LOT of things. I find airbrushing good for when you have A LOT of surface area to cover that has alot of nooks and cranies that need to be covered, like on tanks and such. Or a lot of smooth uniform area. Otherwise handbrushing works perfectly fine.
You will actually find alot of people here, including me, that use rattle cans as well as hand brushing. There cheap and do the job of an Airbrush for if you only need it for one kit.
Only purchase an airbrush if you know you will use it often to get your money back in the investment.
As far as handbrushing itself goes... Thin your paint till there about as thin as water. You want to have to more then one coat to get it right, instead of one coat that is to thick, if you understand.