There's the spirit! Save for that airbrush because it's a purchase you only want/ need to make once, or maybe twice. Cheapos are a waste of money, but a good one is indispensable. Read all about it in the airbrush threads,and hang in there till you have enough to get a compressor too. Meanwhile I sprayed with shaker cans for years and still do, often.
Rescribing, well to me it's like learning to use a bottleneck once you've mastered the Telecaster. Which BTW I have neither. I don't, most don't, the good modelers do in the larger scales, but don't let that hang you up.
I'd recommend a first good skill is to learn to put things together straight, without glue showing, all lined up. As you get into older and less known kits, these are great skills because you often have to overcome crud from the manufacturers. It's what will get you out of the "shake and bake" type of kit, which is the more expensive kind, I mean you can't build $ 50 Tamiya Me-109s all your life, right.