Paint where paint is unavalible

Heck, I live in a major metro area an still order probably about half my paints online. Mainly due to selection, but depending on where you buy from, once you order like 6-7 at a time, you're probably coming out ahead from what you'd spend buying them in a store. And that's including shipping.

Sorry to hear you haven't had luck with Model Master. Acryls or enamels? Because their enamels are my go-to when I absolutely need a predictable paint. 

For acrylics, I STRONGLY recommend Vallejo. The stuff brushes beautifully. I had nothing but pain trying to put it through an airbrush thinned with the recommended distilled water. But thinned with Future or Testors acrylic thinner, the stuff goes down beautifully. 

MR Hobby paints rock as well

Izzydog

Tamya "dusty and often dosn't cover". ect. 

Tamiya acrylics airbrush very well when you learn their particular quirks and characteristics. Most people run into problems because they try to use them like enamels.

Tamiya acrylics do dry quickly - this is partly the cause of your dusty finish. You will almost always get a dusty finish if you are airbrushing from too great a distance, using too high an air pressure, not thinning your paint enough or any combination of the above.

• Use as low an air pressure as you can, ensuring that you are still getting fine, clean atomisation without "spitting". For a gravity-feed brush, typically this will be somewhere around 12-15 PSI, or for a bottom feed, 17-19 PSI (These are ballpark figures and YMMV)
• Thin your paint more. If you are used to enamel paints, you probably thin your paint 2 parts paint to one part thinner. With Tamiya acrylics, you can reverse this - 2 parts thinner to one part paint. You may tweak this a required, but henerally speaking, Tamiya acrylics airbrush much better when very thin. (And remember, there's no such thing as a "perfect" thinning ratio) 
• Get up close and personal when airbrushing - in the range of 4-6 inches, no more than 6.
• Practice until you can get a "wet" coat down without the paint running

Experiment a little - you may be able to make use of your stockpile of paints.

On the flip side though, they can be tricky to brush paint, but there are strategies for that too.

I have never had an easy time airbrushing acrylics, so stick with enamels, usually Testors.  Even if you do not have a hobby shop near you, how about a craft store, like a Michaels, JoAnns, or similar?  Some department stores or hardware stores do seem to carry craft acrylics.

With craft acrylics, however, you do not get colors exactly right for specific aircraft, armor or ships.  However, even with the hobby enamels, I do a lot of mixing, because I either model subjects for which the hobby paint folks do not make the right color, or the weathering I do needs off shades.

The art of mixing colors is a useful skill.  Buy a book (or check one out from the library) on beginning oil or acrylic painting, and obtain a color wheel.  These are not that expensive from art supply places, and some folks have even told me there are downloadable ones online. The ability to mix your own colors cuts down considerably on the number of colors you must keep in stock.

You did not say what genre of modeling you do. If cars, some car folks I know stick with automotive lacquers exclusively.  I also know some ship people who stick to hardware/paint store enamels and stains, though they are primarily brush painters.  Still, I have airbrushed hardware store enamels after appropriate thinning.

One other note on mixing. If you have a computer and scanner, you can use a graphics program to analyze colors and see how well you have done in mixing.  You do not need a fancy program- any program that samples a pixel and gives you the R, G, and B value of the color of the pixel.