Chris,
What you are describing almost sounds like tip dry, but I don't think so.
If the needle looks fairly clean where it sticks out of the tip then it isn't tip dry.
The airbrush was disassembled and cleaned correct?
Is it possible that you got a piece of lint in the airbrush from cleaning it?
If you use Q-tips or pipe cleaners this is always something to look for.
Have you tried straining the paint in case there are small clumps in it?
You didn't overtighten the head assembly and strip it by mistake did you?
The O-ring on the head should seal that area good enough to not worry about bleeding air around the head.
When I get skips like that I turn the airbrush away from what I am painting, pull the trigger all the way back and blast some paint out of it. Sometimes a small piece of paint or other foreign material gets stuck in the tip and blasting out some paint will usually clear it.
Mike
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not
to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools
for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know
how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. " Charles Spurgeon