I used my Aztek this morning to do some painting. I use MM Metalizer gun metal. After painting I cleaned it out with lacquer thinner till no paint could be seen on the microbrushes I used to clean it. Then I washed the whole thing with soapy water and let it dry. When I went to apply the sealer, the airbrush wouldn't blow. No air was coming out. I took the airbrush apart and found that lacquer thinner had sneaked into the back of the airbrush and melted pretty much everything but the metal and the body. I don't know how it managed to get back there, mainly since the soapy water bath didn't get back into the airbrush. What a waste of money. Now I have no airbrush, and more importantly, no money. I'm looking into buying a cheap airbrush that is easy to clean. I only use airbrushes for large to medium coverage and not fine lines.
I'm thinking of purchasing this one:
http://www.bearair.com/prodinfo.asp?number=100022
or this one:
http://www.bearair.com/prodinfo.asp?number=100182
They are both cheap, but I have read on many sites that the Vega is really easy to clean. Of course, that's what Aztek says. Iwatas are out of my price range.