Bud.. if you are looking for an easy to clean airbrush, I can recommend several that won't break your pocket book but are good airbrushes...
The Iwata HP-CR, the Omni 4000 both come to mind for general spraying with some detail capability for when you get better at airbrushing. The Testor airbrushes in my experience are actually HARDER to clean than the two mentioned. there are quite a few more good brushes but a gravity fed brush is easier to clean than a siphon fed in my experience. (the brush and cup are one piece, as you shoot the thinner of your choice through it cleans both at once)
Look at www.dixieart.com and either brush is about $65.00, and with free shipping you can't go wrong!
I use almost 100% acrylic paint (water wash up as you put it) and I currently have the Iwata HP-CR and HP-CS, the Omni 4000 is also a good brush as I have seen the results from my fellow modelers here and am impressed. Any of those can handle the acrylics...
I'll give you a brief example of me cleaning my gravity feed brushes:
- Spray model
- Pour out any extra paint
- put thinner in cup and wipe out any residue paint, pour out any left over thinner
- put more clean thinner in and spray through at 40psi or so, once the spray comes out clear, backflush (hold your finger over the tip and give a short blast with the air) then spray the rest out
- wipe out cup again
- flush with distilled water (this is only necessary when using acrylics with windex as your cleaner)
- dry cup
- go on to next paint color or put up airbrush till tomorrow
That's it! about every week or two I put the head and tip through the ultrasonic cleaner... if you don't have one just put them in a shot glass of lacquer thinner, let soak 30 min and then rinse and put back on. That simple!
hope this helps! If you have any more questions feel free to ask!