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Was in the same boat, the airbrush learning curve can be pretty steep. For me, and most of the people I've talked about this with, there is certainly a "Eureka" moment in that process. The moment you realize you've been painting for an hour without any hiccups. After that, it's just a matter of repetitions. Each time picking up just a tiny bit more skill and experience.
Personally, I'd say keep chugging along.
Good luck!

I live in Canada, and because I want to be able to hobby year-round, being able to airbrush is a necessity (I airbrush prime everything with Vallejo Black Surface Primer).

Outside of army-painting basecoats (which doesn't happen often nowadays), a lot of my airbrushing work is actually for applying filters. Low PSI, mostly water with a drop of paint (10 to 1, sometimes 15 to 1 ratio depending on the color). Because of this, my airbrush workflow is super easy. Drop of flow improver and water into the airbrush well, and a small brush full of mixed paint from my palette, and then spray away.

I bounce between airbrush and hand-painting multiple times in a session and all I need to do is quick-rinse my airbrush (just run some water through it at high PSI) every time I finish with a color, only doing a full strip-down and clean at the end of a session.

Could I get away without using an airbrush? Sure; anything I can do with an airbrush I can do by hand. It would just take me a lot longer.

As some have said, don't dismiss it. The airbrush is a tool, and like any tool, will have applications it's perfectly suited for depending on your hobby needs. And things like set up, jams (I honestly almost never get these anymore), and clean up take no time at all. My set up takes a few minutes, and I could strip down, full clean, and reassemble my airbrush probably in under 10 minutes (partially because I'm so fastidious about cleaning it and the way I paint, not a lot of paint gunks up in the thing to begin with).

 DV8 wrote:
I live in Canada, and because I want to be able to hobby year-round, being able to airbrush is a necessity (I airbrush prime everything with Vallejo Black Surface Primer).

This was my first reason to get an airbrush. Winters suck.

Today I basecoated 1500 points of Stormcast Eternals with it, and had one minor clog it took me a minute to clear out. The better you thin your paints, the less it happens!

It's actually this kind of thing which has kept me from getting an airbrush (or keeping it on the "to do" list).

I paint a lot of minis, compared to some people. I try to do 120-200 per year, and that doesn't include tables, terrain, etc. I'm a "burst painter" most of the time. If I can't finish 4-5 minis in two sittings (one to assemble, build, base, and prime --- one to paint them), I often don't do it. If I'm doing metal figures for a skirmish game I'll do 2-3 in a sitting start to finish. Last night I primed two metal Orcs at 0100 in the morning and had them painted by 0300 and I'll finish their bases today.

That's more or less how I paint. I only ever assemble a kit that I'm about to paint, keeping everything else in box or on sprue (in case I decide to ditch the army mid-stream or get fed up and ditch a game for a few months). I do not paint in large batches, I don't even assemble in large batches. If I get a bug up my ass to paint something, I often can have it assembled, based and primed within an hour - then I'm painting and want it done in another hour or two.

It's weird and slightly spastic, but it's how I paint. I just don't see an airbrush fitting into that method of painting. I know that I could adapt and adjust and that my production would go through the roof (though I'm done with 40K so I'm no longer doing armies...meaning I have a lot less reason to get one beyond using it for terrain)...but it just doesn't fit how I enjoy painting at the moment.

You're painting at 3 am? Crazy.

@Elbows: again, airbrushes aren't only for big batches. I only paint small ones, I even split my 10 guys boxes into two sets of 5s as painting 10 at the same time is too much for me, and I use my airbrush on almost all my minis at some point (not counting priming and varnishing).

Setting up the airbrush (assembling the nozzle I always keep in cleaner when not using it, cleaning the nozzle in case there's a residue, then the needle) takes me a minute. Cleaning is ~1min between colors, and maybe 5 at the end of a session if I'm being generous and count the time to go to the sink clean the pot and the mixing brush.
It's not the time sink of endless cleaning some people make it to be, at least once you have a good routine and don't clog your airbrush every 2 mins.

Yeah I have one and I only paint single figures/models Saying it's only for batch painting is false.

Who said it was only for batch painting? I didn't, so stop pretending I did.

I don't believe I'll get the value out of an airbrush (even less so since I'm moving away from army based games). Will I get one in the future? Probably, but I have a hard time justifying it to myself when it wouldn't be "saving me time" with the way I paint.

I would say to anyone that's been painting to get one and have some fun with it and experiment if funds are not an issue.I find that they are actually quite fun to use. But if you don't enjoy something why do it...So maybe worth asking friends and local hobbyists if you can have a try.(Unless its gruelling exercise... Do that all day long because its for your own good! lol)

Its a different sort of painting. Albeit the margin for error is very small especially when starting out so there's that... At least it is for me anyway coz I suck haha.

I don't think it speeds things up until you get proficient with it.