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Airbrushing for me produced a fine, consistent texture. But as soon as I apply a brush to the basecoat, it come up pitted and uneven. People have told me it looks caked on. At first I had believed them when I had to do a white basecoat of several coats, but after two...? Am I doing something wrong? Some people have told me to cut my GW paints but with the slightest drop of water it becomes runny and then just cakes on the crevices.

I don't know the airbrush angle, but I find with acrylics it is worth getting an actual thinner, not just water. I always had a hell of a time getting the mix just right, much like you are saying. Unfortunately I am not home right now so I can't check what I use, but I got it at an art store and had to mix it 10 or 20 to 1 with water (20 water for 1 thinner drop) so it is essentially infinite for the 4$ I spent.
Vallejo also sells bottles of thinner, and I used the one that came with my set once and it was fine, but the store bought one is of course very cheap.

If you are still looking Sunday I will post what I use up. Haven't even looked at the main bottle since I mixed up a film canister full some 8-10 months ago Definitely you want to be thinning your GW, Vallejo, Reaper or whatever paints however.

Paints out of the pot are almost always far thicker than they need to be. You should never paint straight out of the pot, and always thin your paint to the right consistency.

It sounds to me like you are adding too much water, and so turning your paint into a wash.

Generally you put some paint onto a palette (or just a plate is fine). Then you add water using the brush... I.e you dip the brush into your water, and because the bristles have an absorbent quality they will soak up a tiny amount of water. Then using the wet brush you mix a bit of the water into your paint until it is the right constancy. Then remove the brush, wash it and dry it to remove any excess water. You are now ready to start painting.

You can also thin your paints with retardent, which is like water but it doesn't cause the pigments to break apart. So you can get your paint even thinner.

It's easy to pick up from art stores or online. Here is a Tamiya one I found on ebay. It doesn't matter which brand you buy though really, as they are all the same (mostly glycerine I think) so just get the cheapest you can find.

I'm a big fan of paint retardent because it slows drying time slightly, which allows you to wet blend highlights on the model, and also do much finer details because you run paint of a much finer brush without it drying on the bristles.

It may also depend on the brush you're using. Do they have soft bristles? Are they evenly distributed? Hard bristles will make a texture out of it.

It's GW brand fine detail brush.

Gw brand was not synthetic last time I checked, so that would not be the problem unless it was really manked up and full of bits of dried paint.

Others hit the nail on the head by saying try an acrylic thinner. Using water works but loses the paints ability to be controlled, whereas the thinner keeps it controllable while not leaving it lumpy.