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I just picked up my first airbrush, pretty standard lower-end model iwata top feed dual action deal. I'm now trying to figure out compressors. Looking around online i see a lot listed as airbrush compressors for between $80 - $300. But my local harbor freight has regular old pancake compressors on sale all the time for $30ish. Now obviously price tends to indicate quality of construction at least to some extent, so my question isn't about that. My question is do you need a special airbrush listed compressor rather than a generic one, or are there advantages to those over the standard compressors you can find at any hardware store?

What's important is that the compressor has a tank and water trap. If you don't have a tank, the air (and therefore paint) will oscillate with the action of the piston in the compressor and it'll be very difficult to do anything other than priming/basecoating/varnishing. You need a water trap because the act of compressing & decompressing air causes water in vapor form to condense. If you don't have a trap, you'll get droplets of water into your airflow that will blow onto your model and mess up the paint.

The other big difference between airbrush-specific and general-use compressors is noise. Airbrush compressors are generally much quieter and therefore more suitable for use indoors. Finally, if you get a hardware store compressor, you'll need to find fittings to adapt to your airbrush because the hoses are generally larger than those on airbrush-specific compressors. That said, you may need adapters anyway (not all airbrush compressor hoses are compatible with all airbrushes) and they're typically easy & cheap to get on Amazon.

Hope that helps.

One thing to keep in mind is compressors need air so no matter what you get dont put it in a cupboard or something like that to try keep it quiet as it might get hot or not get sufficient air and could cause problems

Unless you are painting in the garage, and are ok going deaf I would NOT suggest using the HF compressor (fine for garage, not airbrushing).

You want an actual airbrush (or other really small one ) compressor that you can adjust pressure on easily, and that has a moisture trap as mentioned above.

now, the good news - the harbor freight airbrush compressor is not bad. I used one for a few years before upgrading.

Thanks everyone. I went with the advice given above and snagged the harbor freight airbrush compressor. They had a coupon for 20% off this weekend, so got it for a steal.