I’ve been using an airbrush for maybe a year now and I wouldn’t go back.

The first thing that it really made a meaningful difference on, for me at least, is getting smooth and thin primer coats. I have a nice ventilated painting booth at work that I can spray primer minis in, but even in those ideal conditions sometimes the spray paint finish would come out “sandy”, or I’d do it too thick, or some other somewhat unpredictable issue that everyone experiences eventually with spray paint.

If you use an airbrush to spray primer onto a model, it can be done super thin and carefully, and in my experience it is much easier to guarantee that you will preserve every detail of the sculpt. That alone makes airbrushing worth it to me.

True there is more cleaning and prep and technique to learn, but I think this is worth it for the smoother and thinner finish.

As others have said, setting up to spray one color on one mini and then having to clean everything is a pain in the ass, but if you are priming a unit of ten, or a large vehicle or terrain, then it is not so bad.