I've been thinking of getting an airbrush for a while. One of the painters I follow on Youtube and the other parts of the interwebs, Les from Awesomepaintjob, uses one quite a bit for example.

Anyway, I did some research, felt comfortable with the price tag I was willing to pay and did some more research into all the things I'd need.

Some may wonder why I'd want an airbrush at all.

Part of it is being lazy. If you have ten or twenty skeletons sitting around and want to prime them all at once, well, a paint brush is a bad way to do it. Spray primers will work for that, but then primers have their own issues.

When you prime a model, it can be hell on the brush.  This is true even with some of the new primers out and about.

And speaking of that priming, the new Vallejo primers come in some nice colors and don't have the odor that the Army Painter ones do. Another plus side.

And while I'm never going to hit any high marks with it, when doing things like terrain or large figures? Yeah, base coating will go a long way too.

If it saves me a few brushes, and more importantly, some time, it's a good deal in the long run even if I'm never using it at the higher levels they can be used for or never using it outside of base coating.

I ordered some material from Amazon.com and some from Chicago Airbrush Supply. Why the two? One of the things you need is a spray box so your paint isn't flying all over the place. The latter didn't offer to ship that free and there was a Facebook coupon and I know that sometimes these things get a little weird when you try to use online coupons on a 'small' store so I figured I'd just order X from one and Y from the other.

Amazon breaks up my order into a few bits. Probably because they are shipping them from different areas. No problem as I'm an Amazon Prime member. I don't delay the order. If I did, I would have received credit to purchase music. I figure with two day delivery, that should match the ETA of the Chicago Airbrush Supply timeline.

Paasche HSSB-16-13 Hobby Spray Booth, 16-Inch Wide by 13-Inch High: Arrives no problem. Huge bastard of a box. I'm sure the UPS guy is going to wait for me outside one day and kick my ass.

Model Stand, Badger Air-Brush Co. 50-0052B 3/4-Ounce Jar and Cover, Box of 12, Badger Air-Brush Company Ultra Fine Needle for Renegade Series, 3ml Plastic Transfer Pipette, 500 pack all arrive in another package. Good stuff and Amazon as usual makes it two day delivery bit.

Chicago Airbrush Supply is where I ordered the actual airbrush and compressor. I get the cleaning material, the hose, the filter for the cleaning kit, the gas mask, and... no airbrush and no compressor.

Call leaves me a message that the compressor is too big to ship with the other material and ships it the next day. Uh... I work in a warehouse. If we have to break up an order for some obscure reason, then we ship both boxes out at the same time. We even have special instructions to follow up on these things.

So no compressor. And probably not tomorrow which means at the earliest... Tuesday. Maybe.

And the airbrush? Badger Renegade Krome 2 in 1 with Hard Case . Here's the bad thing. The website is 'dead'. It doesn't list if the product is in stock or not. There's also no option to hold the order and ship it out all at once.

So I find out that the airbrush is on a 2-3 day backorder. I placed the order 2 days ago. Not in. Person I spoke with didn't seem too sure about when it would be in. Ah, phantom inventory. A product that you'd like to carry, that you'd like to sell, that you have no problem charging your customer for, but actually getting it in? Well, maybe wait another 2-3 days... weeks... So that order that I could have held back and received credit on? Yeah, those things are going to SIT until I get.... you know, the actual airbrush itself.

So yeah, Chicago Airbrush Supply, despite being well known for various things, has had fail here. Inventory needs to be live, option for holding the order needs to be present, and you know, shipping everything that you do have in stock out at the same time? That needs to happen.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the situation on the airbrush. There is another one I'm very interested in, but it's so high up there in price and function and I'm a clueless hack when it comes to the things, that it'd be waste for me to upgrade it, assuming that the Krome never comes in. I'll only put up with that 2-3 day crap for a week. I'll be generous and not count the weekend or you know, the holiday so I'll give them till Thursday to have it at the very least in stock and shipped out to me before I put on the steel toes I wear in the warehouse I work in for a different purpose.

People wonder why places like Amazon are taking the lunch for the little guy? With their resources, Amazon is able to deliver the goods in a timely manner and you know when you order, you're going to get it.