[brushbyair]

First, welcome Bluemoon! It seems you ae experiencing many of the problems that all newbies have. The build up you speak of is natural, it is inherent with all paints, it is called "tip dry" you will have to pick it of every once in awhile, it becomes second nature. Splatters are a result of BRUSH CONTROL, you will learn to control them with air pressure and the amount of paint you allow out the end of the airbrush ( how far you pull the trigger back ) I think you would find the free lessons will help you gain control over your airbrush, if you are like most of us when we started, we had one specific use of the airbrush in mind, then the "BUG" bit us and we want to expand our uses to other mediums, learning the proper "STROKES" now will only prevent frustrations later. As far as paint, that is a personal preference, One Shot is a good paint, and many use it, in your aplication there are a number of diferent types of paint that would work and probably be less expensive, Createx,Aqua Flow, Etac, just to name a few water-based paints. You said you were clearing the lures after you have painted the art on them so any of the paints I mention will hold up after cleared. I hope some of this will help, there are many others on this forum that will speak up with more tips, so hang in there.