I'm thinking about buying an airbrush but have some probably dumb questions.
1. I would assume you must have a compressor, that using canned air isn't "safe" for cake decorating? I have seen airbrush systems that use the canned air and at first thought this would be OK as I could always add a compressor later if I really used airbrushing more - but then thought the propellants in canned air probably aren't good.
2. Is a 3mm tip a good starting one for small areas - what tip sizes should I be looking for?
3. Are fittings standardized - so that if I buy one airbrush now and want to add pieces later, they will fit?
4. Any advantage to trigger models versus having the controls on the top?
5. I think the gravity feed makes more sense for cakes than the siphon feed from the little bottles - does that make sense to you?

I'm hoping to use an airbrush with stencils for cookies, and possibly to color icing on cupcake cakes. Any advice or experience would be very helpful.

I got mine from TCPGlobal.net. It's a small unit and was only about $65 including a compressor. I'm just a hobbyist so it works fine for me. Comes with small bottles of the four basic colors. My only complaint is that it didn't come with instructions on how to put it together. Fortunately my husband figured it out.

FOR ME!!!...Love mine and I do cakes as a hobby also....mine came with the reg. airbrush pen...and I got to pick another metal one free for cakes! the GD 100 which I love and only use....

think the web site is airbrushcity.com I paid 135.00 on sale, about the 3-4th down on the page.

Watch out for bitterants in canned air. They are added to prevent people from using the canned air as an inhalant and they leave a NASTY tasting residue.

Gravity feed dual action is my choice on the airbrush.