Welcome to the forum Heather!! Tons of great people and very helpful at that !!!! I too own a micron and they are awesome weapons,
. However, as far as the pocketbook is concerned....I would recommend the Badger Renegade Krome! This is an outstanding tool, it comes with a fine setup and a super fine setup. Its a gravity feed gun and is very comfortable in hand. I stole mine for a whopping $ 97 bucks!! I caught a great sale around Halloween and this is an outstanding gun to have even if you have a micron. Im blown away by it and would recommend it to anyone starting because of the optional needle setup! Start out with the fine detail needle and nozzle then once you get comfortable with the gun go to the ultra fine setup. As far as the paints and mixing, looks like most of your questions have been answered, I would just like to add that depending on where you are and the climate you have there, that will vary how much you reduce your paints. I live in Oklahoma and find that I have a different mixture every week depending on the weather. Air pressure is key too, depending on what youre painting, and what effect you want, you'll find that you want a mac valve or at least a regulator to control your airpressure. I change mine constantly to get the effects I want. I say just get ya some paint mixed up and spend a whole day playing with ratios, sure, it seems like a lot of trouble, but that helped me out more than anything. Im sure others have different techniques that may be better for what your doing, just wanted to throw out some suggestions! I'd say youre starting out well, and I know several people that started with a NEO and are turning out some pretty fine work with it. Most of it, in my opinion, boils down to TRIGGER CONTROL!! If you can get really good on the trigger, you can eliminate a lot of issues!! Good luck girl, nice to meet ya and Keep Throwin Paint!!