Hi Pete
I have a Central Machinery 7x10 lathe, a Central Machinery micro mill, and a rotary table for the mill. The Central Machinery tools are made by several Chinese factories using the same design. The MicroMark machines are the same basic design. I bought mine through Harbor Freight and had it shipped to my door. I would highly recommend looking at Minilathe.com to get a good feel for what you would be getting with one of these machines. They may be made somewhat crudely, but if you tune them up using the Minilathe website info, you can hold +/- 0.001" tolerance, which is better than one needs for doing this model stuff. You will also spend about an equal amount of money on tooling as you do for the lathe itself. This includes measuring instruments, gauges, cutting bits, etc. Its an investment, but it has opened up a huge new world for my modeling, and I also find uses for these tools to repair other non-modeling stuff, too.
Before I got my machines, I knew nothing about lathes or mills. I got started by reading through the Minilathe website. The website LittleMachineShop.com sells replacement parts and accessories for these machines. I get metal from OnlineMetals.com. They have the cheapest prices I have found. I hope this info will answer your questions. If you have any more, just ask. I'm happy to share what I know.