Yes there are some crazy high prices asked for Myfords and Hercuses (Herci??) but some cheapies out there too. Trouble is finding one close to your location. There's a Hercus 9" on Gumtree at the moment for $950 asking. BUT, it's 2,500 miles away in Western Australia.
FWIW, when looking for/at Myfords, the Super 7 seems to sell for way more, like double, what a basic ML7 sells for. I've seen the ML7s go for reasonable prices about a grand, whereas the Super 7 seems to always command a $2,500 tag. Lot of extra money for a slightly better headstock bearing, cross feed and maybe a QC gearbox. On the other hand, I lucked on to an ML7 at a garage sale for $400 - but it was totally clapped when I got it home and cleaned the gunge off it. Luckily I have the engineering background to fix it myself.
The SEIG lathes from Ausee mentioned in a previous post have a good rep. If all you are doing is model plane engines, you might consider one of their C3 Minilathes. Quite a bit cheaper than the bigger lathes and many a good model engine has been turned out on one of them. Quite a few good books dedicated to their use too.
One I would advise you to steer clear of is the Optimum brand mini and micro lathes. Had a mate bought one and was quite poorly made.
