I finally got up the energy to do some tedious airbrushing on a Von Braun Moon Lander kit I’m building (30, yes, 30 rocket nozzles, each to be painted with three colors).
Dumped the first color into the airbrush cup, squeezed the trigger, no paint came out. After a bit of fiddling, figured I’d have to pull the airbrush apart and do a proper cleaning.
Got it all apart, washed everything out with lacquer thinner, started to reassemble. Put the little tiny wrench onto the nozzle, turned it a bit, and felt that fatal cessation of torque I’m so familiar with from working on cars. Broke the nozzle right off its threads, leaving the threaded portion still screwed into the airbrush body. Curses!
Fortunately, I was able to jam the tip of a pocketknife blade into the threaded portion, and it screwed out of the body very smoothly. Thank heavens!
After a quick visit to the Grex website, I was able to identify which of three superficially identical nozzles I needed. And now I’m out $25, and waiting for a new nozzle to arrive from Midwest Airbrush Supply. So, four days lost. And then I’ll have to work up the enthusiasm again. :(. (It’s a matter of careful regulation of caffeine intake: Too little, there’s insufficient energy; too much, and I’m too impatient to do good work. )
My air brush is a venturi fold up that is powered by your own breath and folds up to the size of a pen. Mom used it in art school in the 30’s.
Just yanking your chain Rocket, but yep, I have a lung operated air brush around here, some where. It’s probably 80 years old. Best for pen and ink, and gives… somewhat unpredictable results. Sometimes fantastic, sometimes… well… start over. Such is the nature of art.
An update: I got the airbrush repaired, and after only four more teardowns, was able to get three colors sprayed on 30, count 'em, 30 rocket engines. Here they are, as of a couple days ago, in place below some tanks.
I see your dang and blast! and rise a blazing barnacles!.
I’ve always wanted to build a wooden model ship, so last year I bought one of theHMS Beagle in 1:60 scale, the one that took Darwin around the world.
I built up the frame and started with the decks, I cut the wood planks to length (around 100 at least), stained them individually, glued them to the three decks including the tar joint between planks, sanded the decks down, aged and shaded the wood then I glued the decks to the frame. After many hours of painstaking work it was looking pretty darned spiffy; then I went to add the bulwarks and other deck stuff and things didn’t fit, nothing fit. I used the 1/16" wood strips that came in the kit for the deck planking, I should have used the 1/64" strips…
I had to scrape off all the deck planking and start all over again. (it was either that or punting the ship frame across the room and out the window)
I have a good friend who spends hundreds of hours on highly detailed models. Whenever you see him, he launches into a litany of All The Things That Went Wrong Late Last Night. If you’re one of the chosen few to actually see his extensive museum of models, he’ll point out all the frustrations he’d had on each one, make you look at every imperfection, all the while his blood pressure’s going up as he gets frustrated all over again.
I’ve always wanted to ask him when the whole “enjoying a hobby” effect starts… but that’d be cruel.
)
