Air, anyone?

Starting on Tuesday, I embarked on the easy, yet cumbersome road of painting. Cumbersome, that is, if you're a novice in the art of air brushing. My air brush is "borrowed" from my old man. It is a simple variable action airbrush, designed by Testors for beginners an moderately skilled modellers. To power it, I use compressed air in cans.

Yesterday, while painting my rocket, the air brush started to malfunction. The pressure of the stream was steadily dropping. Eventually, it got to the point that it was useless to even use the thing. Ditching the air brush, I resorted to painting it on by hand. That was a big mistake. The paint began to collect in puddles and drip down the sides of the tube, thus creating an uneven finish. Needless to say, my rocket looks like it has a sloppy camouflage-style paint job.

After accessing the situation, I learned that it was the use of air cans that caused the decreasing amount of air pressure. The cans began to get cold, as a direct result of using them, thus lowering the psi. On top of that, the cans were old and barely had any air left. Morale of the story: air compressors save time and money!


Editors Note- While some veteran modellers may have found that out earlier on, I had to learn it the hard way. Better on my first project, then on all my future endeavors.