Air Brush Frustrations

 Today was frustrating.
My plan was to start painting the Rocky puppet.  Specifically - use an airbrush.  I've only used one a couple of times, the last being about 8 years ago.

In theory, it's a simple tool.  In practice, I'm overly intimidated by them.  I think it's because Bob was highly skilled.  He owned several (of which I gave a few away, mostly basic, and a high-end one to my brother).  I kept a basic Badger, and the high-end Iwata.  He used for different types of painting (broad shading, fine lines).  I remember him messing around with needles and various parts and it just seemed over my head.   A few times I asked him to teach me, but the problem is that when you're really expert at something it's hard to teach a beginner (imagine trying to tell someone how to breathe, and they're asking you what do you mean by lower my diaphragm and expand my rib cage?  How do you do that?)

Today was going to be The Day.  I grab the Badger and the air compressor.  Step 1: Connect one end of the air hose to the compressor, and the other to the airbrush.  That's where I stalled out - for hours.  There were several hair hoses there, and various adapters, but there were none that could connect to both the airbrush and the compressor (I tried every possible configuration, even cutting some fittings off to see if I could put others on - but the hoses were all of different sizes.)

I had a flashback to that time I used it.  I had borrowed the compressor and Badger (which is actually mine; it used to be my father's) and headed to the cottage. Then I came back up with "How the heck do you hook these together?"  He looked at it, said "oh - give me a minute," turned to a parts drawer, did some incantations, and handed it back to me, ready to go.  I asked him to show me what and how he had done it, but he was busy and he said it was OK now.  I remember saying "but what if you're not home sometime, and I want to use this?"

Well, he's not home, and I want to use it, and I can't find a damn thing in that parts drawer to make it work.

So there's that day down the drain.  And I really wanted to learn how to use an airbrush.  I considered the high end (expensive) Iwata.  I'm pretty sure I don't want to have my learning curve on that.  On the practical side, it's designed for finer work,with a small needle.  I'm going to using craft paint, not specialty airbrush paint, and it's recommended using a larger needle.

Like giving up and spending $30 on an Alexa dot after spending too many hours trying to get my old Google smart speaker to work, I admitted that Dad's Badger is probably 35-40 years.  A new basic airbrush, with the hose and all the accouterments, is $30.  It should be here soon, maybe tomorrow.

And, of course, all this fussing was done in Bob's room, where the emotional load there.  It's been particularly rough this week.  I realize that I didn't write about Tuesday afternoon, when Rik came over to drag out a few hundred pounds of ammunition (have I mentioned that Bob liked having a stash?)  He was also looking at other stuff (at one point pulling a knife off of a shelf, where it was tucked in with a vintage steam engine and a tile with an imprint of a grizzly bear foot).  He studied it for a moment, and said "Miss Ann, that's a Randall made knife."  A skinning knife, looks like it was never used (and Bob didn't hunt).  I have no idea where he got it.  When I asked what a Randall made knife was, the short answer was "worth about $600.  Just sitting there.

Just poking through Bob's stuff (and especially having someone else poke through it) makes me incredibly twitchy.  Bob and I were (I still am) pretty territorial, and we always respected each other's stuff and territory.  Even in our first tiny apartment, where we ate off of the coffee table so we could have the dining table for our hobbies, he had his side and I had mine.  He never would have dreamed of looking in my purse.  I knocked before going into his room (the door was always closed to keep the cats out).  He knocked before coming into the cottage.   I remember seeing Bob tighten up when his parents visited and his father would go in his room and (without asking) just pick stuff up to look at it.  

Going in there, digging through his stuff, just poking through it out of curiosity, seems terribly invasive and disrespectful.  But ammunition deteriorates, as do the guns.  A lot of that stuff is collector's items.  And it needs to be sorted out, and, well, go to collectors.  Rik has the connections, and he's a dealer.  I know it needs to be done, but it still bugs the heck out of me.

So maybe the new airbrush is a good idea.  It will have all the bits and pieces, and instructions, and I won't be digging around trying to figure out what I need, and if it's there.  I won't be using my father's airbrush, or Bob's.  Just mine, no strings attached.