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On a wet summer day Alex (8yrs my favourite Grandson!!) chose a Harrier from the Starter Kits to put together. How fortuitous because the kit was based on a Harrier from RAF Wildenrath 1974. As a RAF Cadet (School) I had spent a wonderful week at this base in 1974 with other UK School based RAF Cadets. My daughters kitchen table was going to be the construction site! Other things bought, a tray, some nail cutters, cocktail sticks, a set of make up brushes, nail files, silver and gloss Humbrol acrylic range and cheapest Asda superglue. My aim was to build the kit quickly enough so that Alex's attention span didn't flag, something that we could both enjoy and didnt turn into a trial... Organisation In the tray, glues away from the kit pieces, seperate food trays for parts to be glued and those glued, washing hands, washing brushes and crossing off on the instruction sheet all helped to keep some asemblance of organisation. Putting together We followed the instruction sheet closely and used my experience as to when to paint, when to glue and when to leave. It also allowed me to practice some skills - dry brushing and use of water colour pencils. Alex cut the parts from the runners using scissors and he\we nipped the lugs off with straight and curved nail clippers. Gluing we used the kit glue and cocktail sticks. I usually gave most joins a run of superglue to speed the process up. What Alex could do and what I had to do, evolved during the build until Alex was cutting the parts out, nipping the lugs off and then sanding these parts. The fuselage join needed a phased gluing with "plastic' and 'super glue' with clothes pegs. This was done while we were putting together the under carriage fuel tanks and rocket pods. Painting We used the kit paints and the kit brushes. We used 4 straight strips of masking tape. Painting I drew the out lines and Alex blocked in the colours. He was surprised beyond belief - when I asked for his mum's hair dryer! The paint dried so quickly esp. with the hairdryer that we could paint almost continuously and the paints at this level were excellent one coat covered mistakes. Breaks for sandwiches water tea were generally governed by Alex. Stickers!!/Transfers Alex thought the transfers were stickers, so he found it very frustrating, to have to place them in water and then put them on the model, this took more time that he could give... We discussed whether to put the wheels on or not, I persuaded him to keep them off because they would break far too easily doing touch and goes and attacking his Lego. I did some touching up and practised some of my skills when he was a sleep. Mistakes not many but gluing one of the fuel tanks the wrong way round was mine! Two days and the job was done it will be interesting to see whether Alex wants to make another, when Grandad comes to look after him during the School hols?