dr_gn Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 This is one I picked up from Huddersfield show my son to build. Only cost £3, and IMO Matchbox kits are still hard to beat in terms of ease of build vs. realism, especially for a 7 year old. I must have built most of the Matchbox range in a previous life, but never this one. Also got him some Revell Aqua acrylics and some cheap brushes:Started by cutting the parts off the sprues:and sanding the gates smooth:He has enjoyed building a few models in the past, but this one he wants to be more realistic, and wants to enter it in a model competition. I think he likes the look of the prizes. So do we do some filling of parts? Masking? A bit of airbrushing? I'm thinking they're all potentially fun things to do, and add more dimensions than cut, file, glue, paint, so why not?I must admit, I'm a bit skeptical about the whole competition idea: Many junior class models have blatantly not been built entirely by a child. Last year for example, I overheard a proud grandad/dad(?) showing the offspring the trophy they'd just won, yet the little girl seemed to have difficulty identifying which model she'd actually built...Anyway, competition or not, I'm not letting the boy loose with a scalpel, so I'll try and document how he AND I built the model here, and then decide if it's fair to enter it as "built be a 7 year old". At the end of the day it's about building something and enjoying the process. 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 dr_gn, I think that is a great little buy and I was there and Huddersfield show had some lovely kits on sale.. I look forward to your sons efforts and looks like he has already made an Impressive start.. Keep it up..GOOD JOB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 With you as mentor, guide and occasional doer of very dangerous bits the young chap is bound to bring us a nice model And like you I think many of the Matchbox range are very worthy models anyway I am looking forward to this 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winenut Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 What he said ^^^^ and have fun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Looks like you will have some fun times building the kit with your son. A great way to bond... Those Matchbox kits were not that bad for their day. Simon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjames68 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Love building models with my son, hes 22 now and over the years has dipped in and out of it when the mood has taken him, ive brought him odd kits home now and again and sometimes he had a go and sometimes not, i never pushed him into anything but over the last 2 or 3'years, he has become quite serious about the hobby and is producing some dam fine models, he has his own stash and splits his hobby time between gaming amd modelling, he loves going to shows now and we make ayearly pilgrimage to telford as well as airshows like Riat ( flying legends for us this year tho) . It took me a long time to feel comfy with him in the workshop using a scalpel on his own though, so sprue nippers and sanding pads are definately the order of the day till hes about 21 1/2 haha!!! I look forward to your sons build and will follow and enjoy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_davros Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I built this kit when I was a lad (more years ago than I care to remember). It's a great kit for someone of that age. Cheers, Stuart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Thanks guys. He's built a couple previously with some help with cutting and glueing: An Academy Tomahawk and an Airfix Gladiator (cobbled together from the spares box). He had no issues in producing some decent camo, at least on the wings of the Tomahawk, the daughter's Albatross was more a case of me doing most of ithe building in the time we had. She enjoyed painting it though. I was hoping he'd like model building, but like MJ68, I didn't push him. I'll give him some guidance on this one and if he still wants to paint stuff how he likes rather than like the plan, its fine by me. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Good choice of kit! The main thing is that he has fun building it. Martin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Almost the same as when my dad introduced me to this hobby with an Airfix Bronco and being fascinated by the clear parts for some reason, learning a new word 'transparency' from the instructions. Think I could have been around 7 too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 If he has fun building these, that's what count. If he ever tries counting rivets, bang him on the head with something heavy! And make him copy a thousand times: "Mental institutions are full of people counting rivets!!!" He has a good sense of colour as well! Congrats to him JR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 19, 2015 Author Share Posted February 19, 2015 Not much progress - he did 10 minutes before going to bed: More sanding:And he painted the decals with Klear, more in hope than expectation of it holding them together... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 I thought we'd use glue today - so he assembled the stand (using Revell liquid cement applied with a cocktail stick), and tried the repaired decals. The name decal seemed to work fine with just the coat of Klear, so hopefully the rest will also be good. He dipped it in Klear to act as an adhesive. No issues with using tweezers to place it fairly accurately, so that was good:Then glued the seats and instrument panel to the floor:Filed and glued the engine naceles:and blu-tacked the pilots and pilots seats to a wooden stirrer...:...ready for priming:Except the instrument panel, that'll be the final colour for most of the interior, but the pilots seats and pilots will be painted separately. The only issue with the spraying was he wasn't strong enough to press the nozzle and retain enough control to move the can accurately. So we both held the can and called it a team effort. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Good work dr_gn's son very good idea to use dad's strength on that button, aerosol painting is a skill as hard to pick up as airbrushing sometimes too It takes good handling to get a good coat from a can I do like this model, I may start looking out some more of those old Matchbox kits to add to those I already have Well done doc, getting him doing the right stuff from the start, makes it a good start 10/10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Good work dr_gn's son very good idea to use dad's strength on that button, aerosol painting is a skill as hard to pick up as airbrushing sometimes too It takes good handling to get a good coat from a can I do like this model, I may start looking out some more of those old Matchbox kits to add to those I already have Well done doc, getting him doing the right stuff from the start, makes it a good start 10/10 Ta Perdu. The theory is, I'll show him how I think is the best way for him to do it (within reason) and if he likes the results then he will want to use the same techniques again. If not, fair enough. It's actually a really nice little kit; would be a blank canvas for some simple but effective detailling. For example - there are hardly any panel lines, so scribing would be easy - no lines to fill. Antenna, foot rests, seatbelts, instrument decals, wing light, exhausts - all very easy, and would take it to another level. So far so good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low flyer Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Great to see youngsters getting into the hobby at an early age, I'm looking forward to getting my grandson involved shortly 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 Bit more progress this morning: We're doing the detail painting as outlined in the instructions, no more, no less. first off, the pilots:Seats:Instrument panelBit of smudging, but will be covered with the seats:Assembly of cockpit:Masking of prop tips. I showed him how to do one blade, then he did the other two:Strange how the other prop he did entirely by himself (apart from cutting the tape into strips), was better than the one I helped him with Anyway, close of play:Not bad.ETA: The Revell Aqua Colour paint was absolutely crap - like trying to paint custard. In the end we used Tamiya and Vallejo Model Colour. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 The lad is doing well! If he takes to modelling, he will remember these moments building something with a bit of help from his Dad fondly for the rest of his life. My Father is no modeller but he helped my with a few of my first kits when I was five and these are very special memories for me. Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 The lad is doing well! If he takes to modelling, he will remember these moments building something with a bit of help from his Dad fondly for the rest of his life. My Father is no modeller but he helped my with a few of my first kits when I was five and these are very special memories for me. Martin Same for me, with my Dad. If he takes to it, fine, if not, fine too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Nice to see the youngsters getting involved in modelling, shame there are not to many, as we need them to keep our hobby going I like the William Morris table cloth, used to see loads of that cloth when I worked at Arthur Sanderson fabric company 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Nice to see the youngsters getting involved in modelling, shame there are not to many, as we need them to keep our hobby going I like the William Morris table cloth, used to see loads of that cloth when I worked at Arthur Sanderson fabric company All I know about the table cloth is that it's not cloth - it's wipe-clean plastic...we like to stay classy at our house. Edited February 22, 2015 by dr_gn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev67 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 All I know about the table cloth is that it's not cloth - it's wipe-clean plastic...we like to stay classy at our house. The cotton is coated in PVC so it is easily wiped clean 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 The cotton is coated in PVC so it is easily wiped clean Every day is a school day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winenut Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Looking great! What a super build. I think the effort and care you are putting in really shows and the kit looks great! You rock bigtime.....top stuff Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gn Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 Fuselage together now: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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