My Daughter's Airfix D-Day Battlefront Diorama - with Additions

[Army_Air_Force]

I've got two Iwata air brushes she could use at some point, but right now, her face is to small for a good fume mask!

[Army_Air_Force]

We managed a rare free afternoon today and did a little more on the Jeep. The grill was fitted, the gearbox and transfer case levers, and the three seats.The clear headlight moulding was meant to be attached to the grill first, but we left that off. Adding it now would then cause difficulties painting without painting on the clear part.

 

 

The instrument panel was attached to the hood and then the front end of the Jeep was painted a first coat ( still drying here ). When the paint is dry, the lights can be fitted without needing to repaint around them. Once the lights are fitted, then the hood could be attached.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

After what felt like weeks of inactivity due to school work and other after school activities, my daughter got back to her diorama today. Having given the front of the Jeep a coat of paint last time, we got the headlights cut out and glued into the back of the grill. This would allow the hood and instrument panel to be fitted - almost!

 

The instructions called for the screen arms to be trapped under the hood as it was glued in place, but as it wasn't yet painted and was fragile, I didn't want it fitted just yet. The pivot arms were quite long so I cut them about 1mm shorter and this allowed the screen to be fitted later by stretching the arms around the Jeep body.

 

So with the screen adapted and able to be fitted later after clear coats and decals etc, the way was clear to attach the hood. 

 

 

It was left clamped to dry while we went on a model shop trip for some supplies for other projects. When we got back, we had lunch and then went back out to the workshop. There were some other small parts that needed to be painted, but that I didn't want to attach straight away, so things like the steering wheel, mirror and spare Jerry cans were painted and left to dry.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The Jerry can on the back was added next and left to dry.

 

 

The wooden handles of the axe and shovel were  also painted and left to bake in my curing cabinet.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

I got the rest of the diorama back out too, just to show her how far we'd already come on this project. It also reminded her how great it looked and how much of it she had done herself, albeit still with lots of step by step guidance.

 

 

To finish the session, the rest of the Jeep body was given its first coat of green and while she did that, I gave one side of the windscreen its first coat of green. Masking or painting that freehand was still beyond her current skill level. The parts were all placed in the curing cabinet and we left it to do other stuff. Not massive progress, but another step along the road.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Bullbasket]

Tell your daughter that she can be rightly proud of what she's done so far, and for her commitment to the build. Well done.

 

John.

[spaddad]

Hi Steve,

well done on getting her interested & keeping her interested, I wish I'd had the same gift with my offspring. I was wondering which of you chooses the projects & does she ever express an interest in the background or history to your projects ?

[Army_Air_Force]

Model choices have been based on interests and simplicity of the model. The first was a Revell Red Arrows Hawk, started when she was 3 years 11 months. She'd seen the Arrows at shows and so it was a memorable aircraft to choose.


Being a girl, pink was a popular colour, so I suggested a pink Spitfire and the RAF BoB set gave the opportunity to make a diorama in effectively lots of smaller projects. 

 

Snoopy verses the Red Baron was my suggestion, but Snoopy was a popular character. This was an introduction to scratch building.

 

The 1/144 scale B-17 was a spare kit I had which also had a fairly low parts count which made for an easier project.

The current Battlefront set was a prize from Airfix in a Christmas competition.

Growing up with my 1/1 scale toys, she has little choice than to learn about WW2 history!

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Kiwiwolf]

You're a lucky man to have this to do with your daughter. Mine is 22 and married now but we used to watch rugby together all the time. Now not so much but we still share a love for the game. It looks like you and your daughter have a whale of a time together... long may it last. 🙂

[Kitsticker]

This is a fantastic thread that I happened on by chance - wonderful!

 

You are very lucky to have a talented daughter who shares your interests and wants to build/create things (lots of different things, by the sound of it)

 

And credit to you for encouraging and teaching her and sharing your time, your skills and your patience

 

I'm sure you will keep up the good work

 

All the best

 

Geoff

[Army_Air_Force]

You may have thought this project had dropped off the end of the modelling bench, but it's still ongoing ( slowly ) due to school work and other activities. Today we did a little more painting for an hour after school. I finished painting the Jeep windscreen and the Jeep body got another coat as there were a few thin spots from the first coat.

 

 

We also did some figure painting. There was quite a lot of flash and being the horrible rubbery plastic Airfix use for figures, trimming and sanding doesn't work well. Instead I opted for a soldering iron and melted flash away and seams flat. That worked fairly well.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Life has been both busy and difficult over the last few months, meaning the family has had little time for fun. However, mid December, my daughter and I got back to spend a little time on the Jeep. I'd managed to get the Jeep gloss coated some time before so it, and the trailer were ready for decals. The seats still needed painting, but that could be done later. The hood star was the first decal to be applied.

 

The Jeep was set aside and the tiny flag/wading instructions were added to the screen next. I was doing the cutting out with the aid of a watch maker's magnifier and my daughter did the application. Blu-Tac was used to stop the screen from sliding around the table while the decal was prodded and poked into position.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The flag decal on the real Jeep has the US flag on one side and on the inner side facing the driver, it has all the instructions for wading the vehicle through water. At this scale, those instructions are far too small to be seen anyway as the flag is only about 1 x 2mm in side.

 

 

The hood star had ben left to dry a while and was then given a few treatments of Microsol and once more left to dry before we could apply any other decals.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

After the star had settled and dried, both registrations were added to the sides of the hood. It was once again set aside, and the first decals were added to the trailer, then that was set aside to dry. We hopped back to the Jeep to add the stars to the sides of the rear of the body and they were left to dry. Back to the trailer again for more decals and then the Jeep again for the front bumper markings. We were so busy, I forgot to get any pictures of the work on the trailer. We ran out of time for any more and it was all left to harden.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Roy vd M.]

Great topic! My daughter and I built a Honda RA273 Grand Prix car together last summer and autumn. Was fun overall. She has learned how to airbrush, polish et cetera. 

 

How old is your daughter? Mine is 7 years, will be 8 in January. 

 

The results I see here are absolutely staggering. 

[Army_Air_Force]

2 hours ago, Roy vd M. said:

.......How old is your daughter? Mine is 7 years, will be 8 in January......

She's not long turned 10 and has been modelling since she was 3 years 11 months!

Edited December 29, 2019 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

We got back to the diorama today. I set my daughter away cutting out the wheels from the sprues, followed by cleaning up flash and cutting out several more accessories.

 

 

While she did that, I cut some metal rod for poles to support the camo net. I didn't want to rip the netting on the top of the poles while trying to assemble it, so turned some small plastic pads for the top of the poles. These would provide a small pad to glue the net to or at least to support it while the netting was pulled down at its edges. I painted each pole after this piture.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The tyres had their black paint touched up where they were cut from the sprue and left in the drying cabinet for a while to bake. Once dry, we test fitted the wheels, only to find the axles were a bit big and the holes in the wheels partially filled whith paint. The combination meant the wheels didn't fit well. I had a go at cleaning out the paint with a scalpel tip and tapering the axle stubs, but the fit didn't really improve much. Instead I just used a small drill and opened up the square holes which then gave the required fit.

 

 

My daughter had been busy cutting out barbed wire, road signs and barrel halves which were then glued together. They would need the ends sanding once the glue hardened up - a job for another day.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Foxbat]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this thread, you're both doing sterling work and it's a joy seeing a family working together. Being greedy, I hope you have something else in the pipeline when this one's done.

 

I've shown a few posts to the cat to try and spark his interest but he says modelling isn't really his thing. Philistine  

 

Andy

[Army_Air_Force]

I'd given the Jeep another coat of clear the day before to seal in the decals already applied after one of the side stars came off while painting the seat cushions. Fortunately the star only made it as far as my finger and was re-attached to the Jeep. Sealing the decals in should help to hold them in place, but I wanted to minimise holding the vehicle, so I set up the Jeep lightly gripped in a mini vice while my daughter glued on the wheels. We opted to angle the front wheels, an option that was possible since I'd opened up the hole in the centre of the wheel. The left two wheels were left to harden a while before turning the Jeep around.

 

 

While the first wheels were drying, my daughter began painting the barbed wire and road signs.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

I'd been breaking up wood for damaged floor joists and roof beams to be scattered in and around the partially collapsed cottage.

 

 

I also chopped up some plasticard that had been previously painted to match the cottage roof tiles. These would also be scattered amongst the wreckage.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Almost the end of the session, the other two wheels were glued onto the Jeep and we then left it upside down for the glue joints to fully harden. The spare wheel would be attached later.

 

 

To finish the afternoon, Dave the driver parked up the Sherman near the cottage while Kevin the commander kept watch. I grabbed a quick photo before they moved on. 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Hairtrigger]

This is truelly a heartwarming thread.....  Ahhh ..takes me back to my own childhood and the time spent with my dad.

Your daughter is achieving tremendous results under your guidance.

[Vaastav]

Interesting thread.

I was introduced to modelling by my uncle at the age of 8 with the Airfix dogfight double of a me 110 and a Spitfire.

Today, at the age of 16 I can say I am well and truly hooked hardik badhai to your daughter for choosing this hobby.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Vaastav

[McNab]

like so many others have said, I’m really and truly enjoying this thread. Your daughter has real talent, and the intimate way you write the thread makes us all feel like we’re there lending a hand 😊 ...how big is the shed? Would we all fit in? Thanks so much for sharing this heart warming and ongoing story with all us model nutters. I’m also a bit jealous as none of my children had any interest at all in modelling! 
Cheers

Andrew