Father and Son christmas build - 1/48 Messerschmitt 109

[Pagey]

My son (8 years old - started making models in early 2021) and I decided to build the same aircraft in different schemes during the christmas holiday. We chose the Messerschmitt 109 (as I had two kits of this aircraft). Both 1/48 Scale. Mine is the Eduard kit which is great except for some of it is a bit over engineered (such as adding the individual exhaust stacks -  I really mucked these up).

 

As an 8 year old, jack was too excited to get to the painting stage to worry about sanding seams or priming the model (I guess we were all the same when we were his age). This was the first time he has used all the decals and put them in the correct place (although we swapped the tail swastika for something a bit more age appropriate). I chose to finish my 109 in a Romanian scheme which I though was quite interesting and different to the usual Luftwaffe schemes.

 

We started on Boxing day and both models were finished within a week.  I think Jack did particularly well finishing his whilst also playing with his christmas presents (which also included other model kits)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[28ZComeback]

I think you gave your son the best gift of all: your time, interest and encouragement.  Both 109s look great!  

Edited January 3, 2022 by 28ZComeback

[Autle]

Fantastic modelling especially from young Jack, he's got skills I didn't have at his age. It's magic to share this sort of quality time together with the young ones.

[scalemodeller54]

Very Nice Modelling

[Murewa]

Awesome! What a wonderful project! Amazing! 

 

Thank you for sharing and doubtless bringing a smile to all of our faces!

 

[Ratch]

3 hours ago, Pagey said:

As an 8 year old, jack was too excited to get to the painting stage to worry about sanding seams or priming the model (I guess we were all the same when we were his age).

57 years later I'm still 8 

The boy done good  Well done Jack

[RMCS]

Absolutely brilliant 

[Valleyforge]

Super, looks like there could be a full squadron before the end of the month. Keep up the good work. You have done a super build and the lad as done a fantastic effort, especially on the canopy. As one comment said earlier "Interest and encouragement"

[Pagey]

Thanks All.  It has been good seeing the lad getting into the hobby (not sure if my wife agrees)  He has learnt a lot over the past year and some days has been able to spend more time modelling than me (not that I was too jealous of course) and in the summer he sometimes spent more time in my shed than I did - again not that I am too jealous).  It has been a fun bonding experience but also quite frustrating as I try to help him with advice that I have learnt over the years which I wish I had been told when I new to the hobby like he is, but like any 8 year old, he thinks he is the expert already.  Some days he tries to run before he can walk by trying to copy things I have been doing such as chipping and mixing his own colours (which usually ends up with about 3 pots emptied into a plastic container for him to make a colour that is the same as one he already has ready made) the colours on the top of his 109 were Jack specials.

 

Thanks for the kind comments, he was very appreciative of them.  Yesterday he mostly spent the day building a 1/72 lancaster!

 

[Freester]

First of all please tell your son he has done a great job with this model,

 

- He's done a good job with the paint (I like the german camo, and we all know yellow is a really hard colour to get right),

- the canopy

- and @Pagey - you haven't done a bad job of yours either .

 

As a fellow modeller who rediscovered this hobby since my teen years - I also got back into this because my 10 year old son got given a few model kits. I think you have done a great job guiding and mentoring (and most likely suppressing your inner perfectionist when you see your son trying to run before he walks). When I was a teenager I could knock a model up in an afternoon. I don't think I actually painted a model for years and didn't have anyone to really teach me the basics... So I'm trying to address that now with my son but it's so difficult to mentor and guide and let them find their own way, and not set those standards so high they aren't really learning...

[mouse808]

Well done Jack! Amazing!
I'm showing this to my son, as he's only interested in jets 😱

[Bandsaw Steve]

Great job! Congratulations to both of you. 👏

[keithjs]

Thats a great couple of builds. Nice to know theres still a future for the hobby. Given the right encouragement I'm sure young Jack could go on to great things. 👋 I'll look out for him at Telford next year...

[Pagey]

Thanks for the additional comments.  I will make sure he sees the comments and knows that others are encouraging of his work.  I do find my inner perfectionist struggle sometimes when I see him rush through something, but I have to remind myself that he is only 8, been modelling for less than a year and has learnt more than I did at that age.  My wife was amazed to see him sitting at the table with a pair of side cutters (I ended up buying him his own pair) and working on his kit safely (although I not ready to give him a hobby knife yet, I remember having one when I was younger, but maybe not this young).

 

Yellow - not sure how he gets such an even colour with his yellow when brush painting (I would ask him, but I don't want him thinking he is the expert 🙂)

Canopy - he insisted I masked up the canopy (as he saw me do with mine and he didnt want to do the fiddly bit!) he painted over with a brush, I was surprised when I removed the masking tape for him that there was very little seepage (I was expecting it to be more of a mess  - again, he now thinks he is the expert 🙂 )

 

He has already become a bit of scratch builder, he turned a FW190 into a biplane by using the side skirts of a stug tank to make a top wing - weirdly it sort of worked!  he also turned an old lancaster build of mine into a crashed bomber - he used side cutters to cut the wing off, I said it wouldnt work - he did it anyway and annoyingly made a convincing job of it (again he thinks he is the expert 🙂 )  

 

If he carries on with the hobby, I think he is going to be very good at it

 

[Billy54]

All right! Glad to hear about these builds with you and your son. My son and I built a few kits together about 25 years ago. He didn't stay with the hobby but we sure had a good time building those kits.