Well, my 11 year old son is starting to get into modeling!! He has built several snap kits and decided he wanted to try out a glue kit. I bought him the RM Spitfire Mk. II and he has been doing great!! I have done 90% of the painting as he doesnt feel he is ready for that yet, but, he has done ALL the building and ALL of the decaling. I know its not perfect ( wrong brown in the camo, some decals out of place) but I think its great for his first major build!! Well, he wanted to show it off a bit, so I told him I would put up some pics. Without further ado…
He isn’t even finished with this one yet and is already wanting to start his Blue Angels F-18 that he got for Christmas. Hopefully he will keep his interest in modeling and stick with it!!!
Hey thats great !! I would post a pic of the first glue model I ever built to show you how much better yours looks than mine but ,you would laugh at it. Anyway if you are just 11 now by the time you are 16 you will be building show quality models. Im glad to see the younger generation getting into the hobby. My son is only 3 but he likes to “help” me with my builds. Great Job !! Keep up the progress pics.
Great job, Jester and Jester Jr! That is a great looking Spitfire. I hope you decide to do the painting on the next one…it’s a big step, but nobody can get better without trying it. I hope to see that F-18 on this site sometime in 2007!
I cannot say how happy I am to see a father & son build—WTG Dad!
As for your son’s efforts, I will pass along the compliment offered to my son, age six, when he brought a WIP of an F-86 to an IPMS chapter meeting. It was offered by a man who competed and won at the national level. He looked at the kit for about five minutes, then said:
“Your son did this, except for the airbrushing?”
Me: “Yes.”
“Break his thumbs!” he said laughing, “or we’re all in trouble!” [(-D]
I wish my kits at twice his age looked half as good! Nice job, “son of Jester75”!
Thank you all very much for the compliments, my son thanks you as well! I am going to do my best to keep him interested in the hobby as well as aviation! The F-18 will definitely be up soon at the rate he is building! The Mighty Mini in the background is pretty loud. I bought this and will most likely give it to my son along with the a/b that came with it when he gets ready to start. My wife bought me a little 1.5 gallon compressor for Christmas and to be honest, its not THAT much louder than the Mighty Mini, lol.
It doesnt seem so bad at first, but after a hearty round of airbrushing, I come out of the room with ringing ears. I always remember to wear earplugs now… and not to brush when anyone is within a 10 mile radius [:D] It gets sorta tricky keeping track of all the people
when I had my fleeting Badger (which got pitched by mistake), I found that the outer edges of teh badger hose will fit snugly into the inner edges of the Mighty Mini outlet. After 10 mins, the comp will get so hot that the hose will come shooting out of the outlet with a “Poof!”
Now I only use Aztecs. hopefully, I will get an upgrade soon. my Aztec is still very good though, and I can’t help just painting camoflage on random cardboard boxes. I once painted “Skillz dat Killz” on the inside of my friend’s (Doom Grr on this forum) improvised painting booth [:D]
Great job JJ, the spit is one of my favorite a/c and you did her justice… I showed interest at the age of 7 so my Dad started me off with a 1/32nd scale P-51B by Revell. Now that I am 29, I am still building stronger than ever…
Thats really cool that you are taking the time to build with your son. He is doing an excellent job on the spit. I spend time modeling with my 4 year old son, and my 12 year old daughter (she prefers balsa), and it is some of the most fun we have had. Keep him building, that is the future of the hobby there, and he will have a case full of trophys pretty soon.
Lol, I bet it does! This new one I have will probably be put outside with a 6’ hose coming in the door when I need it. My bench is right next to the back patio door[:D]. I wish my son had the opportunities that I did when I was a child when it comes to aircraft. I grew up in Detroit and my father worked for GM in Ypsilanti. Every year they helped sponsor the air show at Willow Run and we got to go for free for like 10 years straight!! I’ve grew up watching the Angel’s and the likes. I’ve got a pic floating around here somewhere of me sitting in the cockpit of a Blue Angels A-4 somewhere when I was about 10, hehe[:D]
Tell your son nice work on the Spitfire. That is a whole lot better than what I did on my first model at about that age. Keep him interested, but don’t push too hard if he wants to get away from it for awhile.
Your son has done an extremely good job on a first build and I mean extremely good. He is to be well commended for his effort truly bang up job. there were a couple of spots I saw that might need a touch up or something. A bubble on the underwing roundel and it looks as if a seam might have popped on him in front of the canopy but those are things that even experienced modelers suffer through. Believe me I am not knocking his work in any way shape or form I’m just glad he wasn’t around building when I was his age or I might have quit after seeing this one and the future builds, your boy has got talent. Very solidly built, very nice treatment of the wing roots not an easy thing for more experienced builders but it looks as if he made it through them with flying colors no pun intended. Jester you’ve got an apt pupil and future master modeler on your hands better watch out and keep him out of your stash [(-D]
Tell your boy swell job. At 11 I had been building seriously for 3 years and chewed a lot of plastic in the process. You probably saved a chunk of cash guiding him through the learning curve. Of course high end 1/48 spits cost about $5.00in those days. Best of all he created something he can hold in hand, gauge his improvement, broaden his senses and pique his curiosity. If he stays with it, design aesthetics history mechanics art, will take on ever greater meaning in life. And in so doing he’ll have earned my and I presume all at this forums respect. I applaud his first steps into the heady of realm of human creation.
Congratulations on a job VERY well done! I wish some of my builds looked that good! It is heartwarming to see a father/son effort in our hobby. Keep at it, and we’ll be looking forward to seeing more pics of future builds!
