my 9 year old son's first build

this last friday afternoon,i was at the bench working on my condor, when

my son asked me if he could try building a model airplane.

so on sat. morning he and i went over to the hobby shop and picked out

a 1/72 academy p-51c mustang.

here’s a pic.

i,m starting him off with the brush…

he is liking it so far.

we are going to keep it simple for now as i just want him to finish it

then i think it will drive him to learn more and build more.

at least it gets him away from the play station 2.

Good job. This is how we grow new modelers.[8D]

Good age for starting.

If I ever had a kids hope they will share hobby with me.

Great to see someone share some quality father/son time together is such a productive way. My first build was at 8 or 9 yrd old, also. It was a 1/72 B-25 Mitchell my dad bought for me. I was inspired by watching the classic “30 Seconds Over Tokyo”, one of Dad’s favorite films.

That is something you will never forget. My son was that age when he did his first model. We had to work off of the dining room table as I didn’t have a dedicated room set aside. Now, give him a space in the model room that he can call his own. I hope both of you have many more years of building together.

Now thats what I call quality time! Way to go dad! Keep him involved in things other than PS2 and the TV. He’ll be able to blow the other kids away with what he learns from a hands on approach. Encourage him to build models for school projects too.

I don’t think this happens very often, but a friend of mine has a son who got interested in modeling because of a video game. He’d been playing an XBox game, “Secret weapons over Normandy” and wanted to build models of all the WWII-era aircraft the game features.

I think this happens every so often on the car side, too, with all the racing games that are available.

Keep him at it, Invertman!

Matthew Usher @ FSM

Thats really good to see.[tup] I hope you and your son have a great time building together.

Your photo is priceless. I hope you make a print and frame it. Congratulations, it’s good to see the next generation becoming involved in the hobby.

Nice to see someone else in the hobby and away from PS2. I have never had anything other than a computer and in our house we had one TV until 2 months ago. I got inspired by reading about WW2 and wanting to make a movie of stuff I like. Movies no but dioramas and models are close. Have fun with your son. Ditto about the priceless picture.

David

Looks like your son is off to a fine start in this wonderful hobby we all share. I love when this topic comes up…gives me hope for the future of model building and reinforces my faith in family.

That is great- your son will always remember that. It stimulates creativity, often feeds an interest in history- and most of all it’s what kids need nowadays- dad time!

Keep it up! [:)]

Great !!! He is off to a really good start. I hope he keeps building. Keep us posted.

That is great. I love the photo too.

well, i have to say i’m really proud of him.

here are some pics of his cockpit.

he wanted me to show him how to drybrush.

well…i showed him then i let him go.

this was the outcome from sat. and today.!

he has been watching me build since i started building again.

i think he picked up a couple things.

i did help him assemble the cockpit though.

That’s damn fine work, regardless of age [tup]!

-Fred

Uh, yup, these things do happen!

When my oldet son was 15 we were already playing the very same video game together and he became more interested in WWII era aircraft. I was already modelling that genre and welcomed his new found interest. Up till the day that he anounced he wanted to do a class presentation on the subject and handed me a laundry list of planes that he felt would be great to present. Must have been about thirty aircraft and while I’d already had some done (on the shelves) we attacked the list together. His younger brother contributed a brand new build while ‘number one son’ built two more- but that left me to scramble and build about ten new aircraft over the next ten days! On presentation day I accompanied my son to school to carry in six boxes full of 1/72nd scale Allied and axis subjects. What was most impressive though was the research he had done on his own to determine the subjects!

He said his classmates and especially his teacher were interested and impressed when it was all done, so besides getting us all gathered around the table to build together and avoid more video games, I also got to get around to some long overdo projects of my own! It does happen on the car side since ‘Need for Speed’ has inspired several model car projects in the house too! I haven’t totally lost my sons to the ‘tube’ yet?

BTW- great to hear about Invertman and his nine year old- what a great age!

I’m really getting old. They say if you don’t use it you loose it. First I find out I’m not smarter than a 5th grader and now I’m being out modeled by a 9 year old[8-] [8-] But seriously invertman we need as much new blood in this hobby as possible. He is doing a great job. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree so to speak.

I think I need to learn a thing or two from your son. He is off to a good start and I think this will bring you and your son even closer to each other. Enjoy it and keep us posted.

nice, right when I put up pics of my near completed 1/72 academy P-51…im just gonna go ahead and take my pics down and quit. darn fine work