1:72 Albatross, Tomahawk & Gladiator (sort of)
Discussion
Son & daughter wanted to have a go at model aircraft, so I pickd up an Academy Tomahawk for £3 at Telford, plus I got a couple of Albatross and Sopwith Pup models from Airfix f.o.c. for them to try.
It went pretty well considering: my son (7) managed to cut out most of the parts and sand them to some degree. He just needed help with the glue. Daughter (5) was limited to cutting and a bit of sanding. Not a bad effort, but the Airfix Albatross is not an ideal first model...I ended up doing most of the actual assembly with her, especially the wings:
Here they are assembled:
Painting was a different matter; son had no issues in producing some decent camo, at least on the wings, and daughter, well, OK:
Here they are finished, the Gladiator was rescued form the parts bin and cobbled together from bits and pieces:
They enjoyed it (and so did I), despite around two hours of apparently very deep concentration in almost complete silence...
It went pretty well considering: my son (7) managed to cut out most of the parts and sand them to some degree. He just needed help with the glue. Daughter (5) was limited to cutting and a bit of sanding. Not a bad effort, but the Airfix Albatross is not an ideal first model...I ended up doing most of the actual assembly with her, especially the wings:
Here they are assembled:
Painting was a different matter; son had no issues in producing some decent camo, at least on the wings, and daughter, well, OK:
Here they are finished, the Gladiator was rescued form the parts bin and cobbled together from bits and pieces:
They enjoyed it (and so did I), despite around two hours of apparently very deep concentration in almost complete silence...
I could see my dad and myself 40 years ago when I watched them. Completely content with simply building and painting something however they wanted.
How did I end up now spending weeks at a time pratting about with one simple model?
ETA, That Airfix Albatross isn't a bad model considering it's basically from 1957. I was looking at a 'Build and Convert" magazine, and with a bit of work it looks superb. Same with the Pup. Now where's that scalpel...
How did I end up now spending weeks at a time pratting about with one simple model?
ETA, That Airfix Albatross isn't a bad model considering it's basically from 1957. I was looking at a 'Build and Convert" magazine, and with a bit of work it looks superb. Same with the Pup. Now where's that scalpel...
Edited by dr_gn on Wednesday 26th November 22:21
To be honest I always thought the Albatros was close enough for a two bob kit and not bad if it cost a couple of quid.
Did we all put the roundels any old where back in the early days?
I know my brother did at first, kind of expect I did with the Spitbomber I made as second ever model after Golden Hind.
Which I painted with my Reeves watercolours, which amazed me by rolling off the sails
Did we all put the roundels any old where back in the early days?
I know my brother did at first, kind of expect I did with the Spitbomber I made as second ever model after Golden Hind.
Which I painted with my Reeves watercolours, which amazed me by rolling off the sails
Fantastic.
I've been attempting to get the eldest to attempt something like this with me but she draws the line at making models. Hooning about the streets with an RC model is fine, she helped on the rebuild of my Tamiya Mini, and she loves her pink mustang (Don't ask) - but making model planes or cars is _so 1980s_ apparently.
I've been attempting to get the eldest to attempt something like this with me but she draws the line at making models. Hooning about the streets with an RC model is fine, she helped on the rebuild of my Tamiya Mini, and she loves her pink mustang (Don't ask) - but making model planes or cars is _so 1980s_ apparently.
PH5121 said:
That is great to see.
My kids are the same age and I cannot remember how old I was when I built my first kit. I think I will get them some for Christmas so we can have a go over the holidays.
I was surprised to find that the Airfix paints weren't too bad for what they were (i.e. free, and presumably for kids), especially considering the negative comments on the stuff included in their starter packs. With a drop of retarder and a bit of thinning, two coats gave a passable result, with the exception of the brown, which was strange translucent globby stuff that we couldn't get to cover very well. I gave them some Vallejo brown instead.My kids are the same age and I cannot remember how old I was when I built my first kit. I think I will get them some for Christmas so we can have a go over the holidays.
dr_gn said:
I could see my dad and myself 40 years ago when I watched them. Completely content with simply building and painting something however they wanted.
How did I end up now spending weeks at a time pratting about with one simple model?
I think that analogy is the story of life, sadly we get all too easily caught up in the details & are never truly satisfied with the result of our effort. When we're kids we don't have that high expectation & that things (generally) will turn out ok, so we enjoy them more. Hence the non matching, non historic camouflage & colours. They did a great job though, & so did you How did I end up now spending weeks at a time pratting about with one simple model?
Edited by dr_gn on Wednesday 26th November 22:21
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