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Obviously I’ll build and paint it. He will get to have the finished item on his bed room book case. He’s very good with “ornaments” (apart from the wooden owl incident) so I don’t think it will get smashed to bits.
Thinking of going for [url= http://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/p-2127-airfix-kit-a05115a-supermarine-spitfire-mki-ia-iia.aspx ]this[/url].
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If he shows any interest I’ll get him a 1/72 one for about a fiver and let him have a go himself. The long term aim is to build a Tamiya RC car together, but I’m not letting either of us loose on £150 worth until we’ve both proved we have da skilz.
I remember doing the same thing with my dad at about the same age. We both had Hawker Hurricanes. His looked brilliant. Mine was a mess, but who cares. I still remember it almost 40 years later and went on to make dozens of them over the next 10 years.
What did you make with your dad?
I think the Spitfire is possibly _the_ definitive first Arifix model kit. I think it was the one I first made.
Go for it.
How old ... ?
My eldest (6yrs) has his eye on the Lancaster hidden on top shelf - keeps asking when we can build it ...
😯
I still have this one to build:
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I bought this as it comes with everything you need, paints, glue, etc. Oh and it's Concorde I have a soft spot for Concorde 😳
Has to be a Spitfire. Then the next obvious candidate is one of these
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And you've got yourself a dogfight 😀
I remember finishing one of these, being one of the prouedst moments of my life. It felt like the most complicated thing in the world at the time
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We used to make space vehicles - mainly rockets and i'd hang them from my ceiling.
Great thread - its reminded me of the blobs of glue and wonky stickers that Dad and I would pass off as lifelike scale models!
the first one i remember making was a lancaster bomber. my dad basically just supervised me glueing and painting it myself, and it looked bloody rubbish but was proudly displayed in our house for years.
subsequent things i made (and can remember):
concorde
B-17 flying fortress
eagle transporter (space 1999)
hawker siddeley harrier
tornado (with movable swing wings)
1st one for the lad HAS to be a Spitfire, nothing else will do. Just make sure you explain a bit of about it as well (but don't forget the Hurricane either cos it shot down more aircraft)
Among many others, I had an airfix of this beast:
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Wingspan was about a metre!
Dave
Definitely a Spitfire.
But let him make it himself - and paint it too.
Pass him the bits to be glued - and help with cutting (although scissors are good enough).
For paint - just do the fuselage and don't worry about the fiddly bits.
Result = one very proud lad!
i sort of agree with the spitfire comments, but tbh if hes not interested in planes there may be better out there.
(i honestly cant imagine any little boy not being interested in planes, but that may be because im an old fart)
do what hes interested in, whatever that is, tamiya do some models of their rc cars iirc.
I think I'll order two of them. We can have one each.
Spitfire's not the best kit ever tbh, but yep, it's a cultural thing, first kit is a spitfire.
And yeah, let him make a kid-kit, don't OCD it... A really well made model kit is a sign of a sick mind. Painting inside the cockpit first? Madness.
i sort of agree with the spitfire comments, but tbh if hes not interested in planes there may be better out there.
If he's not interested in planes then I think Harry will have far more pressing issues to deal with than which model to choose. Like when gay marriage is all legal, how do you define who is the 'bride' and the 'groom' with regard to who pays 😀
Do they do a vulcan?
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WANT!
What did you make with your dad?
Excuses for why the ****er was not there mainly 😥
Is this really a rites of passage I should do with my kids?
We have done lego star wars models but did all Dads do this?
SaxonRider - I've probably got one somewhere. I seem to recall it not looking as accomplished as that. But it did in my mind 😀
I think my favourite ever was one of these
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Gotta be a dogfight double
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That way you can build one and he builds the other at the same time - watch & learn!
(since it's now a social experiment)
My dad gave me the kit but left me to get on with it, but it was like "I used to do this- here's a thing to have in common" Not an airfix thing specifically but just a shared experience, if I had kids I could do the same with lego... So much changes from generation to generation, so it's nice to have things that are so completely the same.
Yeah planes are nice, but the best Airfix I made as a kid was...
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I remember I needed my Dad's help with the gluing of the wheels and even so one got stuck. 🙁
But the end result was a beautiful thing.
I had model airplanes as a kid but can't remember if Dad helped me or not, benefit of the doubt says yes.
Great idea, I can't wait to do this with mine, how old is your son Harry? My eldest is almost 4 so probably a bit early yet...
My dad used to buy them for me, but I made them on my own. Sat at one of those fold down desks... can't remember the first, but the last was a Sea King helicopter. Kit was rubbish, so I threw it across the room and never touched another Airfix kit.
Wonder if my lad would be interested...
My lad is nearly 6. We've got some clip together type kits already that we will have a go at first. If that holds his attention we'll get some Airfix.
Spitfire for sure but it's got to be the 1/72 scale. Then as binners said, the 109. Maybe a Hurricane, Typhoon, Focke Wolf 190, Stuka to follow. Progress to the Mosquito and Messerschimdt 110 then culminating in a Lancaster. There's a good few months mapped out there.
Let him build it himself with you "helping" then let him paint it. My lad did his first earlier this year aged 8. Really caught his imagination. It was followed by a bit of Internet research, cutting and pasting and printing and before you know it a full "Show and Tell" which went down very well.
Nice one!
The B-25 was my first ever model. Hence, it holds a special place in my nerdy, WW2-plane-loving, heart.
Did Airfix do a 1/12th or 1/8th Spitfire? I remember my dad and I did my 1st model together on my 6th birthday (Harrier GR3 1:72) and I started doing loads. Then woke up Christmas day to find a monster Airfix box. I remember the wingspan was about 2 feet (or seemed that big).
I think I may have to look at doing another model....:
[url= http://www.airfix.com/shop/aircraft/124-scale-military-aircraft/a18003-hawker-siddeley-gr3av8a-124/ ]1:24 Harrier[/url]
Submarines are good for beginners. Glue part A to Part B, paint dark grey. Job done. 🙂
The Vulcan is a pig of a kit, by the way. The 1/48 Spitfire you've pictured up there is probably OK.
If you don't have a pile of paints and things already then look for one of the starter or gift sets, which come with glue and the main paints you'll need for the kit. Airfix did do a Douglas Bader themed 1:48 gift set but I can't see it on their web site anymore.
More seriously, can't you take your lad to the local model shop and let him pick a kit, something that fires his imagination. I'm not sure that WWII aircraft will stir the same emotions in someone born this millennium as they do in someone brought up on war films and commando comics. I might be very wrong on this but if you let him pick his own he starts with a sense of ownership which would be no bad thing.
Already got the paints due to another ongoing project, just need the kit and the glue.
The paints that come with the box sets are acrylic rather than enamel and a bit rubbish.
Quite looking forward to it! I just hope that my lad is too.
Just remembered - I'm pretty sure this was my first
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My advice? Stay away from Airfix, the quality of some of their older moulds is shocking
Revell, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Academy,Trumpeter are all better..
Airfix used to do a 1:24 Spitfire, I had one (I nmy 20s!_)
My dad and I used to paint those Airfix army figures and then have battles. Our favourites were the 8th Army and Africa Corps. We had tanks, too. And field guns. And jeeps ......
We've (my boy and me)built a few Airfix and Revell kits, but for a good starter for a six or seven year old, try Armourfast tanks, really easy and he can do them himself, once I've cut the bits from the sprues.
Can't remember my first but can recall getting an Airfix F111A. We had gone to Cardiff over the Severn Bridge the day after it was opened. For some reason I was allowed a day off school on the premise that it was educational to go over the bridge and wasn't I lucky to have the chance....and so on.
I had (dry) built it several times on the way back to Gloucester.
Tamiya made probably the best, most detailed 1:48 model kit for the A-10 Thunderbolt II ever.
I'd wanted one for ages because A-10s were always flying over where I grew up and got one for a a 30-something'th birthday present. I started it then gave to a friend on the condition that I got a new one back. He never replaced it and I feel a sense of loss to this day.
They don't make the kit any more.
TOP TIP ...
If you run out of glue DONT try to plastic weld the fuselage halves together using a knitting needle and your grannys elecrtic grill .. 😯
Smarted a bit but lesson learned aged 10 - it was a Lancaster by the way .. 😉
willard
I might have one of those floating about. My son started one, well he started to paint the components then got into X Box and never looked at it again. I'll have a scout round his room and find out what he wants to do with it if you like.
My first was an F-15, the Airfix plastic was grey so we only painted the afterburner nozzles and the missiles.
The German ones are fun to paint with 'speckle' camo, the FW190 was my favourite kit.
B17 and B29 were both good, used tinsel to make it look like one of the B17s engines was on fire, had that thing hung up in a dive. The pressure bulkheads for the bomb bay of the B29 taught me a thing or two.
Got rather into them, sadly (for my Dad) I lost interest just after starting the B52 😉
slowjo, I really appreciate that, but these days I just don't have the free time at home to do justice to any model kit.
Maybe when I have kids of my own it will be different.
I thought that the war was over.................
Beyond the planes (spitfire, hurricane, lancaster et al.) I also did a few gp500/motogp bikes
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It's long gone now but this one done out with Gary McCoy's 24 was always my favourite
I even did the heat effects on the exhaust with a nice purple and orange wash job
wow, thanks for the thread, just read the first post and had a sudden flash memory of sitting by the open fire at my gran's house, in her huge rocking chair, building a kit when i was a kid. maybe it was a mosquito, though stephensons rocket rings a bell. either way, great memory long lost, thanks for bringing it back.
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Just order a Mk1 Spitfire, a MkV and a BF109. All for less than a fiver each.
Me and the boy are going to have some fun. He's already asked if he can paint his red.
Awesome. You will have a blast, and yes he can paint it whatever colour he wants. 🙂
Get the DVDs of the best old plane themed war films to watch together and extend the father sun experience, while teaching a bit of history?
Reach for the skies
Dam busters
Battle of Britain and so on 🙂
I used to do loads of these with my dad and grandad, did tons of F1 cars with my dad and more planes and tanks with my grandad.
Made this with my grandad one 6 week holidays...took most of the six weeks!
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My first was a Hurricane which my dad got for me, he was biased because he was in Hurricanes. Followed by Lancaster as my uncle was in them. Eventually Saturn % which took me ages & seamed huge at the time. my dad & I would spend ages painting & building them. Good times
Undercarriage up or down?
Dunno yet. The two that will be on display in his room will probably be wheels up on stands. The prop on his may last a bit longer if the wheels are down.
[img] https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQdswEhlZkZlQpf1_EIWUj2eoBzmdQJPTCS29MZ84BZss7zWIzBLQ [/img]
My first. Used to be a Red Arrow scheme though, which was dead easy to paint...
My 6 yr old decided he loved Airfix before we had even built one. Got him a Spitfire Mk1 and obviously I built it and he loved it. Subsequently joined Airfix Club. The catalogue is thing of beauty - he learnt to read properly just so that he could understand it. He also mastered Roman numerals which are a necessary part of the skill set. We now have numerous spits, hurricanes, mustangs, and ME109s around the place. However the half finished Bismark was perhaps a step too far at this stage. Age 6 and a half he is now a world authority (and bore) on all things WWII.
My first was a Lancaster. It was also my last. The smudgy paint and wonky wings proved I didn't (still don't) have the patience for model making. See also: jigsaws.
Dunno yet. The two that will be on display in his room will probably be wheels up on stands. The prop on his may last a bit longer if the wheels are down.
Not using fishing line and attaching them to the ceiling in dogfight mode??
What is the world coming to?
Wheels up on ours, they look better and we use them as toys as well as models, some of the finer detail gets omitted too.
One thing I have noticed though is that the transfers don't stick like they used to (maybe environmentally friendly), they fall off in a day or two. We have to use microsol and microset then coat them with Humbrol mattcote.
Great thread!!
+1 for the Gnat , once built virtually indestructable and a great toy for a wee lad.
The Hawker Hunter makes a good 'play with' model too.
It's all coming flooding back - even the Victory - it's like a tick list of my childhood 🙂
Warhammer models are robust as they are made for gaming.. and reasonably simple to build.
Plus you can have great fun painting as there are few rules, unlike 'real life'models
Great for small people.
Agree with airfix being old worn out dies for the traditional kits but the newer stuff should be ok (brit afghan tanks etc)
All the chinese/ far east made stuff is top notch but can be expensive and complex for beginners. (1/35).
Will fish out some pics in a bit
UPDATE
Kits have arrived and the moulded parts all look nice and sharply detailed.
However, I wish that the RAF and Luftwaffe had agreed on a common colour palette so that I didn’t have to go and buy 5 different shades of grey paint.
This is still in my old childhood bedroom at my folks, I believe.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/toys-games/dp/B002B555WA
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Though it wasn't so much something I built with my dad as something my dad built whilst I watched on enviously, desperately wanting to help but not being allowed to. Which about sums up our relationship really. Still, the model's cool.