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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.