In my neighborhood, the children have come to know me as the man with the airplanes. I don't believe they know my name, nor do they care.
It started out with one kid, named Alex, who my wife babysat for an afternoon. I pulled out a model Spitfire for him to have a go at. He enjoyed the afternoon very much, and spread it to his friends that I had a few model kits.
Now, every now and then, a child will come to my door, asking if they could build a model. I let them pick the one they want to build out of a small selection I've set aside for this purpose.

I thought it would be somewhat entertaining to post some of these childrens efforts. Here are afew starts that I photographed this morning.

First, the work of Alex, aged 5yrs:

Alex wanted nothing to do with decals, prefering to paint on the insignia. Here, is D roundel B, Douglas Baders aircraft:


Next up is Holly, aged 8yrs. The only girl to come to my door chose a Hasegawa D3A1'Val'.

I tried to teach her a little about dry brushing the IP.


Then there was Drew, aged 11yrs. He tried very hard, and was aiming toward a NMF on the Monogram F-100.



These models are now all aging, as are the children who worked them. I just keep them, in case they ever come back to do more.
Its important to give children a modelling chance; get them away from TV and computer gaming for abit.

I hope you've enjoyed this little chat, and will perhaps post examples of the efforts from those youngsters you might be involved with. Hapy modelling

Big thumbs up to you!

Hopefully you are able to work in plain (plane? -grin-) sight or with another adult present so as not to open yourself up to any accusations of impropriety.
It is a sad world we live in in that sense.


I run an after school model kit building club at the school where I teach. 4-5 th graders mostly (9-11yr old)
I ask them to bring a kit, but if they can't I have a stash of kits.

we almost had to shut down becasue there were not two adults in the room.
Luckily having other people in the building or next door solved that.

It is surprisingly hard to find models around anymore. Walmart, KMart do not carry them very often and there is not a Michaels or AC Moore art store in the area.
There is a local shop but his buisness practices are pretty shoddy and prices are unrealistically high.

Keep up the good and inspirational works!
Mike

Ben you have warmed my heart. All our technique palls in comparison to how a child does it.

Ben,

Such a wonderful outreach to these kids! Priming their imaginations and artistic skills. Bravo!!

Mike...

Lots of hobby stores on eBay that sell there, and have many models they'll let go cheap.... just ask.

Nice one Ben

Mike, contact Airfix, tell them what you do and I reckon that they will be happy to send you some kits

Revell do it as well; when we had our first IPMS KitMaker (back then it was IPMS Armorama) stand at Scale Modelworld and had an internet cafe I asked Revell to sponsor us. They did by sending me several models for which we set up a tombola and made back the money that we had spent on providing the electricity and internet connection, about £450

I'm sure that Airfix actually run a scheme for this sort of thing?

HI Gang,Yes Airfix did do this.I pointed someone i work with towards their website (he runs a local scout group)they did a Spitfire thing but wether they do it now and how much i can`t remember but i hope this helps.