10yo Daughter's first build

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Crunch

Senior Airman
Hi you lot, just thought I'd share this with you.

A few weeks ago, I dropped into the model shop to grab a few things, and my Stephanie, my daughter, asked if she could get a model. Absolutely! So not having built anything before, we narrowed it down by size, era and type, and we walked out with an Airfix 1/72 Typhoon.

Pretty appropriate first build I thought, and I vaguely remember building one when I was her age. I showed her how to check the box, match paints and work out what we'd need (even though I had everything, I wanted her to see the process). on the way home, she was busting to get started more than I was to see her do it! So briefly said hi to the Mrs and the baby, and we promptly buried ourselves in the man-cave (yeah, only a select couple of girls are allowed down there, and the other is my border collie that guards the door when I'm in there)

I tried to be as hands off as possible on this, I really wanted to have her learn the stages of building. I only interviened in a few things at her request - fiddly decals, thinning paints, knife work.

So over two weekends, even before I got out of bed, she was straight back into it, getting it, painted, decalled, and even a base made for it. I insisted on a base as her little brother would love to watch it fly, so the hope was that it would seem more ornamental than 'toy'. Once she goes back to mum's I have no control over it!

So here it is! She is so proud of what she did, and I couldn't be prouder! I really wish I could build like this at her age, and it's very close behind my skill level right now! Time to get your butt into gear, Dad!

Skills learned -

- Sprue removal
- Following instructions
- glue application
- brush painting
- masking - maskol and tape
- airbrushing (yep!)
- Decal application - Including Mirco set and Micro Sol
- Base building










Next up, 1/72 Boston. She even said she chose it so it was "more of a challenge"!

- Andrew.
 
Hick! That is one awesome first build! Much better than my own when I first started! Very, very well done!
Looks like Maria have a bit of competition in the making here!
 
Absolutely brilliant! If that had been posted in one of the threads from the model shows, I would have thought, yes, it's a beginner, probably young, and probably with quite a few models under his/her belt. As a beginner's entry, I would have voted it quite highly too.
I honestly wouldn't have believed that this is a ten year old's first ever model - fantastic!
Given a few more builds, in a not very long time span, it looks like Stephanie is going to be a comp winner!
 
Thanks guys,

I'll show her the responses when I see her next. She'll be chuffed! I explained to her that everything I know, I've taught myself, or learned myself from here and other people, where she's starting with everything I know and building on that.

I just hope she enjoys it enough to get a few under her belt... 10yo attention spans need nurturing to stay focussed!
 
After intro I was very pleasently suprized with result, to me is best first model kit I ever saw.
 
Looks like she has her "head down and bum up", pretty intense in them photos and a cracker of a job. And to think She thinks she needs more of a challenge, good onner!
 

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