I havbe a 16 yrd old who loves all things military - he also was interested in scratchbuilding but was short lived due to the fact that he did not have the knowledge to connect his ideas (metaphorically and physically)

I want to get him a couple of models for Xmas to get his mind into how to put them together and then we'll get more scratchbuilder's supplies - then I'm sure he'll be set.

THe only thing is that I'm not sure what scale to get him going on - I don't want anything too big since he'll look at that as being too 'lego-ish' if you know what I mean but I don't want to get anything so small that it's hard to find other kits. What is a good scale to start him on - keeping in mind his focus would be on building a collection but will challenge him on the construction side. He was only 10 when he could pretty much build the most complicated lego sets without even the directions (and it was still correct - woot!) .

I'd like to shoot a bit over his head rather than under.

I build dollhouse minis 1/12 scale so I have a clue about the basics - any suggestions?

Thanks
Tbird

Oops - he's also mostly into tanks - modern and German for ground and pretty much any kind of aircraft, if that helps

For the most part 1/48 scale would be a good scale to start some one in . Not to big nor to small . There is a wide range of kit's ( aircraft and armour ) in this scale out in the market . some are better detailed then others . I won't make a list of all ( that will take until next year , but Tamiya or Hasegawa will fit the bill .

TeeGee, welcome aboard 1st off....per your question I guess it's a matter of space constraints mostly. Here's an example- a 1/48 sherman tank comes in @ 5" long by 2 1/8" wide while a 1/35 sherman comes in at roughly 8" long by almost 4" wide. I don't have a 1/72 version to give you specs on, sorry.
-1/72-1/76 is rather small{to me} but has a large following in the way of like scaled aircraft to match, should he ever branch out to that genre.
-1/48 is making a comeback and gaining more and more things every month and like the above has the capability of matching aircraft.
-1/35 is the old standard I guess and one can roughly match 1/32 scale aircraft to that
-1/24-1/25 scale is the street vehicle scene with cars, trucks,racers and the like should he ever want to go in that direction.
Me, I'd try the sneaky route and take him to a LHS{localhobbyshop} and look at all the kits...or search the web{and here}...tell him your thinking of possibly building one yourself and ask his opinion of what looks "cool" to do.....
You may find he might like different scales per the subject{s} he's interested in.
Now, as far as the whole scratchbuilding thing, yeah, the hard part is to get the idea from your head to the table but it's really not that hard. Have him check out the "EOD campaign" in automodeler and he'll see plenty of ideas and how they were done. I have an 8x4 semi truck there with a dozer blade on the front. There's also the "steampunk campaign" going on in modelgeek where we're kitbashing and scratching things.....my nearly twin length B1 bis steam tank is one of them.
Let him hang out here, where ever he wants, to gain knowledge or attain tricks or tips on how to do something...we're here to help.
This is an all too familiar scenareo for me since I was the avid lego biuilder when I was young and started building models when I was 11 1/2...I built whatever I liked....your son may follow the same path.
Happy Holidays-

Thanks Terri/Bob

Between the 2 of you that answered my inquiries perfectly!. I think I might just get him one 1/48 and one 1/35 to build one after the other and see which gets him going more - that way really, only one will be the odd duck out if he decides to continue on towards building a collection.

It was just hard for me to picture the scale in my head having only really built 1/12. (Although in my heart I do get into 1/24 but haven't done anything like that since I was very very young - now it's more of that battle of what's more popular and sells better...)

Anyways, thanks for the welcome - it looks like I have a few weeks' reading to tackle in here..lol