Hi guys and gal

My daughter aged 9 yrs assembled a Tamiya MK II all by herself - trimming, filing and sanding to boot. A simple kit with few parts as a start. Starting on the accompanying figures next. I'm hoping she'd take naturally to air-brushing soon. The pics are in my gallery.

Can I sign her up here or is it one e-mail address only per member ? HauntedTankette or HauntedTank2 would be nice.......

All hail Pat's daughter! Wuyyooo, I didn't even file down the stumps (most of the time, esp. when the nailclipper were used by someone else) when I was 9!

Thanks for the encouragement, man. I'll let her read your response. She's sure to be thrilled and will want to assemble another. I have a son aged 7+ and he's all thumbs. I'm still trying and hoping ................

Scale modeling can help solve the 'lepak' problem......period.

Patrick,

like father like daugther ehhh...

good to hear the curry gravy is overflowing to the mangkuk..haha (translation from the infamous malay proverb...)
ask her friends to join also... maybe at that age a snap tite kits are sufficient...but i very amazed to find that she actually build a full kit... btw what is Mk II aaa???

i have 1 yr old daugther...cant wait to see her grow and build one....

patrick, for a 9-year old, your daughter is unbeleivable how did it all started anyway? i wish my wife could be into this hobby as well as your daughter la.. ha ha....

btw my 13 mnth daughter shows a very keen interest in playing with some leftover plastic sprues & my empty boxes of model kits.. so... ada can ni... he he.

Thanks. Snap tites are not cheap either so I was thinking why not just dive right in and learn about glue and trimming. She assembled the hull, turret, suspension and wheels...in fact everything for this simple kit.

It's the 1/35 Afrikakorp Panzer Kampfwagen MKII G from Tamiya. Check out my gallery. No accompanying figures yet though. There should be 4.

Thanks. Not really unbeleivable. I built my first 1/72 a/c at 7 so I'd say already late.

Scale modeling and commission work doesn't leave me much quality time for family and she was curious why this hobby makes 'widows' and 'orphans' out of my wife, her kid brother and her. Also, she knew there was money to be made and I promised her a cut from the proceeds which she can use to get stuff pre teens like.

First thing to teach kids is safety. Sharp blades cut. so do files and sandpaper. Glues and solvents may be toxic too. Next come the 'safety' of the model being worked on. Where not to cut. How glue disolves plastic. Where not to apply glue and dry fitting etc. She did smear some glue but the angle of the glue bottle tip which I taught her to hold didn't do much damage. A little sandpaper soon cleaned it good as new.

Aaaah....wives. Except for the very lucky modeler, these species hate every part and sprue. It's strange but it's just isn't a woman's thing at all ( not that I wouldn't want to see more of them taking up the hobby ). My wife tolerates me but I can sense the fuming inside each time I start on a build. Perhaps a manufacturer will come up with hunky figures they can build. A 1/16 scale David Beckham figure perhaps ? I read a listing desciption on eBay once and the seller said she got the built model from a divorce and modeling was partially the cause for the split !!!! An interesting caption on a modeler's T-shirt has this to say, "My wife made me choose between her and scale models......man, I'm goin to miss her !"

And I have this to say. If anyone wants to get back at any female, get her husband or boyfriend hooked on model building.

OK...OK...as usual any sign of armed womenfolk, I'll be in the hills......... :-)

hahahahaha..Patrick you're totally right!!!! this really make me laugh man!!!

my wife too feel the same way about this..but not all the time... but she's slowly rebuilding her love towards my models...


but I did agree on the safety aspect of modelling....so many sharp tools that can cause hazards and so many chemicals that can pose health hazard to ourselves the and love one....
when I do spray painting, I banned my wife and daughter to enter the hobby room ...the wife is permitted to enter when she wear a respirator or an hour after that....no peeking!!!
I have a few injuries too due to my stupidity and clumsiness...been working in the safety department, it is something that i can imagine to be occured to me...so I really don't want that to be happening to others...so I think safety MUST be emphasize to all modellers and his family...

my 2 cents