Annual Cub Scout modeling project (updated 10/11/05)

Great-they can learn history and tactile skills at the same time-and hopefully have fun!

sounds great jlwilliams! ive participated in my ipms chapter's youth build class for three years now as an instructor. its always great working with the kids

I have three cubs participating this year. The kits that we are building are:

The first night's activities were to paint the interior pieces and get as much ready to glue together the fuselage. I generally use an inexpensive testors single action to keep things easy on the boys. However I could not find the siphon tube. I set up my trusty badger 150 double action so that they could use it as a single action.

If you have never tried to teach a pre-teen how to use an airbrush, you are missing a real adventure! Between the tendancy to hold the brush too close and not knowing exactly where the tip of the brush is pointed, it is surprising that any paint gets on the plastic.





Unfortunately due to a self imposed rule against posting children's images on the web, I can not show the big smiles that were all around.

I will try to post new images each Wednesday through the month of October 2005.

All of the images that I take and I am willing to post on the web are found at: http://pics.jamesjweg.com/gallery/844231.

looks great jlwilliams. good idea about the self-imposed rule. its better to be safe these days. sounds like fun with the airbrush. post up some more pics as soon as you can

Looking good, jlwilliams. Those Revell-Germany kits are inexpensive and go together well. Looking forward to the finished pieces.

Last night we attempted to dry brush the cockpit areas. The scouts were amazed that I would wipe the paint off of the brush. One of the kids did not quite understand what I was trying to teach.

Others were catching on to the idea. Typical youth learning curve:

One panel came out pretty good:


I had a new boy show up to join the group. Fortunately I had a kit that had been started last year and not finished. That allowed me to get him started on something and not be behind.


The pictures of the entire project can be seen at the web address in my signature.

That's awesome!! But typically wouldn't you dry brush after detail painting and a wash? Seems pointless to dry bursh if there's no detail to pick out. Anyway it's awesome to get kid sinto modeling like that!! Revell kits are awesome and my all time favorite kit is the 1/72 fw-190 a8 which is a bit newer than those ktis there, but still incredibly cheap and well detailed.

BTW, how advanced are you going with them? If you're covering dry brushing are you doing panel line washes and glosscoating before decals as well? Oh and please keep posting pictures!

Tanky-

My goal with them is to get the basics down. I generally paint the interior color a solid color, paint some of the larger details (headrest, belts, stick), and dry brush with a metal color the raised bumps. I mask the canopies for them so that when it is all put together the frames can be painted the exterior color. The exterior is done in various ways. If things are going long, I may use a single color rather than a camo scheme. I do not really get into historical accuracy or some of the neat detailing techniques.

I am dealing with 8 & 9 year old boys here. I have to be careful about attention span. Some of the things we experienced modelers do when building is too tedious to young people who are still developing hand control. I have found that some of the youngsters start asking questions about the aircraft that they modeled. Some go further and build other models.

I will continue to post pictures for the duration of the project. I meet with the boys on Tuesday nights. So the updates will be on Wednesday evenings. The full set of photos that I take will be posted on the website that is in my signature.

I just met with the scouts this evening. We managed to get the cockpits into the fuselages and the fuselages together. It is starting to look like a "Jug" and a" 'cane".





We had lost the control stick for the Huricane 2 weeks ago. I was going crazy looking to see where I had dropped it. The boy was playing with the blu-tak that I use for holding small parts for painting and it fell off! One of the parents said "glue it in quick before we lose it again!"

As usual, all pictures added today are at the site in the sig.

Looks awesome! You're doing a great thing!

QUOTE: You're doing a great thing!

I completely agree. Anything adults can do to keep kids pointed in a constructive direction is admirable. It's sad that more adults, myself included, don't take the time to do the same thing.