Just wanted to share an experience that just happended at our house a few hours ago. Yesterday I gave my 9-year old son an old Aurora LTV-A7 Corsair that had been sitting unbuilt in my attic for years. We were sitting at the kitchen table where I am also trying to super-detail a kit (hopefully in time for the Nats. in Phoenix in '04), when my 17-year old daughter comes in and sits down, and proclaims that she wants to model also. I had an old Academy Hummer that she really liked that I gave to her some time ago, so she proceeded to start on that. 10 minutes later my doorbell rings and a young man (12 years old, I think) from 2 houses down wants to play with my son. I told him we were modeling and asked him if he would like to join us. Several weeks ago I gave him a Tamiya Formula 1 Honda that I was never going to build, so he RAN back home, got the kit and sat down with us at the table. He said he didn't have any glue or tools, but I said I had enough for everybody. This boy's mother has been married several times, and the guy she's living with now is not her husband. She gave her son to her folks to raise, and has essentially abandoned him; we've befriended him through our son. Anyway, here we all are; I didn't get a chance to work on my kit much, but wound up helping everyone cut off parts, trim, sand, dry-fit and glue. And we all laughed and joked for a couple hours--with my family and with new friends. It is intersting how modeling can bring a family together to share in a common interest, and to reach out to those who probably have some pretty deep hurts; and just maybe some glue and styrene helped start a healing process.
Sorry, didn't mean for this to be so long; just wanted to throw this out.
Gip Winecoff