Model for a youngster (Girl)

 Here are some random sugestions:

 Revell has some dino's, most kids like dino's.

Revell of Germany also has some costruction vehicles, maybe a bit to boyish...

I have seen some kits of insects by heller and a japanese brand (tamiya?)

You could also try a historic figure, like a knight, from miniart.

My suggestion is that you look at getting one of the 21st Century Toys aircraft kits. For less than $10 you get a large easily assembled aircraft and the parts are already free from the sprues packed in compartmentalized bags or plastic bins. Your daughter can paint it into what ever scheme she likes, her own air racer featuring her own livery colors.

The whole model can be assembled in just a couple of hours. The decal sheet is worth the price of the kit and you can add it to your stash (with her permission). 

With kids, I've found bigger is better, fewer small fiddly parts a plus and short assembly time required. The 21st kits are durable too! Other than the landing gear possibly breaking off after some rough handling, the rest should provide hours of fun while she uses her imagination to fly around the house and yard racing around the circut. Go on UTube and show her some video of the excitement of what air racing is about. The colorful aircraft will catch her eye. 

To plant the seed with my five grand daughters they are all getting a built up racer for their rooms done in bright colors complete with their names embolden on them. Hook them while they are young! 

I also have a daughter (just a tad older) that has joined me in my workshop (I recently came back to the hobby)

Some ideas from stuff we have built:

- as mentioned, SnapTide Revell kits, cars mostly... but I also gave her couple "cool" looking planes (stealth fighter). you CAN use glue onthose if you wish, but my daugther only uses non-toxic glues (Elmers)

- the dino kits can be found in Ebay at very reasonable prices

- SciFi: star wars, etc etc

- Space - revell have some old but goodie kits, can be quite expensive though (relative)

- Revel re-released one of their old sailing ship that sort of "looks" like pirates of the carribean ship... my kid loved that one.

- People - I found couple old figure kits depicting some long lost knight or medieval warriors; pretty cheap used/old, who cares about fit..

Also, she "builds" other stuff besides kits, like simple wood puzzles, 3D wood structures (you can get these cheap, less than 5$, and the kid learns sanding parts for good fit ;)

Finally, I give her random parts of my kits to work on... like sanding an external fuel tank, or the figures which I never paint. I gave my kid her own "tool box" so she does not wanders into mine and takes an Xcto or something.

Hope this helps!

Hmmm...here's a landmark input...why don't you ask her what she wants to build?  Let her look at the squadron catalog or look at the GM website to get some ideas...maybe you can rediscover a long lost art of families actually talking at the dinner table!

Another thing, just because she's a girl, doesn't mean she can't build a Sherman Tank!

 Here's another thought: if you're old enough to remember the Weird-Oh's kits (Drag Hag,etc.), Walmart carries quite a few of that line. There were several Weird-Oh's in the line-up. She might find something there of interest. Besides, she can paint those any color that strikes her fancy, and no one can tell her she's wrong. I painted my Drag Hag purple, of all colors....

 Camo

What worked for my daughter was ... Hollywood! Seriously. When she saw me whacking away at my first 1/700 Victory ship, she wanted her own model. I said, OK, but it's a lot more fun if you pick out something you're interested in or want to learn more about. Fine, she said.

At the local hobby shop, she zeroed on in the ancient Revell 1/570 Titanic. I was a little aghast, but it turned out to be a great starter kit. Not too many parts, the fit is OK, it's easy to mask and spray paint, and best of all, we got in some quality father-daughter bonding time by watching the movie Titanic several times ... doing research, you know?

Or for something with a little more parts and detail so that you might also enjoy helping her build, accurate miniature did start to make several air racers like the aircobra or the corsair.  Can't forget the main purpose is to draw them in to the more popular and widely available military ranges.   

I personally think a good starting genre is still model cars.  They are limited in number of parts.  They are easy enough to paint (maybe not really well but still easier with a solid single color).  Cars are always going to be around them in regular life.  And they get to play with them next to their dolls...  I've given away several 1/24 ferraris and tamiya spray can paints (fast drying, best of impatient kids with short attention span) to my coworkers who wanted to try something different for together time with their kids (well... boys...).

OK guys, thank you all very much for your suggestions / input.

My girl is 100% not interested in planes, boats, space, cars or construction of any sort. However the Insect, Horse, Knight or non-militaristic figure have all raised an eyebrow. I live a long way from any hobby-shop, so it isn't really easy to let her see what is available - so it would have to be mail order.

Does anyone know of any of the "eybrow raising" type of kits that are currently / readily available?

Is it just my opinion, or is there an obvious lack of products available here, or are girls as a whole just not interested in this type of thing - I could imagine that as a rule that they may not be - but come on, you even get female fighter jock's now?

Thanks all again. 

Okay,

You're in Scotland, so I think that Hannants would be a good place to look for models on-line. Go to http://www.hannants.co.uk/ and search for "knight" (for example). You can sort by kit type to filter out the aircraft.

I just did that and found a neat kits with figures, horses, and even a castle. It looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Personally, I think you're right. For better or worse, building models has traditionally been a "boys'"  hobby. Still, with some good searching, I'm sure you'll help her find something that she'll like.

Regards, 

Here's something else I just thought of - there's a mail-order catalog that we get here in the US - Bits & Pieces, Ithink it's called.  I don't know if you get catalog junkmail in the UK like we do here, but I would imagine you do.  Also, I don't know if this place sells overseas, but if not there should be something similar.

Anyway, I remember them selling what they called 3-D jigsaw puzzles - you could make famous buildings like castles, Big Ben, etc. - as well as other things.  I wonder if she might be interested in something like that.

My daugther LOVES those 3D "pseudo wood" puzzles... dinosaurs, animals, historical buildings (and sneak a plane too!). Not "plastic" but we build on same workbench....

There IS a scarcity of kid-oriented "goofy" stuff a la old Aurora kits.... I picked up a "Giant Spider" Dio-like kit for 10$ (old Aurora), mimicking those bad Sci Fi movies from years ago...

Does she like Star Wars? We have couple kits my daughter wants to build....  She likes "cool" cars, roadsters, funny cars, oldies... what else??? mmmm   unless you want to go "medieval" and pick a castle-type kit? Or try Warhammer type of figures?

Sorry cant help you more, believe me, I have TRIED to look for "cool" stuff for my daughter to build! I would pay serious money for a kit of Spongebob Squarepants and Bikini Bottom! :)

You may want to take a look at the "Sakura Wars" anime kits by WAVE. Most of these mecha kits include a figure of the female pilot from the series. 

http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?Dis=-2&MacroType=InjKit&from=detail&Word=sakura%20wars&searchpage=top_page

1/24 Koubu For Sakura

http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVSK-31

(Wave) Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex 

http://www.hlj.com/product/WAVKK-01

(Bandai) 1/100 MG Strike Rouge from Gundam Seed

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN929450

When I was young, I liked painting my brother's figures.  He wouldn't let me put them together, not sure if he thought I would put an arm where the leg went or what, he just did that part.  I liked doing the horses best. 

Katie 

 Here's a link for the Hawk Weird O's, some really crazy stuff from the '60's.

 Scroll down the page about of a third of the way, until you start seeing Hawk kits.

 http://tinyurl.com/3xzrzb

  Camo