Update July 12 - My Great Nephews 1st Ship builds

Nice that he's taking an intrest on the hobby.

Looks like he's off to a good start.

Post more pix of the progress.

Eric... 

It's good that your nephew has interest in modeling. I have three nephews in their teenage living in the same house, but none of them has interest in modeling. The first one has learned to play guitar, the second one bass and the third one drums. All three like playing on-line games.

Looking forward to seeing a finished kit by your nephew. 

 Eric, TDD4438,Tankerbuilder & ModelManiac. Thanks for looking and thanaks for the comments. TDD, Austyn especially got a kick out of the girl comment. Well here's some more progress pictures. He has been working on BB-63 like there is no tomorrow. And to take a break from that build he has almost completed the Heller 1/400th Admiral Graf Spee!

 Again, thanks for the encouragement guys, doc

 Well since Monday and through to Friday Austyn has built a total of three ships. The USS MISSOURI 1/350th, The Admiral Graf Spee 1/400th & the USS Sullivans 1/350th. He has progressively made each build better than the last, mostly using less glue on each build. But to build three ships inside of five days has got to be some kind of record! Albeit they do need painting yet, that is amazing to me. Here's some pic's. Thanks for the comments and looking at his builds.

                                                                          doc

Welcome to the forum Austyn. 

Wow your just cranking them out.

The whole thing is a learning process that never ends. 

Looking forward to seeing them painted up.

Eric... 

 Austyn, I guess that you and Trent made it back home okay. It was great having you up here and building with you.

                                              Love you, and tell your dad hi, Uncle Charlie (doc)

Austyn95 wrote:

I got around to painting my destroyer. Started with the smallest ship i've built. And i must say... I've lost all of my confidence in painting! The bottom half is so frustrating i just wanna load the hull with firecrackers, douse it with gasoline and blow it up while simultaneosly setting it on fire put it in the pond and just be done with it! Guh

That had been the fate of many of my early builds, Austyn, just slow down a bit and take your time. Painting is the hard part to a lot of builders, to others it is the preparation and fit-up of the model itself. This is where you will learn patience and the importance of being relaxed. Hang in there!

Thanks for posting these build photos. It's almost like a kit preview; showing what the kit is like before purchase. It is also a nice thing to be able see the size relationship of the kit to human hands. I had no real idea that a 1/350 Missouri was that big. What a honker!

Fine work on the builds.

Keep them coming.

I would love to upload the pictures to show but... I dont know how

Doc - thanks for sharing the experience! Looks like a promising start :)

Austyn - One of the best books written about ship modelling is now free in PDF format here:

http://mikeashey.com/

Eack kit/build you learn something; you will get the hang of masking & painting subunits in time.

 cheers!

Austyn95 wrote:

I got around to painting my destroyer. Started with the smallest ship i've built. And i must say... I've lost all of my confidence in painting! The bottom half is so frustrating i just wanna load the hull with firecrackers, douse it with gasoline and blow it up while simultaneosly setting it on fire put it in the pond and just be done with it! Guh

Many of my earliest ship models wound up this way - sinking to the bottom of our pond in a magnificent blaze! However you can do all of the blowing up now in video games, so no need to destroy the models

My advice would be to take a bit of a break from the model building because you've already done more than most do in a year. If you get too frustrated you might not want to continue so just do something completely different for a week or two before jumping back in.

Rudi35 wrote:

Austyn95 wrote: I got around to painting my destroyer. Started with the smallest ship i've built. And i must say... I've lost all of my confidence in painting! The bottom half is so frustrating i just wanna load the hull with firecrackers, douse it with gasoline and blow it up while simultaneosly setting it on fire put it in the pond and just be done with it! Guh Many of my earliest ship models wound up this way - sinking to the bottom of our pond in a magnificent blaze! However you can do all of the blowing up now in video games, so no need to destroy the models My advice would be to take a bit of a break from the model building because you've already done more than most do in a year. If you get too frustrated you might not want to continue so just do something completely different for a week or two before jumping back in.

Well I havn't touched any of my models in a week... They just st their and stare at me. Anyways if I ever make to a hobby shop to get some different paint i'll have them finished soon. I hope