Dirkus Maximus

I’m trying to get the girls into model building, kinda like I tried to get Andy into it. I let them do all the painting on the big stuff, and I handled painting the tiny bits. Ash seems to like working on them, and wanted her F4U-1 Corsair hung above her bed. She did a lot of the assembly and helped with almost all the decals. Addy was kinda into it, but didn’t seem overly enthused with following through to finish her P51 Mustang. I ended up finishing that up and putting all the decals on it while she played on the XBox with Andy. She’s gonna let me have that one for work though, so I can’t complain too loudly!

This weekend was my son’s 11th birthday. We also celebrated my birthday, even though it’s not ’till next weekend. We had a little get together at my parent’s house, had some kebabs and some cake and ice cream. He got a gift card from his aunt and uncle that he ended up spending on a new Star Wars tank, and a few new sets of clothes and a copy of the movie “Marley and Me”. I also got a gift card, and used it to get a chain tool and a new chain to fix Andy’s bike with. I’m still mystified as to how the hell you LOSE a chain completely, and not know that you did it or where it went. :-\ We also went out today and saw “Monsters vs. Aliens” at the local movie theater. It’s a pretty good movie, though I think everyone in the theater was hoping for a slightly more vicious fate for the weatherman at the end. I’d give it the thumbs up.

I also gave Andy a tiny model kit of a Sopwith Camel airplane from WWI. I’ve been trying to get Andy to work on model planes with me as a way to get him to slow down and pay attention to detail, instead of rushing haphazardly through everything he does in an effort to be “first”. We did one together last weekend, a Dauntless bomber from WWII, and it turned out REAL nice. I’ll admit, I did most of the work on that one, but he did get in there and help. We built the Sopwith Camel tonight. I did the paint on the model, but Andy did 9/10ths of the assembly this time around. I had to sit on my hands to keep myself from getting in the way. The only parts I glued on were the landing gear (that he had already assembled) and the top wing (I f**cking hate wing struts on planes this size). I’ll get Andy to do all the decals on it tomorrow night.

Overall, I’ve been really impressed with how quickly he’s learning to slow down and steady himself and pay close attention to his work. I think I’ll try to find a very simple kit for him to work on next, and let him do the whole thing by himself. I think we may have found him a really neat hobby.

Click on through the read-more link to see some pics from the party, and of the two planes we’ve built. (more…)

GWS Pico Tiger Moth

I want THIS EXACT KIT RIGHT HERE. It’s the GWS Pico Tiger Moth “NPS” (No Power System) kit. I’ve already got the motor, gearbox, props, radio gear, servos, batteries and everything for this model, mainly because I used to HAVE this model. My last one was tragically smashed by a careless toss of a car seat on the way back from Kansas 6 years ago. You have no idea how much self-conrtol it took not to fly into a white-hot rage when I heard the sickening crunch. I still get mad about it if I think about it too much. I miss that plane dearly. It was the most well-behaved, long-flying, crash resistant plane ever. I’m just throwin’ the idea out there, maybe someone will catch it between now and April.

And heck… if you can’t find $33 for that one, how about $10 for this kit, it’ll work with the gear I have too. Actually, I think I have enough spare parts to get BOTH of those in the air. Maybe I can train Andy on the $10 model… and his birthday is also in April… Hrmm….