Do you lets kids touch or handle your models?

[whiskee]

I was looking at all my airplanes with broken propellers and missing landing gear today, and I got to thinking about this. I am fortunate to have a dad who is also a modeler and I cant think of any time he never let me or my sister, no matter how young or clumsy, NOT play with his finished models. I broke countless models, HO trains, wooden ships, you name it. He never got mad either. Sometimes he would even participate. I remember u-boats in the bath with clay ballast, a Revelle B-29 set on fire and thrown into a creek, a Guillows sopwith camel strung to a ceiling fan blade, a Tamiya Lamborghini Countach sliced long ways down the middle with a hot knife..It may sound sadistic but its not, it was always done in good fun and we always had too many models and hobby stuff around the house anyway. I have discussed this with him before and he always told me that he let me play with his models and hobby stuff because "that's what they were for". He also said that when he was a kid and went into the dusty, smoky, hobby stores he would look at the finished models and only wish he could touch them, and built models for that very reason. Now with two 5 year old sons of my own, I have to let them touch mine. I don't even think twice, I may cringe a little bit, but I know I am doing my part for the future of this hobby. I think to most people finished models are only a work of art. To me they are a family legacy and good memories.

p.s. I just remembered this, he had a collection of Tamiya 1/10 racing motorcycles way back in 1989! I remember completely destroying them one day ( I was in kindergarten). IT MAKES ME CRINGE THINKING ABOUT THAT!! LOL, but even at that very young age I remember thinking how cool it was that the swing arms moved and steering worked.

 

[Quaralane]

My own son destroyed a couple of mine, true.
But I looked at it as a perfectly valid excuse to get a new version

 

[ShutterAce]

Step away from the P-47's! ;D

 

[13aceofspades13]

ok sun.. do you see that small, red... black and orange airplane with the spades on it up on the sealing? you touch it, and it will come alive and start zooming around the room shooting at you, and all your airplane toys will come alive. and it will shoot them down and they will explode and crash and burn... do you want all your toys filled with holes, and burning, stuck in the floor and in the walls? no....? then don't touch that airplane... ;D good boy...


of course if my kid was anything like me it would backfire and i would touch the airplane just to see that.

 

[spud]

no way.! they cost to much to break melt or sink, now if it was a cheap 1/72 kit i wouldnt care less.

 

[Gundamhead]

They're models. It's OK to touch 'em, it's how they learn. Everytime you hear the inevitable *snap*, you may cringe, but it's fixable. And then they know how fragile for the next one they might handle.

 

[Quaralane]

Exactly, Gundamhead

 

[mademodeller]

when i was a kid I did not even let my old mum in my room to dust it

 

[Jelly]

;D

I became a NAZI in this subject in the hard way... I was traumatised long time ago...

No living thing touches without my direct and tense (for me) supervision any model.

Why? here´s the history:

Back in 1982 I built an Italeris (I think) Leo 1A4 in 1:35: I had only glue tube and black paint (not for modelling). I built the model with the knowledge and abilities of a 13-14 YO boy... well a "controlled disaster". I even made some "battle damage" to the tank with the black paint... and it got the decals also. I was so proud!

One day in the afternoon I came back at home; my mom got a visit from another mother: this one mom had a 5 YO or so MDW son named "Boscho". When I paid salute to mom and the visiting woman and I wasn´t able to see Boscho in the proximities... I quickly understood that something very BAD was surely happening in my room: I RUSHED there like an F-15 in afterburner mode.

Synthesis: Boscho had had the same effect on my Leo than a salvo of three or four Hellfires AGM. :'(

That´s why I became a NAZI in the matter of "touching my models". :-X

;D

Cheers,
RG

 

[schweinhund227]

what kind of question is that ? as mention just above.... NO TOUCHY or death !