Welcome to our NEW Junior Friends’ Gallery!
This has long been something I have wanted to start in SMN – a Junior Friends’ Gallery for all our younger friends out there!
I am determined to encourage younger modellers to get involved and enjoy our great hobby that is scale modelling and this is the first step. This is one of several initiatives that we will be embarking on in the coming months aimed at encouraging and supporting junior modellers – if we continue to get the support of modellers of all levels, experience and standards from around the world.
It matters not whether you subscribe to our magazine or not, the SMN Junior Friends Gallery will be for everyone and anyone if you or they are a junior – completely FREE for all to access!
Geoff
My Day at The RAF Waddington International Air Show 2014 – by Emily Coughlin (age 13)
On the 5th July 2014, I went to Waddington Air Show. Once we had parked and gone through security, we got onto a vintage bus which took us to the main area of stalls and exhibits. Waddington is a good family day out because there are lots of things to do as well as looking at the aircraft and watching the flying displays.
Read her full report and see some Show images.
[wptabs type=”accordion”] [wptabtitle]Harrier GR-7 by Paul-Luca (Age 9)[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]Here is the Revell/Hasegawa kit build by my nephew Paul-Luca. As a reward for his efforts, I sent him a resin seat and FOD guards.
For this model he earned 2 gold medals already (Wow! Congratulations Paul-Luca – Geoff), one at a German model show and one from the IPMS Netherlands.
Cheers, Thomas
A few words about my nephew, he is nearly 9 years old and built the U-Boot last year. He is modelling for almost 2 or 3 years.
Cheers, Thomas
Wheel well and engine intake…
The wheel well was built up of three different parts, the front wall, the back wall and the base of the bay with little slots to place them in. The engine intake was really good as it came in sections like the side walls and the inside. It also proved a challenge getting the white spray paint in all of the nooks and crannies.
Front and main body…
The front of the aircraft was pretty easy as it just went together straight away and did not cause any problems at all. The main body came together very well as it was just sticking the components that I have already assembled onto the main belly of the aircraft to form the structure which looks really good now.
The wings, top body; tail, rear fins, nose cone and jet pipe…
The top body and wings was really easy as it was just sticking the top on to the bottom. The tail fin just slipped together as it was not built of many parts just the top and bottom. The jet pipe consisted of just one piece of plastic painted and then I just stuck it on and then it just put its self together. The rear tail fins just went on as you would expect and with a bit of taping in to position it went quite well. The nose cone was quite hard to do as I had to fill it with lead fishing weights for nose weight and it just slipped on without a problem though.
Painting the bottom light grey…
The grey went on really well when you got the right mix for the airbrush and it now looks really good.
Painting the top dark grey…
The dark grey was sprayed on by using Tamiya spray paint and it dried really well and looks even better now.
Decaling and arming…
The decals went on really well when you adjusted them a bit and it now looks like a real F-16 all it needs now is armament. All the weapons are really detailed compared to the scale and are now on the finished model that looks awesome.
Review by Gary Jordan.
[/wptabcontent] [wptabtitle]BAe Hawk T1 Red Arrow 1:48 : By Emily Coughlin Age 11[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]
The only thing I found not so good was the white decals. You could see the white paint through the decal; to stop this happening you could paint white underneath the decals. I sprayed it with Xtracolor Red Arrows Red.
I learnt that for future builds of this kit, to paint underneath the decals. In conclusion, this is a great kit and I would recommend it to anyone.
Emily C.
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[wptabtitle]Bell UH-1D “SAR” 1:72 by Finlay Porter, aged 11[/wptabtitle]
[wptabcontent]Finlay’s FIRST ever scale model, aged 11 (nearly!)! “I very much enjoyed doing this but found keeping the windows clear of glue hard.”
For his first attempt, this is a great effort. He chose his own colour scheme, kit was from Revell.
This kit was surprisingly very easy to build as it went together perfectly apart from when I put the flight deck on I had problems because of I had stuck the insides in as it tells you to in the instructions so if I was you I would not put the insides in unless you are doing the lifts down as you can see the insides on the kit.
The Aircraft…
The aircraft were fairly easy too but the windows were really hard to paint because of how small they are. The Sea Kings are wrong as the wheel wells were too big for the scale as they were sticking right out of the side of the Sea King.
The Decals…
The decals were really good as there were no problems with them but the fact that I was being awkward and wanted to do Invincible I had to turn the ro6 into ro5 but that was about all I could do so yeah.
By, Gary Jordan
[/wptabcontent] [wptabtitle]Sea Harrier FA.2 by Ethan Williams Age 6[/wptabtitle] [wptabcontent]What do you think of Ethan’s Airfix 1:72 scale Sea Harrier – isn’t it great?
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