Star Wars X-Wing Fighter

On a recent trip to Plattsburgh in New York state I visited a Walmart Supercenter where I noticed a Revell SnapTitle X-Wing Fighter for only $7 USD. What a deal as the same kit would sell for $20-$30 easily and would make the perfect gift for my oldest son Casey.

So today me and Casey took built the kit in about 15-20 minutes (can't remember the last time I built a model so quickly). Despite the age of 8+, I was surprised at the difficulty of how the parts would snap together. Despite this little surprise the quality of the kit was very good, lots of details and the paint was very well done. Overall as the first SnapTite kit I have built, I am impressed and Casey likes the idea of being able to play with the kit without fear of destroying it. I always like spending time with Casey to build a kit for him to enjoy.

Adding Paint Where Possible...

As previously stated, there is not much to paint on this kit... One of the last details to add is the color of the nose antenna. Casey wanted it to be a dark grey color and I was impressed at how well he painted it making sure not to touch the nose of the aircraft with a very steady hand.

Spray Paint Fun

Just like the F-14 me and Casey made last year I decided to keep things simple and use the same Tamiya spray can to paint the fuselage. It's a nice classic grey color for a military aircraft.

The artist signs his work...

Having glued the exhaust that Casey painted black the night before, I had him sign the inside with the year the kit was built. A tradition of mine since I have been creating kits as a teenager.

F-22 Pilot

Today Casey had some fun painting the pilot of his F-22 Raptor an army green color. We also examined the kit and unfortunately beyond a few small details there is not much to do as the F-22 is a very simple kit compared to other models that we have built...

Happy Birthday Casey!

Happy Birthday Casey! Your now 7 years old and what could be better than a scale model of an F-22 Raptor! Looks like we will be having some fun with a new build this summer...

Maverick

Today Casey and me finished assembling his F-14. He is pretty happy about his latest project and already wants to build another kit. Ironically tomorrow on the local cable channel what movie is playing... "Top Gun". Guess who wants to see it...

Casey Painting his F-14

After spray painting the whole kit with Tamiya grey I had Casey paint the pilots black and the motors metallic grey. I had him mount the missiles and he assisted me in spray painting them white outside.

A Birthday Gift

For Casey's 6th birthday I got him a Revell SnapTite F-14 Tomcat. This should be a nice project to work on together during the summer holidays. Interesting side note, when looking at the box I noticed it had the U.S.S. Midway in the background with F-14's on the deck. Midway never carried F-14's although I have read that some have landed/taken off for emergency reasons only.. This reminds me, I really got to get the Midway kit complete!

Spring Break Over and Another Project Complete!

Today I presented Casey the final product of our week long project. He was very excited to see the end result and was flying it all over the house. Fortunately he appears to understand that its delicate and so far no damage has occurred... This was a lot of fun and I hope these little projects will eventually increase his interest in the hobby.

Casey, the proud new owner of an F-18 model!

Me and Casey

Another kit to add to Casey's collection!

Casey Painting

After insisting that it be painted and that we do not use the stickers supplied with the kit which surprised me (in a positive manner), Casey started painting his F-18 after I masked it. He applied a few coats of paint throughout the week and I helped out. I calculated that it took seven coats of yellow to hide the dark blue plastic! Yellow is a hard color to work with but it sure looks nice!

Casey the Red Baron

I wonder if Casey's birthday gift had anything to do with his choice of fighter plane at the amusement park?

Happy Birthday Casey!

For Casey's 5th birthday, I finally presented to him his WWI Red Baron Fokker DR-1 Triplane.

He sure liked it, especially the turning propeller!

Happy Birthday Casey!

Casey’s First Kit

Today I had Casey assist in assembling the parts to the shuttle. Despite the beginner level even I had some difficulties joining some parts together. Together we completed the assembly and placed the stickers, I choose Discovery since it is my favorite shuttle and also an appropriate name. It’s a small little project that will be proudly displayed by its new owner in his room. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new past time for him…