Advice on which kit to choose for grade 5 students

[Bill Eh?]

I am going to do an in class model building session. The supplier has offered me either a '69 GTX or a '69 Charger Daytona. He says the Charger Daytona comes with a 'Hot Wheels' style of diecast. That leads me to believe it is a Johnny Lightning packaging. Who would be the kit maker? He did not mention the kit mfg. for either. The kit with the diecast has the gotcha factor for these 10 year olds. More importantly though, is which will build up into the better model in terms of fewer issues to deal with? Any and all advice would be really appreciated. I'm really lacking in Mopar knowledge when it comes to kits. I hope to be able to pck them up on Saturday morning, so that I can take them into class on Monday.

[cobraman]

Have any of the kids built models before ? You may want to decide after seeing both options. Pick which ever you think is going to be the most easy to finish. If to difficult they may get frustrated and be turned off modeling. We need to get more youngsters in this hobby to help it grow. Much better than sitting in front of a video screen playing games. Thats just my opinion, Please let us know and see what they build. Good luck !

[Bartster]

If the '69 daytona is the MPC, run as fast as you can!!Good luck,..you're a good man!!

[zot]

I would go with the GTX. It's a newer kit and goes together much better. The downside to the Daytona besides age is once they get the diecast out, they will be more interested in playing with it than building the model.

[rel14]

i would start them off with a snap together kit,, don't think ya want them playing with model glue yet.. I've tried my grandkids with models

and at that age,, all they want, is let get it done.. there not waiting for no glue to dry,,, I think a snap kit would be best,,

but that my opition,,, and i'ld us a water base paint also,,,

Edited March 30, 2012 by rel14

[The70judgeman]

Contact Revell and look into their "make and take" models.

[Craig Irwin]

Fifth graders are about ten years old, with supervision a glue kit will be fine, but will you be painting them? those kits won't look right without paint. Advantage snap kit.

[fumi]

Another vote for snap kit here. I'm not so sure of having so many kids using solvent together at the same time, no matter how well ventilated the place is.

[agmaciej]

I also teach 5th grade, and have done model-building in my classes, as well as do make-n-take's at our local club contest/show. FWIW, try to go with the snap kits from Revell's program, as they will work best (read that as successful completion and high self esteem for students) for your class. Good luck, and have fun with it!

Al

[Art Anderson]

I'd take a page from Revell's very successful "Make it and take it" program, which is what Goodguys uses for the model car part of their very popular outdoor rod and custom car shows: SNAP KITS.

Face it, at this time in the school year, a 5th grader will be anywhere from 11-12 years old, depending on the age cutoff in a school district for starting school (in my school days of 1949-62, a kid had to be 5yrs old by January 31 of Kindergarten--nowadays that's been moved way back to as early as July 31 BEFORE the start of Kindergarten, so 5th graders can be as much as a full year older than someone my age would have been.

That said, for most kids in the 5th grade, any model kit is very likely to be the very first model kit they will have built, and with the mix of older so-so model car kits out there (you know the kind--parts fit that isn't what it should be) all the way to more modern kits with great fit, plus a high parts count just to build the model absent any custom parts options. Also, chances are, the kits will be provided up front, at school--which means a very limited selection, laid out in front of kids who may or may not have a burning desire to learn to build one all of a sudden. Therefore, I would suggest snap fit Revell kits, simply because they fit that sort of program quite well, and they don't require a long attention span in the bargain.

From 1986-94, I co-taught a class in plastic model building in a program at Purdue University called "Super Saturday", which was a 10-week course, every Saturday morning from 9-11am. Kids in Super Saturday (which is run Purdue's Center for gifted and exceptional children, in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences) and any interested child from 4th through the 7th grade has to be recommended by their school principal or guidance counselors to be admitted. Now while this is a good bit different from what you are putting together, some of the lessons we (the Plastic Model Building Course was designed by a long time friend of mine, a Professor in that College at Purdue AND himself a model builder) as the teachers learned was that interests varied widely in each class as to subject area--some brought cars, others airplanes, even some ships and armor. But the big difference was: Each and every kid was there because he or she (and about 25Z% of each class was girls!) wanted to be there.

The results were fascinating for me: The very first class started with a "pre-test" designed to gauge each child's level of knowledge going in, and then the building started. Jim and I worked closely with each kid after demonstrating the use of a particular tool or tools (one difference here from what you are thinking was that each child had to bring their own model to class, along with a few basic tools--Xacto knife and blades, nippers or small side cutters for removing parts from the sprues, glue, and whatever paint they were going to use along with brushes and thinner for cleaning), and then building time.

Along the way as well, each child was expected to research a bit about the model they were building, the history of the real thing, find out the paint colors and such. At the end of a particular "semester", we administered a "post test", which showed us, and the kids themselves, how much they had learned, and on the last day of class, we provided refreshments, and invited parents to come in for the last hour of that class, to listen to their kids as they showed off their completed models, and told the class about them, and a bit of the stories they'd learned about the real thing. Those "show and tell" moments on that last day of class are still memorable--seeing the pride each kid had as they showed off their work (no prizes, no letter grades), AND the pride the parents had in their child's accomplishments as well.

Some of those kids are still model builders today, I've run into them as young adults at shows In Indianapolis numerous times. Others, who are from this local area I've run into in subsequent years, and even if they never built another model kit after Super Saturday, I've still heard how much they enjoyed the 10 weeks of getting up early on Saturday morning to spend a couple of hours in a college classroom, with a real college professor (and this layperson) teaching them something that we each knew and loved doing ourselves.

In many ways, times are a lot different than they were when I was a boy growing up, building model cars (which I began at age 8), given that for the most part, none of us had mentors with any experience whatsoever, coupled with a lot of parental disapproval to start with--meaning that most all of us early model car builders were on our own, truly self-taught!

Art

[Foxer]

I was building plastic models with tube glue and paint (was no spray paints back then) before I was 10 years old. Don't downplay the abilities of our kids! I'm not familiar with eithe of these kits so sorry I can't contribute there.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Foxer

[Greg Myers]

Mike is correct. Age has nothing to do with it other than the possibility of less experience,really the consideration would be the same with any group of people, some have experience and some don't. Having been a teacher I think your problems will come from other areas, interest levels. keeping them motivated, time on task, girls in the class. I usually had one or two girls in my industrial arts classes and they were the better students.

As to which kit, I don't think it matters. It will be up to your building skills and how well you can impart that information onto your students. I would suggest you build the kit beforehand so you get the feel of problem areas. Good luck, let us know how it went.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Greg Myers

[Nate]

I think a snap kit would be good, since they roll pretty well after they're built. The Batmobile snap kit might be a good one. The Revell Camaro or the 32 scale Mustang GT500, too.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Nate

[Bill Eh?]

A sincere thank you for all of the thoughtful responses to my inquiry.

In the past, I have done a "Make it and Take it" model with my class, and with all of the children who have attended the Group 25 Model Car Contest. The first time with my class, I was using a C5 Corvette. It went well, except that there really was not that much to the kit. The second time was with the new Camaro. It did not go well at alll. Locator pins on the front grill assembly broke. The kids could not press the wheels onto the metal axles. Lots of broken pieces and unhappy faces.

Even being only 10 years old, they will rise to the occasion, if you let them know that you believe in their abilities and are supportive of them. I have a great relationship with my kids and they trust me, in that I will back them 100%. We looked at another Johnny Lightning kit today in class. We looked at the instructions and how the parts are located on sprue trees. It was a snap-together skill 2 kit. They were excited at the prospect of building something like this. I also told them that it could not be played with afterwards, as the styrene parts could not hold up to this kind of treatment.

Based on recommendations between the two kits, I think that I am going to go with the GTX kit. I have many bottles of Tamiya acrylic paints, and will probably at least have them spray paint the body. I have a couple of Tamiya Spraywork Systems that I can bring to school for this. I am glad that fellow members here are always concerned with health issues. My classroom is referred to as a Portable. It is separate from the school proper. I will be doing this activity in June, so both entrance doors will be open, as well as all of the windows. This will allow a good cross flow of air through the working space. One of my students even had the insight to ask me, what happens if they break a part. I told her that I buy a couple of extra kits to use for replacement parts, if this occurs.

I will make the purchase tomorrow. I will post pictures of the kits as they are being built, as well as when they are finished.

Again many thanks for all of your input!

Bill Eh?