Our Father/Son project with my kid

[mrm]

The other day I was in the hobby shop and my kid asked me to make a model together. He chose the Boothill Express. He likes the skeleton I guess and all the shiny pipes on the motor. Well that's mind of an eight year old. I had reservations about the project, because this kit is not exactly 8year old material, but to my great surprise and delight my kiddo is handling it like a champ so far.

[freakshow12]

Very cool! My boys tried and one likes it and the other not so much. I saw the real boothill express at the Peterson in the vault a couple yrs ago. It was fairly run down but ultra cool to see something like that in the flesh

[mrm]

Thank you. Ryan (on the pictures) loves it. Tried last year to build a F14 Tomcat with him, but that never came to fruition. But he LOVES Hot Rods.

About the Boothill Express….The one in Peterson is a replica. It was build not too long after the original and it was dubbed "the outdoor car", while the original was "the indoor car". The original one is in a private collection after it sold for $125 000 some years ago. The "outdoor car" was created for demonstrations and they even drag raced it. The idea was that the original was way too fragile and to preserve the real 1850 wooden hearse that the original was built using. The one in Petersen is actually fiberglass. This creates confusion when researching the car, because people think that it changed over the years and it didn't. Just different pictures from the same era showing two different cars. There are quite few detail differences between them. Thank God the model actually replicates the original "indoor car".

[freakshow12]

Good info. I believe the boss guy that took me down there told me that and it looked well worn for sure. To be honest I was in sensory overload about then. Lol. I drove for 3 days to get there and once I got to the hot rods they were moving them out to the Oakland roadster show. I was a bit sad but then the curator said "come with me, I will make your long trip worthwhile" and he took me and my family down to the vault and said "go nuts". We were down there for 3 hours or so looking at and touching the cars and taking pictures. It was something I will never forget.

[1 bad55 stan]

Well done Ryan,and Dad,Love them plug wires.Great too see a young fellow getting into this hobby.Way better than playstation games...

[Modelbuilder Mark]

I just flat think it is wonderful that you are having a father son project.

[dragzz]

aww look at that hes hooked now lol great work so far keep it up

[charlie8575]

Seeing this makes me happy.

Charlie Larkin

[Art Laski]

Love it!

[Ramfins59]

Great to see Michael..!! I can't wait until my 3 year old grandson gets into building. Unfortunately he lives in VA, outside of DC, and I'm in western PA so we don't get together often, but I know he'll get into it because he loves cars (Thanks to me) and he's always asking "What did you build for me?" I bring him built snap kits whenever I get to see him, but he's still trashes everything with his rough play. I'm sure he'll outgrow that and start taking better care of his toys.

[slusher]

So good to see the next generation of builders....

[crazyrichard]

yeaahhh ! proud father taking pics of his building son cool !! .. mine isnt that interested

[patami]

That expression of pure and true satisfaction on that 8 yrs face is priceless. And may i say great build so far. My own works at the tender age of 8 was gluebombs.

[wisco8]

Another master modeler in the works!! Awesome!!

[disabled modeler]

Great to see a young modeler building and enjoying it....tell him it looks great to me and keep building.

[mrm]

Thanks a lot guys. It is really appreciated to see the encouragement. He is at school right now, but I'll show him the thread when he comes back. I hope it pumps him up and motivates him to keep going.

As for glue bombs at this age - this is where I come in in this project. Not as much doing stuff, but showing him how to do them the right way himself.

[pharr7226]

Great work young fella!

[espo]

Lookout Dad, there's a new Modeler in the house.

[Duntov]

This is by far and away the best post on this forum in a long long time!!!!

Love seeing this guy building ---

Thanks for sharing!!!!! Keep us posted please!!!! (That last photo of him --- in the red shirt---just says it all!!!!)

Regards

Bill (Duntov)

[tubbs]

AWESOME!!! nothing like the bond between a Dad and his children. great job!! love that kit.

[Psychographic]

The pic of him in the red shirt shows a proud builder and rightfully so, that rolling chassis looks fantastic! I can't wait to see how he tackles the rest of this build.

[geordie]

Excellent, seeing this made me smile. No 'apps' needed for this hobby. Great job !!

[mrm]

I went to my buddy who owns a paint shop and asked him for some paint for the model. We looked at pictures on the net and then he came up with some paint that is basically just a base coat called starfire.

I gave my kid an introduction to all the parts of an airbrush and then explained to him how everything works. Then loaded it up and let him have at it.

I had to guide his hand a couple of times to show him how to make smooth passes, but he did pretty great actually. This is the body mocked up

Later when dry, he applied semi gloss black to the curtains and gold to the trim. I had to touch it up here or there, but over all he handled it like a champ.

Oh…and by the way, I was not that happy with the color, so I took just the second part of giallo tristrati (a Ferrari tri-coat pearl) and sprayed it over the starfire base. It gave it a goldish tint, as it is basically a clear yellow pearl. I think the color is dead on now.

Edited April 17, 2014 by mrm

[Jeremy Jon]

Very cool Michael, great to see father & son share time and hobby together!!

[Psychographic]

Ryan,

You are quite a talented builder, your paint job came out great. This is a pretty hard model to build and you are doing a fantastic job on it. I look forward to watching it progress and to see it finished. Are you enjoying building it, and better yet, spending time with your dad? One more question, do you plan to build more models? If so, what do you think will be your next project?

Michael,

Great job on bonding with your son, I wish when I was a kid that my father showed any interest in my hobbies or interests. The pic of the body mocked up on the chassis, is that before or after the yellow pearl was added?