Terrific work on the base guys. Must have been a snowstorm digging out all that polystyrene. Wall is looking great. Keep up the good work guys
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Thanks Jim and Steve for your great posts. I appreciate your support during this joint build. My Grandson loves reading the encouraging comments along the way.
Nearly there now....
You'll be pleased to know he survived the trip on to the flat roof - and so did I, sort of, as the wife didn't spot where he was!!
A bit of colour added. He did it all.
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The river bed is done ready for the varnish. Him again, whilst I scoffed yet another Tunnock bar!
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It was at this point we decided to 'Block off' one end of the base. That's up next along with some greenery and varnish.
Thanks again to those who have posted. He's having a ball reading them........:thumb2:
R & GSComment
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Next, I explained why I try and avoid a sudden 'End' to a base and sometimes build something simple to try and make the final pictures more natural. So having a river bed, a bridge seemed the obvious solution.
Using a pencil, I marked the bridge face detail for him and explained how the arches stayed up in the real thing. His first attempt at scribing the stonework with the scalpel was not successful. Fair play to him he wasn't phased, so we made another. This time he succeeded. He then added a coat of grey to the stonework. Big smiles and a hug. - Winner!
For a bit of variation we built two different sizes of bridge arch and added tubes to add a bit of darkness under the bridge. We then stuck the whole bridge frontage to the base and the stone wall end.
We then added just two coats of varnish to the river bed - one each. Then I showed him how to carefully bed the reeds and greenery into the tacky varnish. Then he add some broken stonework made from off-cuts of polystyrene. I did one end and he did the other. Guess which?.....That's my boy! :smiling::thumb2:
Here's the pictures of the finished base.
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The false rear. These added a bit of depth and darkness to the arches, giving an illusion of a complete bridge in the final pictures.
The boy was well impressed, yet another hug. 'Ruffy Tuffy' Grandad reached for a tissue claiming he had something in his eye...........It doesn't get much better.
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We added a second coat of road rubble to make the surface more bumpyerer. Now it's finally ready to plonk the tank on.
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Thanks for looking.
Cheers.
R & G.S.Comment
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Hi both
Just gets better and better. Real bonding time between the generations - can't beat it. The stream with its bridge looks great. Bring on the tank.
JimComment
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A touching recount. All luck to ya on the base. PaulEComment
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Thanks Jim and Paul.
The dear sweet child will be probably call in tonight, so I'll show him your comments.
Thanks again.
RonComment
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The base is finished so just a quick post to thank those who took time out to post words of encouragement to my grandson during this build of ours.
I appreciated them all and the lad loved them.....
I hope this little exercise has kindled an interest in him to keep at it. We'll just have to see. I'm glad to have done my bit to help.
It's well worth the effort to try and drag youngsters away from the T.V. and games machines, if only to show them there is another life other than staring at a screen.
Photos to follow.....
Thanks again for your contributions.
RonComment
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That's looking really good Ron, look forward to seeing the tank going for a dipComment
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Young peoples lives revolving around social media, their phones and other technologies is responsible for so many of the problems they have which previous generations never had. Whatever we can do to show them 'another life' is time well spent. I was involved with children all my working life and seeing how their lives changed from the 70s to when I retired is truly frightening.
Your grandson is lucky to have you. The benefits will last all his life.
JimComment
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I gotta be careful with this one Ron. If I show it to my grandson, he'll be wanting to swap grandads!Comment
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Here are the set of pictures we both took of the finished model. I ain't writing who took what 'cos with just a bit of help from me he took some nice photos.
We were both in free fall with ideas and had a ball. It was magic!
Made from scrap polystyrene packing and pizza base off-cuts. All painted in acrylics and Wilko varnish. Veg. from my flat roof.
Look away any rivet counters and perfectionists. We both had fun building the model and it's our tank. Isn't that right young'n.......:thumb2:
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We hope you approve of our build. It was good fun and my Grandson says he's sorry for initially wanting to throw away the model.
Thanks again for all the great posts.
Cheers.
One proud Grandad Ron & Grandson No. 5 ( Go and grab a couple of Tunnocks, there's a good boy!)Comment
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What an adventure, and so many lessons within. An example of excellent grandfathering. PaulEComment
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Hi Ron and Co,
Between the two of you, you have created not just a model but a memory.
And an awesome one at that.
I built an Anderson shelter for a school project with my son....which he got awarded for . He still has fond memories of building it together!!
Excellent stuff Ron and CoComment
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