Global Scale Modeller

Both myself and Nige have been getting our kids interested in giving modelling a go and I am also going to run a modelling club at the secondary school I work at. Although the forum is open to all anyway it might be nice to have a dedicated area for younger modellers, say under 16's. What do you think?

A great idea methinks.

Mine are too young to model but I know a few younger modellers

sounds a cracking idea that mate.

Brill idea, would have loved a section like that when I was under 16

Hmmm I've recently aged out of that category and I'm in 2 minds.
Firstly I think it's a great idea as it would attract more kids to the forum and the hobby.
However I wanted my age to remain anonymus because I thought other modellers would judge me as childlike, not as good and inexperienced. I wanted to feel equal to the rest of you and I enjoy talking to all you especially as here I'm treated as an equal.
I think we should leave the idea for speculation and see what others think and if we have enough members for it. I do like both the idea of children and adults mingling as modelling equals AND kids having somewhere to show their models.

I think HobbyModeller has made some good points there. Also, I'd be a bit concerned about 'advertising' the fact that people are under 16, on the Internet.

Saying that, I don't have kids, so I'm easy either way.

Very wise words from your younger shoulders HobbyModeller

I agree on not segregating people on age - would a possible special interest group in the future curtail the issue so that is can be entirely voluntary rather than a permanent (forced) section.

Whilst I understand what you mean and are suggesting Dave, I'd have to agree with HM and Dan. It is a good idea and know what you're getting at, but wouldn't want to have our younger members only posting a small section of the forum. I would rather our younger members mingle with all our other members and just muck in with everyone else....

Myself and lee were talking about this before, we don't really see the need for a separate section, for alot of the reasons pointed out above.

Good to see you thinking outside the box though

Edit and we posted at the same time

Paul wrote: Edit and we posted at the same time

Awwww, I bet your periods will be in sync soon! Lol!

chief5437 wrote:

Paul wrote: Edit and we posted at the same time

Awwww, I bet your periods will be in sync soon! Lol!

Lee wrote:

chief5437 wrote:

Paul wrote: Edit and we posted at the same time

Awwww, I bet your periods will be in sync soon! Lol!

Haven't you got threads to be moving

Don't you just love the bromance!

Get a room

HobbyModeller wrote:Hmmm I've recently aged out of that category and I'm in 2 minds.
Firstly I think it's a great idea as it would attract more kids to the forum and the hobby.
However I wanted my age to remain anonymus because I thought other modellers would judge me as childlike, not as good and inexperienced. I wanted to feel equal to the rest of you and I enjoy talking to all you especially as here I'm treated as an equal.
I think we should leave the idea for speculation and see what others think and if we have enough members for it. I do like both the idea of children and adults mingling as modelling equals AND kids having somewhere to show their models.

I'm in the same position as hobbymodeller except I'm under sixteen but I completely agree

My little popcorn is too little to build models ... but she's old enough to destroy them!!!
One of the most important things that I think the model building community should get focused is getting the youngsters in the hobby!!!
I know that most of them will do 1 or 2 models and then enter the teenage years and leave them... but I'm sure that some will get back in their late 20's !!!
So it would be interesting that this forum had a special area for those youngsters !!

just my humble opinion !!!

HobbyModeller wrote:Hmmm I've recently aged out of that category and I'm in 2 minds.
Firstly I think it's a great idea as it would attract more kids to the forum and the hobby.
However I wanted my age to remain anonymus because I thought other modellers would judge me as childlike, not as good and inexperienced. I wanted to feel equal to the rest of you and I enjoy talking to all you especially as here I'm treated as an equal...

Judging you purely on your models I assumed you were a wrinkly old man with decades of modelling experience!!!

Well I'm a little late to this section but being of the younger variety I think I might have some useful suggestions.

Firstly how I got involved is just by sheer interest. No one gave me a model and told me to build it, I found a modelling magazine and said "Holy Brad Pitt this is awesome, I bet I can do this". The snowball only gained size from there. The key is not to force it on kids. It's like reading in schools. If you tell a kid to do something, or pretty much anything, they'll resist. If you force a kid to do something they'll hate it.

So the best hint I could give is to just make it look interesting.


But for younger kids 5yrs-10yrs just give them a snap-tite kit and hope they don't eat it. That should work fine.

I'm also under sixteen, and i think that younger modellers can join the ~adult~ version of the forum and also a part for younger modellers. I don't know any young-modellers in my town because i think there aren't any. Keeping that in mind, i don't think there is many interest in a younger-modellers forum.

Jos

Hurry up I'm 16 in 4 months LOL

I think Lee's right, they could just build with the rest of 'us' (not me) old[er] guys. Don't see why not.

And nice to hear about your idea of a modelling club at school - I wish we had one

NovYank wrote: But for younger kids 5yrs-10yrs just give them a snap-tite kit and hope they don't eat it. That should work fine.

The new Airfix raptor and apache are good I've read

Being 15 I think introducing modeling to schools is a very good idea. Some of my friends, on the other hand, well...... lets just say they'd rather sit on a barbed wire fence.

Attracting youngsters to take up the modelling hobby these days is a bit of an uphill task. There are so many other distractions like computer gaming, social media etc. Airfix do sterling work in promoting the hobby with their 'Make and Take' sessions for youngsters at shows like IPMS Scale Modelworld at Telford each year, but there is a limit to what they can do show wise. The demise of independent local Model Shops generally has had a detrimental affect as well as big chain model retailers like Beatties and Model Zone going out of business. Besides this, the vast majority of local model making clubs have their evening meetings during the week from Monday to Thursday rather than on Friday evenings or during the day over a weekend. Unfortunately this is not encouraging for kids to attend due to commitments like homework and getting to bed at a reasonable time. Another problem is that many schools do not devote enough time within their class schedules for Practical Technology work. When I attended school ages ago all practical lessons were double periods, that allowed kids time to develop hand tool skills. Just before I retired 4 years ago I was working as an Engineering Cad Cam Technician in a local comprehensive school that was titled an Engineering Specialist School. The time devoted to practical lessons was woefully inadequate. There were no double periods. Every lesson was only for I hour duration, so by the time the kids had got to the work shop from their last lesson about 5 minutes had elapsed, added to which another 5 minutes or so settling them into the lesson (so far 10 minutes lost), and 5 minutes to get them all to clear up at the end resulted in 25 percent of the allocated hour being lost. You do not have to be Einstein appreciate the amount of time lost throughout an academic year. All time that youngsters could develop good hand skills. If schools can get them interested in actually making things very early on it would be all to the good for them in later life as well as our hobby. Late teens to mid twenties are generally barren years for the hobby when other things take over. So very often the hobby depends on returners to the hobby when they settle down.

The only time I get to speak to my kids now is when they text me about wanting money or the battery goes in their mobile phones, but that's life in 2015 I think, the wife and I did try our best to get them interested in other activities but a young mind is an active mind and only remains fixed for a certain amount of time before moving onto other things, but like myself I have a feeling they may return to the hobby at a later date.

Age should not matter when it comes to modelling, I have respect for anyone who has a hobby, but I will not allow any kid who can see the kit without glasses, hold the parts without shaking and can paint a line without the use of masking tape giving me advise

In most forums the "youth section" is normally set up as an area to keep the kids segregated from the colourful language and naughty pictures posted in the main area. As the owners/moderators/members have all managed to keep things nice enough around here it's safe for kids, wives and even the in-laws.

My old school when I was used to, and still has a modelling club run at tuesday lunchtimes. Started up by me! Yay! Guess that is an exception though. Doing that can also expose youngsters on the net to unscrupulous people running amuck on forums etc. We certainly don't want that. Anyway, I can see that there are a few younger modellers here, and they seem perfectly happy. I really don't see the need for this, although it is a good idea.
John

Speaking from experience, in my middle school years (ages 12-14) I built several...rushed models but then stopped by time I moved on to high school. I picked up a Tamiya 1/100th scale 262 and 163. That kit layer dormant, along with my building, for 4 years. That's when I build the 262 finally and almost finished a panzer 2. Now, a year later, I have expanded my existing tool/paint collection and have almost finished my pz IV build as well as picked up a Tamiya Tiger and Dragon Tiger II and have plans of salvaging my pz II build. My re-lit desire for scale modelling show no signs of going out ever again. But it's just that. A re-lit flame. Not something that has been cultivated over the years like it should have. And that is something that we all could benefit from having.

I noticed there's some weird Brad Pitt going on in the thread view and also the forum view. I'll be working on that once I have time. Being in my last year of college is a lot of work, but I'll get to it eventually

mJacobsenSl wrote:I noticed there's some weird Brad Pitt going on in the thread view and also the forum view. I'll be working on that once I have time. Being in my last year of college is a lot of work, but I'll get to it eventually

What on earth are you banging on about

mJacobsenSl wrote:I noticed there's some weird Brad Pitt going on in the thread view and also the forum view. I'll be working on that once I have time. Being in my last year of college is a lot of work, but I'll get to it eventually

Errr... Ok? You sure that you're in the right place.

Just turned 16!

modellingmadness wrote:

HobbyModeller wrote:Hmmm I've recently aged out of that category and I'm in 2 minds.
Firstly I think it's a great idea as it would attract more kids to the forum and the hobby.
However I wanted my age to remain anonymus because I thought other modellers would judge me as childlike, not as good and inexperienced. I wanted to feel equal to the rest of you and I enjoy talking to all you especially as here I'm treated as an equal.
I think we should leave the idea for speculation and see what others think and if we have enough members for it. I do like both the idea of children and adults mingling as modelling equals AND kids having somewhere to show their models.

I'm in the same position as hobbymodeller except I'm under sixteen but I completely agree

If this happens, you people know the internet.... Adults would talk down to kids there, and it would turn into a place where younger modelers go to get looked down uppon. old guys with erectile disfunction would try to take over and tell us what to do, trying to be important. im 16 myself, and i found this happen on the flory models forum when I revealed my age there.

I don't see the need for a seperate area, it's usually a nice surprise when someone you have built up a mental picture of (always a mistake on t'interweb!) turns out to be twelve. I think that modellers are modellers and lets face it, someone who is sixteen and been modelling for five years can give advice to someone who is seventy and just taken it up without the old 'he might be right but he's only sixteen' creeping in.

The thing I want to know is how many wimmin are here. I bet there's a few lurking under names like 'Panzerdeath' and suchlike.

I would be in the age category for the younger modeller page, however I'd rather take advice from adults as most younger modellers will only be starting the hobby and I would class myself as an intermediate modeller. Also younger modellers would be seen as beginners. I think any modeller should be able to post on the same page as any other modeller regardless of skill or age.

It's a good thing that you're here on ISM then. That crap behaviour is flat out against the rules and they're very strictly enforced.
Everyone here is treated with respect and as an equal or they're shown the door.

I Couldn't agree more with you Coen. I personally thought long and hard before joining ISM after checking out many of the other Hobby related sites this by far was the best choice for me. It has everything I am looking for friendly atmosphere and loads of valuable information. Best of all no drama and bickering.

Kudos to all for wanting to encourage participation in this great hobby of ours. I just completed the old Revell Easy Kit Millennium Falcon with my 5 year old girl. What a hoot! try herding cats sometime and you get the idea!!
Shes already got a mental list of stuff she wants us to build together. Star Wars stuff mostly..got to teach em young But, i didnt want to post a picture of her with it to keep her privacy, Just a dad thing.
Ill gladly take advise from whomever wants to give it, after all if you give up learning new stuff might as well just give up full stop.
anyway didnt want to sound like a soapbox moment
Happy modelling all
Jase