For the last five days we have been entertaining the grand children. Trips to the park, playing soccer, and watching the new “Lightyear” movie were on the agenda. There was also toy shops, McDonalds (yuck), lots of playing dinosaurs, and putting together Lego and Mobilo monsters.

By far the biggest hit was putting together two Airfix starter kits.

The trick was to work out what an eight and a six year child could do and what they couldn’t, and what was safe for them to do and what wasn’t. This meant no using knife or clippers to cut out the parts and no using glue. So what we ended up with was Grandad cutting out the pieces putting on the glue and have the two boys put the parts together and hold them until they would stay in place. Alternating between one child and the other moved things along quickly. This worked for the larger pieces and Grandad had to do the smaller ones.

Charles with his Tiger tank Day 1

Part completed models

David with his Sherman Firefly Day 1

The assembly was done over several sessions to make sure they didn’t get bored and enthusiasm was there as they could see the models progress.

With the models finished minus some smaller parts and with the simpler wheel assemblies it was time for painting. Grandad held the model and the spray can while the boys pressed the nozzle down. They enjoyed getting my fingers painted grey and green! Now I don’t only look like a zombie I am the right colour as well.

I had worked out a very simple paint pattern that they could complete themselves and would look OK as well.

Step 1 was to paint the tracks and a few other silver bits.

Step 2 was to paint white camo on the tiger.

Step 3 was to wash the whole tank with a brown wash to hide all the mistakes.

Step 4 was to drybrush the Tiger white and the Sherman a bright green. I was surprised at how well this stage worked out as I cleared the brush of the excess and the children did a really good job with applying the drybrush over the whole model.

Step 4 was to paint PVA on the base and with the Tiger some on the tank to glue on the snow scatter. Grandad then applied the scatter while they held the model. The loved getting scatter all over their fingers.

The over all effect was reasonably impressive especially seeing the painting was almost all done by the children. The tiger has probably too much white cam but hey the six year old did a great job.

The eight year old is very artistic and did a superb job on the Sherman, especially with the slime green highlight.

What then do you do with a Sherman Firefly and a Tiger 1?

Have a game of Grandad’s Rugrat What a Tanker of course. Movement was simply a 12″ ruler if moving straight ahead and a 6″ ruler if moving in any other direction. You can move or shoot but not both. Each tank had 7 attack dice (hitting on 5 or 6), and 7 defence dice (saving on a 5 or 6). For any unsaved hit you lost a dice and when you had none left your tank was “smoked”.

A sample game.

The Tiger won the roll to go first and moved forward the big ruler.

The Sherman moved the big ruler towards the building.

The Tiger moved the big ruler forward again. At this stage neither tank could see each other.

The Sherman moved the small ruler sideways.

The Tiger fired but missed!

The Sherman returned fire, but the Tiger saved and the shot bounced off.

The Tiger again missed. The commanders must be young rookies

The Tiger finally hits taking three dice off the Sherman making it now harder for it to both hit and save.

Despite this the Sherman takes a dice off the Tiger! Eight year old luck I guess.

The Tiger………..loads………… fires……………… and boom! The last four dice come off the Sherman. One nil to the six year old’s Tiger!

It has been a great little project that all three of us have enjoyed. Tomorrow night they are being picked up, and after dinner are looking forward to beating up their Dad and Grandad in Rugrat What A Tanker.