USS Constellation - Great Beginner's Kit

Tony May
What a fantastic build by this young lady & to think that she is only 6! My first build didn't look even a tenth as good, it was this kit's stable mate, the Snap-Tite F-4 Phantom & I was 8 years old at the time. (I still have a drop tank floating around in one of my spares bins & I cringe every time I see the gloss white slapped on it. lol) My son wanted to start building models around the same age as your lovely daughter. However he had severe, barely managed, ADHD & was extremely excitable. It was like the more excited he became the more quickly he would wiggle in his seat until he was standing up to peer down at what he was doing. We finally got him to "sit down" to build some of his firsts when he was a freshman in high school. His first was a 1/35 Snap-Tite Abrams, he was a life long player of World of Tanks & World of Warplanes, then it was followed by a handful of Airfix 1/76 scale armor pieces.

Unfortunately we had to relocate soon afterwards to a leased property where they wouldn't allow shelves to be put up on the walls, which was perfectly understandable & finances were just too tight to let us get a decent display cabinet that would keep our feline family members out of the built models. A few years later the leased property was sold by it's 4th owner since we'd been there & the 5th owner planned to live at the location so we had 30 days to relocate. This left us scrambling to pull together the finances for a move which we managed but only for a small apartment barely large enough for a family of 4. However, on a whim I checked Craigslist for the first time in my life. Lo & behold, there was the answer we needed. A large grand display case, like those you would see at a pawn shop or jewelry store, minus it's shelves, most of it's brackets & it's glass top. However that would be easy enough to fix & it would keep our feline friends out of our builds. Even it's lighting was still functional.

We began stocking up on supplies as some of ours were difficult to salvage or had altogether been ruined by the passage of time. (Model Master & Testors, the brands I grew up with, were just gone too!) We made our first several builds in our new apartment & things were going swimmingly. This was between June of 2021 & January of 2023. In late January of 2023 my wife had a routine medical procedure at our local hospital & came home with a "gift" of Covid-19. We all started coming down with it around the 10th of February. On the 13th of February my son decided to go to bed early because he felt like crap. None of us realized that this would be a prelude to something life altering. He awoke mid-afternoon on Valentine's Day, vomiting violently all over his bed & himself, very confused. He called out for help & then followed with the words I will never forget, "Help! I can't see! I can't see!" From what I'd heard Covid-19 could cause temporary blindness. He could see absolutely nothing, not the bucket we'd placed in front of him, not where we were in his room & when the light in his bedroom was turned on he groaned painfully & closed his eyes firmly stating that the light made his eyes hurt bad.

Needless to say perhaps but we took our 19 year old son to the Emergency Room. They gave him IV fluids, something to help with fever, the nausea & through much struggle conducted a cursory eye exam. The doctor referred him to an optometrist, whom referred him to an ophthalmologist, whom then in turn referred him to a ophthalmologist that specializes in retinal injuries. Although one eye suffering occlusions would be an entirely plausible conclusion for the damage his retina suffered, given the swelling at the back of his eyes before he was prescribed steroid eye drops, for it to occur bilaterally left even the specialist without an answer despite a battery of questions & tests; Even including a genetic test to look for known ophthalmological genetic markers or anything else that came out as anomalous. This specialist continued to monitor my son's recovery for four months before indicating that there wasn't anything more that he could do for him as the technology to do anything more just didn't yet exist. He did inform my son that the Mayo Clinic had expressed a sincere interest in studying his case & might be able to give him more answers than he could. However my son declined on account that not even they could repair his vision. (By this point he was 4 times beyond the threshold of what is considered legally blind.)

Through all this my son lost his job, his driver's license, the car he was purchasing went back to the lot, his plans to move into an apartment alongside his high school sweetheart were spoiled both due to his savings being largely depleted & because she decided, "she was too young to stay with someone with this much baggage." Furthermore he was almost wholly cut off from his social circle as it was mostly kept up via car, landline telephone & online correspondence. The car was out of the question, the landline worked for friends that were in the immediate vicinity, but he has friends around the globe. He couldn't read most anything on his monitor without weeks of learning certain tricks to zoom in where possible, taking photos with his tablet which he could then enlarge, then copying & pasting info into google translate to allow it to read it to him. Of course we helped him in any way that we could. Besides going back to fully providing for him & transporting him wherever he needed to go, procuring a handheld 30 x magnification glass with LED lights, a 40 x magnification stand with LED lights & even an eyeglass-like arrangement that basically put one of 4 varieties of jeweler's glasses in front of your eyes were about the best we could do. The handheld magnification glass helped the most of the three.

What really helped him to return to some measure of normality was when his Aunt gifted him a large screen television she no longer used, I think 41", which could be used as a monitor. With the tricks he had learned & the new massive monitor he was able to return to conversing with his friends that were spread around the globe. He was even able to return to some of his games. (Although he still gets by in his tank combat games; Air combat is impossible as he can't see a bogie until it's right on top of him.)

Even still these measures were akin to a band-aid on a broken arm. The course of his entire life was changed on that Valentine's Day. He's now fully reliant on disability for financial support, it can't possibly be construed as a living wage, for his medical, then of course the assistance from his mother or I to accomplish tasks that he was once fully independent with. He has no solid plans for his future at the moment. We finally found him a new optometrist that will accept his eyeglass insurance, which Medicare arbitrarily changed him out to for some reason. I suspect his eyes have improved some & that getting new glasses to help him see up close will make things easier for him. One thing he has been told already is that he needs to work on focusing on things even if it makes his eyes hurt or gives him a headache. With time that should pass as he gets used to using his eyes properly again.

As for model building? That was a touchy topic. It was something he didn't bring up & in return I didn't bring it up either. Out of respect I only fiddled with this project or that when he was asleep or otherwise preoccupied. It wasn't until after he'd turned 21 this past September that model building was brought up as he saw a PM Model D.XXI sitting by drying. (Just something to pass the time with, really.) We talked about it in a casual manner & we agreed to a joint build session sometime soon. Eventually we'd agree upon a day to do it & that day would arrive but something would always come up to make him back out. (Understandably...)

Our first successful model building session was just after the 1st of the year. He finally got use out of the jeweler's glasses, whether handheld or on the eyeglass mount. We spent 3 hours with him needing help with getting his paint prepared as he couldn't tell when it was fully mixed, reminders to hold the bottle with one hand while approaching the bottle with his brush & helping to direct him in how far down he should let the brush go into the bottle without getting a mess of paint on the stem of the paintbrush. His depth perception really made that part a difficult & time consuming task. Still he managed to paint the wheel bays, landing gear doors, interior parts, landing gear struts & wheel hubs. He went on to paint the underwing rockets & other small parts in our second session.

Our third session is coming up on Friday. He will assemble all the major components of the aircraft in that session, try to paint the the crankcase of his Corsair a bluish-grey while the rest of the inner cowling/"radial engine" of this Hobby Boss kit has already been painted black. As we use CA glue he will likely be able to paint the topside of his bird the same day. I'd like to set him down tomorrow & mask off the front of the cowling so he can paint it yellow. The only "trouble" with these joint builds is that I never get around to actually working on my own projects as he still needs continuous guidance. I think a lot of it will come down to memorizing how to go about doing what he needs to do & getting help with masking. I think having a spare part laying nearby to test the consistency of his paint would be good to have on hand when he starts prepping his own paint again.

Incidentally the paint prep was such a challenge for this bird because I didn't have all the appropriate acrylics laying around to do it in those. However, I did have everything needed to do it with Model Master enamels; Some of those either hadn't been opened since he was in middle school or hadn't ever been opened despite being purchased over a decade ago!

Robert Podkoński
She has done a great job! I am deeply impressed with her focus and patience! Congrats!

gorby
I agree with Robert. Very impressive work for one so young - I know I couldn't have built something that good when I was six.
Even if she doesn't keep up the modelling you've probably set her up for a lifetime of wanting to make stuff. Well done to both of you. 🙂

Spanjaard
she has done a fantastic job. that is a beautiful model. what a great Christmas present to have that time together, well done both of you

Lorraine Lin
👍👍👍

John Kauck Автор
Tony, what a heart wrenching story, that sounds like it has ended up as best it could. So glad he and you are enjoying the hobby again. Best Wishes.
Thanks to all others for your kind comments.