B2 "Special"

[bscotti]

So, my 6yr daughter wanted to build up a car of her own (gotta start them young, right?). We gathered up a bunch of misc parts from different lots I've won over the last year and decided on a B2. Here it is, in all it's glory. It's a collection of new and used vintage parts. It sure runs great, is very reliable and she loves it.

It sports: Jammin' front shock tower, RPM front arms, Proline lightweight wheels, AE titanium hinge pins, MIP shiny CVDs, Peak motor, JR SC-1 esc. The body was painted using all of the tips from Eau Rouge. Only thing I might add ... PATIENCE and you'll be rewarded. It's not perfect, but looks pretty cool with the vintage stickers, and of course, those awesome RC10Talk ones. It was all her design, all I did was lay down the paint.

[Synergy]

That looks great, your 6 year old daughter has a great eye for design and you've exicuted it well, nice work

[AYKBOBCAT]

Hey I also have a 6 years old dauther and she keeps asking to help me building a car/truck... What did yours actually do and how did you organize it?

I'd like to give it a try too!

[RC Chick]

that turned out great! hope she sticks with the hobby. More girls need to get into it.

[bscotti]

Thanks for the compliments. She's really proud of her car, especially when she's faster than me!

AYK ... what I did was sit her down in front of a couple piles of parts and had her find whatever one I needed by showing her the pic in the manual. I'd have her decide on what suspension arms she liked (stock or RPM), which wheels, tires, etc. She helped Dad find the right fasteners in a sea of look a likes (my eyes aren't as good as they used to be ) and help run them in. We'd shop here and on Ebay for parts we needed (oh that's dangerous!). I involved her as much as I could. Heck, she even played in the garage as I sprayed the body, though safely out of the fumes! Now, it did take us a few months to complete the car. As you well know, their attention span and patience is much less than ours. If I wanted to work on her car and she wasn't interested in helping, she would still sit at the table and draw or read me books.

RC Chick ... she's actually completing her second backyard RC season! She started driving on of my cars at age 4 when she wasn't able to pull the throttle trigger ... her hands were too small! But she sure loved steering it wherever she wanted while I worked the throttle. Now it's a game of chase Dad's car! She thinks she's just having fun but there are so many great things she's learning, like basic mechanical skills, hand-eye coordination, etc. Who knows where all this will lead her ...

Brian

[aconsola]

I got my daughter into RC too. It is a fun and at times educational thing to do with the kids.
We've built 2 kits together so far. The first was a TLT-1, the second an m-04 beetle. Building the kit helped with teaching numbers and letters. She also now knows lots of hardware terms(more than my wife). I used a small plano parts box for all the hardware and one of her jobs was to pick out all the parts for each step as we came to them. I also let her search through the sprues and cut the plastic parts as needed.
She is four and a half now and is just getting the hang of driving by herself. We have a pair of tlt trucks that I geared down and run on 4cells that we run inside. The hardest thing for her is reverse because of her small hands.
She got to paint her own body up for the truck. I got some fascolor water based lexan paint in red,yelow,blue white and black, and we had some educational fun mixing colors to get orange, green and purple. The body looks like a typical 4-year olds painting, and has a glittery tinsel pipe cleaner for an antenna(we use spektrum, so the rx antenna is inside the body)
Your b2 looks great, I always liked the zipper stickers. Have fun geting it dirty!
-Anthony

[wyldbill]

mmmmm otter pops.

[JK Racing]

Here is a pic of my boy working on his B4 last year (he was 4 then). Now he works on his TMaxx, everything BUT tuning the motor, I still handle that part.

[aconsola]

he'd probably do better at nitro tuning than some of the yo-yo's I've seen: motor won't start, so lets move all 3 adjustments 1-2 turns, then pop it on the starter box while I hold the throttle wide open and let it rev so it "warms up" quickly.

[olderacer]

those are all awesome stories guys. i got two kids of my own, but they're getting to their teen years and losing interest in toy cars. i should have gotten them more involved with the builds and done the learning games while building like you guys. the bodies are awesome! great job to you all!

[badhoopty]

kids are cool, i honestly wish i had some... but i'm glad i havent had any with the women i've been with so-far!

[RC Chick]

that truck is pretty cool!! I really like it. My boy isn't very cooridnated, he has some fine motor skills problems (I blame it on his dad). He tries pretty hard though. I do all the repairs while he watches. He always makes sure I don't loose the peices and hands me the tools that I need. Any way we have a lot of fun doing it and to me that's all that matters. Great paint jobs too by the way, that is one skill I don't have.

[Tadracket]

My girl is too young. She turns 2 next month. But my boy turns 4 in January and he has already logged more hours in flight with my Aerofly Deluxe than I have. His grandpa bought him a Heli-max Axe CP. Way to go grandpa. How do you tell a 3 year old he can't play with his own toy?

I bought him the RotoFly and he'll lift it up about 4 feet and hover a bit. Then spin it around a few times then land. He keeps doing that and I'll turn him loose next Spring on the CP. After I replace the parts I "borrowed" for mine

The boy loves cars and sits there with me when I am wrenching. I think his heart will be in the clouds though. Everything he owns is or has on it rockets, planes, or helicopters. He is a true wing nut.