My seven-year-old daughter (Ember) and I had two issues left from the current delivery to finish for the Millennium Falcon: issues twenty and twenty-one. The last two issues we had done together as there was a mixture of activities that were short and snappy, perfect for a young child. We had added parts to the lower hull as well as started on the passage tube. I wondered if this trend of short and snappy would continue.
I looked through the two issues to see what was in store, whether two issues could be done together and if I needed to do any preparation work – like painting. Looking through both issues it was very easy to see that these would be short issues in terms of instructions. Instead of doing little bits here and there to the Falcon, these next two issues focused exclusively on the passage tube. They were a perfect match and definitely could be done together. Although I say short, there would be a lot of clipping, filing and glueing. Instruction wise this would be fairly short, in actually cutting everything out and affixing them correctly to the tube would take much longer.
One of the advantages for these two issues was the fact there was no preparation needed. Having already painted the floor, there was no need to do any other painting beforehand. The last few issues have needed me to do something before the issues, so to have two issues where Ember and I could just pick up the issues and go, was a pleasant change of pace. Ember is starting to get a lot more confident in what we are doing in the issues. The repetition of skills means her confidence is growing issue by issue. I keep having to remind myself we’re a fifth of the way through the project and her improvement in the skills involved has been incredible. I can’t help thinking where she’ll be when we actually finish. Because of this, I can talk to Ember about the issues and how we’re going to approach them. If it’s hull plating with the screwdriver, I don’t even need to get involved! She loves this part. When we looked through to see it was clipping and glueing, she instantly said she’d do the clipping and filing, I could do the glueing. It’s great to be able to let her do the parts she wants to do, and I can now actually do parts myself, without having to guide her every step of the way. Glueing sounded good to me!
With not much else to do or think about, we set about starting on issue twenty. This was straight forward, although the time it took was a little more than I had anticipated. Ember loved having to identify the correct numbered parts and then cut them out. Fitting them was actually fantastic for the first part of the corridor liner, every single part had an instruction so it would be very difficult to go wrong. However, after step eight – the end of the first corridor liner- the instructions simply stopped for the second liner. Now, there are easy enough identifications in the first liner to help with the second, so we didn’t struggle too much, but I found it very strange how abrupt the end of them were compared to how detailed they were. I did have to laugh at the first liner. There is a very small piece (piece 6) that Ember immediately handed the sprue to me and said, ‘Daddy, you’re doing that one’. It’s great to see her confidence grow as well as her knowing her limitations.
Once the two liners were completed, it was simply a matter of slotting the two into the passage tube from the previous issue. Everything fitted seamlessly and even Ember looked at me a little surprised that we had already finished the issue. Without delay, we moved straight onto issue twenty-one. If we thought issue twenty was short, issue twenty-one was even shorter. It was simply cutting out eight pieces and glueing them into the passage tube. It was a continuation of issue twenty and when I realised that we were actually only glueing one side of the passage tube, I knew we’d be done in about fifteen minutes. Ember and I had built up a rhythm with cutting and glueing and I’m really glad we did these issues back-to-back. The other thing I’m very glad I didn’t do was glue the corridor rings. After fitting the first pad to the tube, I took these immediately out and it made glueing the pieces into place much easier. Again, when we came to the end of it, Ember was shocked at how quickly we were done.
The last two issues for this delivery and it almost felt like one issue. It was all pretty much the same thing, not that either Ember or me minded. To be able to get a work rhythm going with my daughter was awesome and we flew through both issues because of it. I would have perhaps liked to do a bit more, but for Ember, I think the length of time was just perfect. The passage tube is far from done but there is a part of me that is itching to get back to the hull plating. What the next delivery batch will bring I don’t know, but I know Ember and I are eager to carry one.
