Summer after lockdown and the joys of free time!

With the summer holidays creeping up on us quickly in Scotland, our thoughts turn to how we will entertain our offspring for the next 5 weeks. It has already been a long hard slog for many parents, adapting to homeschooling and keeping the kids busy whilst juggling work and home life under these new conditions. The thought of another 5 weeks without the schools providing a daily task list fills me with a little bit of dread!

One of my personal aims for Sovereign Hobbies is to encourage the younger generations to be more involved in scale modelling. We all know the typical modeller has advanced a few years beyond skipping ropes (not all I know, and I'll be super impressed if you come up to my stand and show me your skipping skills at the next show!) but still we'd love for this hobby to not disappear.

This summer we've updated our website and are releasing informative blog posts to encourage our younger generations to get more involved and discover the benefits of our hobby. My personal focus is our new play zone blog which is aimed towards kids through to teens showcasing the kits and skills that form the absolute basics of modelling. You can develop construction skills, fine motor skills and comprehension through brick style sets, advance those skills through the precise cutting of parts in easy-click sets and learn full painting techniques and careful glue application in beginner kits - all through the hobby of building models! The added bonus of having something to proudly display your efforts and even a new toy to play with. (It is generally frowned upon to play with delicate scale models but I believe we should do what we want with our own models - especially the quick builds and easy-clicks!)

 

 

 

However, we don't leave anyone behind!

Our learning zone blog is aimed to the broader modelling community; kids building beginner kits, anyone new to modelling (there's no age limit to start a new hobby, I was introduced in my late 20s), modellers wanting to learn new skills or returning to modelling after a break, those who want to discover the new products available and understand the background to various elements of the hobby.  Learning about scale, research, paint techniques, development of products and much more behind the scenes knowledge of modelling can all be found in learning zone. This is the place you settle into and never leave, there is always something new to learn no matter how long you've been a modeller.

For those of you who are comfortable with their skills and want to challenge themselves, we offer our master zone blog. This will develop into a place to find the advanced techniques, products and skills key to producing masterpiece models. We do not claim to be master builders and always believe ourselves to be constantly in the learning zone however we enjoy a challenge and the rewards for achieving something difficult are vast!

 

Back to this summer though! Our play zone shop has a selection of kits from brick style assembly to click together sets that can be painted (but is not essential), through to full glue and paint kits. These kits offer something for all ages and skills levels and can be enjoyed by everyone. We don't put age limits on who can enjoy building as long as an adult ensures supervision of any sharp cutter use, paint or tiny parts with the younger modellers.

 

Airfix Quickbuild is one our favourites and even in my 30s I still have fun popping a set together. 

 

 

Check out our other blog posts and our play zone shop and see if we can encourage some creative play this summer!