A new hobby

Lionel started a new hobby this year...building balsa wood model planes. Since he is so fascinated with both planes and WW2, we got him a couple WW2 planes he could build with his Grandpa. Grandpa has been building them for years so he's a pro at it. In fact, his entire garage ceiling is filled with hanging model planes that he built!! It's amazing.

Anyhow, the first plane Lionel built with Grandpa was the P-40 Warhawk.

These two had so much fun working together on Lionel's first plane. I can't even begin to tell you how many times Lionel asked if he could go over to my in-laws house to work on the plane with Grandpa! Grandpa was just as bad....every time we saw him, he asked when Lionel was coming back to work on it some more!

Here is Lionel's first plane...the P-40 Warhawk, hanging in Grandpa's basement where they built it. It will stay there until we move into our new home, where Lionel can hang it in his bedroom. I'm sure this is just the first of many!!


They already began building Lionel's 2nd model...the F6F Hellcat. Here they are working on it in Grandpa's basement - where he built all of his own models.


We purchased his model planes from Guillows. Here is what their site said about the first plane Lionel built:

"The P-40 earned undying fame as the "Flying Tiger" of World War 2 when flown by General Claire Chennault's Volunteer Group fighting the Japanese in China and Burma. It also saw much service in the Middle East where it was used by Britain's R.A.F. and nicknamed the Tomahawk and Kittyhawk. When World War 2 broke out, the P-40 was the only fighter available in quantity to the U.S.A.A.F., it being the first American single-seat plane to be manufactured in the U.S. on a mass production basis. By the end of the war, over 14,000 planes had been delivered to fighting theatres."