My name is Rachel and I'm in the 4th grade. Since my dad does this magazine, there are always a lot of models around our house. I have built six snap car models and one day, Dad came home with a Toy Biz Storm model (#2 - glue) that he bought at Clovis Hobby Center. I was excited because it was a model of a girl and I would get to glue it together. Dad said he would show me how to do some nice things to the model to make it look good, like "drybrushing" and using Bon Artiste stains.

Not long after I got it, I started to build it. Dad was busy putting his Bride of Frankenstein together so he was able to help me at the same time. My brother, David, was also building his first figure kit, which was the Toy Biz Spiderman, #1, snap kit. Dad had all of his paints, brushes and glue already out, so I didn't have to go get them. This was a fun kit to build because it was girl character and it was my first #2 kit.

While Storm was drying, I glued some other pieces onto the base. Some of them, I painted first then I glued them on. Some I accidentally glued on first, then had to take off again to paint! The pipes and the bars on the base, I painted with a steel color. Dad said it really looked good. There is a thing that looks like an electric box. I painted that steel-black and drybrushed it too. There were some things that looked like bones and a skeleton too. I painted those buff color then I drybrushed them green and brown. I really like to drybrush because you don't have too much paint on the brush and it's harder to make mistakes. The big green, ugly monster that is trying to come out of the sewers was fun to paint, even though I told my dad I didn't want to put the kit in my room. He is just too ugly. Anyway, I painted it green. Then Dad told me that if I was going to use Bon Artiste stains, I had to protect the paint. So, we sprayed a sealer on the paint (Dad said it's called, Testors Dullcote) so it wouldn't eat through the green paint. After this dried, I used the stain to give it shadows. Dad showed me how to brush it on, wait a few seconds, then wipe it off with a soft cloth. I think it looks good, what do you think?

I decided to do the same thing with the base too, so that it would look like the base was wet and moldy. I sealed the base then used the stain in a few spots on the base. I painted the rats by hand, using dark gray for the bodies and red for the tails and eyes.Then I set the base aside to finish Storm. Storm's hair is white, so I took a felt marker and drew in the lines on her hair and also the lines on her costume. Dad said that this was a great idea and it would've been harder to use a brush. Then I painted the badges on her shoulders red and I made the x's with black. I asked Dad to paint her lips red for me. My mom and I drew in the lines around her eyes. About the last thing I did was paint the monster's eyes red. Then I glued him and Storm to the base. This was a fun kit to do. When I was done, it was 10 inches tall and I had put together 35 plastic pieces. The painting was the best part. Now, my first figure model is on display in a glass case at Clovis Hobby Center right next to my brother's Spiderman kit. I can't wait until I do another figure kit. I hope it's another girl!