I’ve always enjoyed building scale models, and lately this interest has been rekindled after my daughter and I started working on a Gunpla (Japanese abbreviation for Gundam plastic model). The specific model we chose proved to be too advanced for a nine-year-old, both in terms of her ability to focus on the intricate instructions and the sheer complexity of the construction itself. It’s been just perfect for me, though – challenging enough to be entertaining, and providing an attractive result at each stage of the build, which maintained my daughter’s interest in the project.
As I’ve been building this model, I’ve been thinking why it feels so satisfying to do it. There is no creative aspect in it, at least not until (and if) one decides to paint and customize the model. In that case, there are limitless opportunities for creativity, as evidenced by many YouTube videos that show insane levels of detail and realism that some modellers can achieve. The model can be “weathered”, for example, to simulate realistic wear, tear and battle damage.
Building a Gunpla is similar to painting-by-numbers colouring books that are popular with kids (and some adults, I am sure). Only in the case of plastic models, you are sculpting by numbers. the process goes like this: consult the schematics in the instructional booklet, find the numbered part, cut it from the “sprue tree” (the plastic frame that connects the moulded parts), file away the excess plastic, polish the surface, snap the parts together, et voilà! – a miniature sculpture emerges. You’ve got almost all the benefits of creative surprise without the hard work of problem-solving.
. Just before the COVID lockdown, my daughter participated in a piano festival in Vancouver. After the performance, we stopped by an Indigo bookstore, and this book was recommended to us by a store employee. We got the hardcover version, illustrated by John Rocco. This book has been quite influential for us. It fanned my daughter’s interest in Greek Mythology and prompted us to read more of the Percy Jackson series (Percy is short for Perseus – just to give one spoiler to those who are new to this). I also used this book as a reference in one of the first videos that I made for my Energy Conversion course, when we were abruptly plunged into the online teaching mode in March.
. We simply had to read this book after the “Heroes”, and it did not disappoint.
. As an adult, I personally really enjoyed this book. It has all the components of a good adventure story – fast pace, historical references and just the right amount of humour, which is equally aimed at the millenials (maybe even early generation Z’s), their parents and all the way back to the ancient Greeks themselves.
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. In parallel with other books, my daughter and I have been slowly making our way through the Harry Potter series. These books need no introductions, and I can just echo what everyone probably already knows – they are practically perfect in every way, to paraphrase Marry Poppins. 
is made by Bandai, and in terms of details and build quality it’s way ahead of the Tamiya kits that I built in the past. And I must say that the Tamiya models are excellent in their own right, but one thing that Impresses me quite a bit with Bandai is that the parts snap together without any adhesive. I am not sure if the whole Gunpla (from Gundam Plastic models) sub-universe has always been ahead of the rest of the model types, or perhaps I am just easily impressed, but the ability to fully assemble the model and then to partially take it apart for painting is a huge positive factor for me. With the models that need to be glued together, I’ve tried painting every single part before assembling them. This resulted in a lot of wasted effort, as some of the parts are structurally necessary, but almost invisible in the finished model. Conversely, leaving painting until the model is fully built made it difficult to access certain parts. 
