I waited until school was out and the first "I'm bored" to pull out this model/paint kit. It certainly got the interest of our 6 year old grandson. He would not have been able to assemble it on his own, but with help he had fun doing so. His age also required close monitoring for the painting process. There were some of the wooden pieces that didn't fit together as tightly as others. Once put together, we did use a bit of glue to make sure they stayed secured before painting. A fun project and activity at a nice price.

Got this set to put together with my insect-obsessed nephew. He's five, and the wood pieces weren't great at going together and staying interlocked, most of the time I could adjust it but we did end up using glue in a few spots to keep it together. They are sizable insects when finished, and the painting was fun for him. So overall a great kit, as long as an adult can help out the younger kiddos.

These looked cute and easy, especially for the age graded 6+; however, the tabs and slots were so tight on the deer, I didn't and don't think a child would think to sand the sides of the tabs and/or sand the slots a bit. Further, the tiny piece of sandpaper was barely enough to sand the ticks from where the part attached to the laser sheet, so I would doubt it would last to sand tabs and/or slots!

Tabs and slots on the squirrel were much more acceptable for a child to be able to squeeze the parts together.

The kit came very complete with paints, 2 brushes, palette, place mat to work over when painting, laser sheets with the parts, very small piece of sandpaper for each animal, animal fact sheet, a color mixing chart, and instruction sheet with good schematics of the laser sheets and good diagrams of what order to assemble the parts, for instructions.

The laser sheets appear to have a slight finish, so I decided to leave natural and not paint. (However, these are acrylic paints and clean up with water easily.)

I also put small wiggle eyes onto the eye holes (not part of the kit). The wiggle eyes I used measured approximately 5/16 to 3/8"(hard to get an accurate measurement and not in their original pkg with size noted.)

Squirrel Instruction (20 parts) Notes:
The squirrel's tabs and slots were less tight and much easier to assemble. If the kits are cut consistently, a child could easily assemble and push the parts of the squirrel together.
--Be sure to not mix up the parts with the decorative lines up the tail, as these should be facing out to see.
--Box 3"”I found if I put the acorn parts (A3 & A9) together first, before placing parts A10 & B2 (the front paws) to hold the acorn, it was easier. As well, putting one paw on the body, and acorn tip into the paw's hole before putting on the other side was easier.

Deer Instruction (24 parts) Notes:
-Schematics of the laser sheets are shown to correspond with the parts needed for each box step which is a step with several parts.
--BEWARE--Box 2 and Box B show a step 1 and step 2 (in each box) that need to be done in that order, but the font is the same as the part numbers, so it is easy to miss the "step 1" in these boxes. Step 2 appears at the top of the box. [I think the step 1 part should be shown at the top of the boxes, and the part for step 2 shown below where the part is showing for step 1(?)].
--Hind legs only slide on so far, and at an angle, (based on the lip at the bottom of part A12) which allows for the deer to stand alone on a flat surface.
--Box 4"”be sure to slide B5 all the way into the slot (it was very tight), but when it didn't go in all the way and the antlers attached, it didn't stay on the deer's head.

I'm giving 4-stars for the inconsistent tabs/slots between the 2 models for difficult assembly on one but too tight on the other. As an adult I struggled to get the tabs to slide through the slots on the deer. I do not believe a child (unless a strong teenager) could assemble the tabs and slots being so tight. There would not be enough sandpaper in the kit to have sanded the tabs and/or the slots a bit for an easier fit. Squirrel's parts went together easily. (Could have been 5-stars if not for the above)

This was a good rainy day activity for my kids. I appreciate that the kit comes with paints and brushes, so it would be great for a situation when you don't have all your art supplies (like on vacation). The pieces are well made, though light. The paint required a few layers to get bold color, but it was still a fun kit.

My kids are 7 and 10, and it was a pretty simple activity--certainly one that a 6-7 year old could complete by themselves.

Overall I would give this a 4.5 just because some of the pieces wouldn't stay together but a bit of wood glue got that all fixed up.

Both children enjoyed the painted and puzzling quite a bit. They are 5 and 7 and when they are at my house, we put the electronics down.

The older one helped his sister with some of the pieces, they stayed on it for hours only walking away for snacks and letting pieces dry.

We ended up using some of my matte acrylic paints because the wood wouldn't absorb the included paints as well as expected.

They included everything that's needed to work on the turtle and shark, there's even a mat.

It's not perfect but I still give it a great score because it was able to keep the attention of the children for a long time and they loved working on them and having something they could keep.