By 
IN these days of high-end technology, computer screens and AI, the hobby of model building may seem a little on the old-fashioned side. However, eight-year-old Jason Coffey is one young man who doesn’t see it that way – and is amassing his own little model empire.
Nestled away in his Carlton Drive bedroom, Jason has a treasure trove of models, ranging from Lego to Minecraft, which are his pride and joy. His pièce de résistance though is a 9,090-piece reconstruction of the Titanic. Impressively, Jason does all this whilst living with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), a developmental disorder which manifests itself in hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity.
“I just love building models,” Jason said. “I’ve been building models ever since I was seven years old.
“ I began with small pieces of Minecraft Lego and each set has gotten bigger and bigger. I just enjoy building things, the concentration of it all and seeing what I can make.”
Jason’s collection, adorned in its own brightly-lit cabinet boasts sets of brightly-coloured animals, characters and buildings. He jokingly says that they need to be in a cabinet because while he is the model builder, sister Amelia is the ‘model wrecker’.
While Jason loves all of his creations, his Titanic is the main attraction.
As Jason explains, “I started the Titanic model on the May 31 this year. My uncle John bought it for me from the Lego store in Belfast. It was a huge model; there were 25 bags worth of pieces. Mummy split the work into three sections because it was a lot of pieces and I started at 8am on the 31st and kept working until it was done – it only took me 41 hours over six days!”
The idea of an eight-year-old completing a project of this size might sound unbelievable, but not in Jason’s case. He even admits he was rarely bored.
“The model was very detailed. I had to make up the cabins, the galley, the floor, the grand staircase and even the engine itself! There was certainly a lot to do. I think I had around 30 seconds of boredom,” he mused. “When I was there for too long, I went outside for a run around the block, a breath of air and came straight back to it!”
Jason has also built one of the Titanic sister ships, the Britannic – a smaller task – but has no plans, as yet, to build the third in the series, the Olympic.
So, what’s next for this budding architect of the future?
“I have my eye on an Eiffel Tower model. It’s bigger than the Titanic model with more pieces, over ten thousand. The model itself is taller than I am, so I think I’ll need a chair to reach the top of it!”
Jason’s mum, Natasha concluded, “Jason really loves to build and his father and I are happy to get Jason all the kits we can. If he’s on Lego and Minecraft sets then he’s off screens and that’s a good thing.”
