You've built your kit. It went together well, it looks great, and it's sitting on your desk. What next? For some people the answer is obvious. They've already got a spot in mind and that's where it lives. For others, a finished kit raises a genuinely enjoyable set of questions. Where should it go? Should it stay natural wood or get painted? Could it make a good gift? Here are the best things to do with a completed wooden model kit.
Display it properly
The most obvious answer is also the most satisfying one when it's done well. A finished wooden model kit deserves a proper home rather than a corner of a cluttered desk. Here are a few display approaches worth considering.
A dedicated shelf is the classic choice. A short floating shelf at eye level, with one or two models and a plant or small object for company, turns a finished kit into a deliberate display rather than an afterthought. The natural wood finish of a Curious Rabbit kit sits particularly well against painted walls, whether dark or light.
A windowsill works beautifully for smaller pieces. The light catches the laser-cut details in a way that's hard to replicate anywhere else in a room, and pieces like the bee puzzle, retro scooter ornament, or Brownie Camera have a silhouette quality that rewards being backlit.
A desk display is the natural home for anything functional. The garden shed with its roof open holding pens, the skip waste container holding stationery, or the two tier toolbox keeping a desk organised. If the kit does something useful, let it do it.
Paint or customise it
A finished natural wood kit is the starting point, not the end point, if you enjoy painting. Acrylic paints work well on bare wood, the colours come up vividly against the natural grain, and a painted kit looks completely different from its natural wood version in the best possible way.
All Curious Rabbit kits are supplied in their natural wood finish with no paint applied, giving you complete creative freedom. Whether you paint before assembly, after, or not at all is entirely up to you. For a full guide on how to approach it, read our guide to painting and customising wooden model kits.
Use it as a gift
A finished and painted model kit makes an unusual and genuinely personal gift, particularly if it's been customised to reflect something about the recipient. A garden shed painted in someone's favourite colour and personalised with their name above the door is a very different gift from anything you'd find on a high street.
Even an unpainted, newly built kit in its natural wood finish makes a satisfying gift if it's wrapped well and given with a bit of context. A note explaining that you built it yourself adds something that no shop-bought gift can replicate.
Build another one
This is the most common outcome, and for good reason. People who build one Curious Rabbit kit tend to want another one. The range is varied enough that there's almost always something that appeals next, whether that's a different subject, a piece from a collection they haven't explored yet, or a practical kit if the first was purely decorative.
If the first kit was a garden shed, a railway signal box or retro scooter ornament makes a natural next build. If the first was a decorative piece, a practical kit like the skip waste container or dog treat box is a satisfying change of direction. Browse the full range at curiousrabbit.com.
Start a collection
Some people build one kit and display it. Others build several and start to notice they have the beginnings of a collection. The Curious Rabbit range is organised into collections, garden, railway, architecture, vintage, beach, icons, and more, which makes it easy to build within a theme. A shelf of garden pieces, or a desk with a complete railway collection, has a coherence that a single model doesn't. Collections also make gift buying straightforward for anyone who wants to add to what you've already started.
Share it
If you're pleased with how your build came out, share it. A photo of a finished kit, particularly one that's been painted or displayed well, performs consistently well on Pinterest and Instagram, and it's the kind of content that other builders and potential buyers find genuinely useful. Tag Curious Rabbit if you share it and we'll always take a look.
Pass the hobby on
One of the quieter pleasures of building model kits is that it's a hobby that transfers well. A grandparent building a kit with a grandchild, a parent introducing a teenager to the satisfaction of making something with their hands, a friend giving a kit as a gift and then building one together. Curious Rabbit kits are designed to be accessible to complete beginners, so they're a low-pressure way to introduce someone to the hobby without requiring any specialist knowledge or prior experience.
Curious Rabbit makes laser-cut wooden flatpack kits and gifts, designed and made in Wales.
