New makerspace opens for scale model building

The COVID-19 lockdown hit Kevin Matamoros hard. He was laid off from his business recruitment job in Midtown Manhattan, and his 11-year-old son’s main focus became a screen.

“We needed something to do that wasn’t iPad or wasn’t just involving ourselves with the phones,” Matamoros said.

He bought a Japanese Bandai model kit, an intricate snap-together science-fiction kit with hundreds of small pieces and a foldout paper diagram with step-by-step directions.

“When I introduced this to him, it was like a whole new world. It literally changed everything he did,” Matamoros said.

His son began sitting for hours at a time assembling model kits of fantasy and science-fiction characters. It took them a month to complete the first model. Matamoros posted photos of it on Fiverr, the online freelance marketplace, and says he began receiving requests for custom models within days.