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Old 11-28-2008, 05:44 PM
  #8  
Tony Pacini
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Peoria, AZ
Posts: 460
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Default RE: Old School Q500 building

Pay the money and get one that's done. I've found that it's cheaper than doing it yourself in most cases. Unless you have LOTS of time and a burning desire to build, pay someone else to do it. Work some extra hours or sell something you're not using to raise the extra cash.

Even if you scratch-build (supposedly the least expensive method, because you're doing ALL of the labor yourself), the materials would probably cost more than the run-of-the-mill ARF. Wood, foam, adhesives, covering, hardware........probably more than the $130 you'd pay for a Viper.

Thinking of building a kit? That's even more money than an ARF in most cases. Your labor time is slightly less, but the cost of the kit is substantially higher. One exception is the Vortex, because you can still get the composite wing already done, then build the fuse and tail from a laser-cut kit that goes together pretty quickly. (Or you can buy one that's completely done, it's just more money and longer wait time).

On the other end of the spetrum, composites are even more costly to do yourself. By the time you purchase the adhesives, painting supplies, consumable bagging materials, decent wood, and 3 or 4 rolls of different weights of cloth plus carbon reinforcements, you'll have to build probably 6-10 of them before you realize any savings, and that's not even counting the startup costs (molds, vacuum pump, painting equipment, tools). While it may only take a few hundred dollars in raw materials to lay up a composite airframe once you're up and running, ya gotta spend a wad of cash and a ton of time to get there.

Another thing to consider is that YOUR finished product may not be quite as good as the one you buy that's already "done", at least until you've built enough of them to become proficient. This is more of a factor than with any other type of aircraft. It's got to be straight, strong, AND light. Pretty helps, too!

Yes, there are exceptions. If you've already got the materials and you've got a long, cold, winter ahead of you (with nothing else to do), then building is a sensible approach. Most importantly, you must LIKE to build. This is different than any other event except combat; model airplanes ALL have an undetermined expiration date, but pylon planes tend to go away quicker than most.

Buy it "done". It's worth it, and you certainly get what you pay for.