fordboy76

I have read through a lot of the beginning builders threads and foud that the purchases I have made in the last 6 months were fairly decnt, but I am not sure which kit to begin my building "career". I have managed to pick up 4 kits, with them being: a 4*60, a Tiger 60 deluxe, a venture 60 and a jemco bf109 (40 size)
Now I know that the BF109 should be my last, but which to start? My initial guess is in the order listed above. The 4* looks to be as easy as the venture, but because the venture is my favorite plane out of the low wing trainers, I am thinking about doing that one last and maybe add a little kit bashing. The Tiger has retracts and apart from the LADO retracts I have on my H9 spit, I have limited experience and am not sure I want to add a layer of complexity to a first build. The JEMCO is right out, it is very old and the parts are die cut do I figure I need a good bit of experience to tackle that one.

I would appreciate any advice you have.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Then I would say your order is about right. The Tiger is a little more docile than the 4*, and it's about the same level of building skill (There are some things easier on the Tiger, but there are some other things that are easier with the 4* ), but the retracts do add a degree of difficulty to the Tiger, so you may want to tackle that one later.

carrellh

First would probably be the Four Star. SIG kits, and instructions, are really good. There are several build threads for this kit, and so many have built it that help is easy to find if you do get stuck.

Second would be the Tiger. It could probably be a great first build also but I agree with waiting on building with retracts. I don't know anyone who has built this kit.

Two people in our club have Ventures. Both say it is the finest kit they have ever built, and both of them have been building (kits or cutting their own from plans) for more than 30 years. It would be my third choice because I'd rather make my "rookie" mistakes on something that's not a discontinued item. I would "save" it until I was confident of doing a really god job on the build.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

3 of the 4 seem like virtually the same plane in terms of how they fly. The Eagle is probably the easiest to fly, with the Venture and 4* being a small step up in performance.

Depending on your flying skills, and likes, it may make sense to build a more aerobatic or fun fly type plane in there??

Don't get me wrong, all good planes, just very similar. Which is no problem if that is the type of flying you enjoy. I would just think there would be some sort of progression in flying skills??

fordboy76

I realize they are nearly identical... It was a long moment of insanity. My plan is to sell the 2 that I like the least after gaining the build experience. My main goal is to be able to build a Meister scale 102" ME/BF 109. I have about 3 yrs of flying experience with my Arrow, Big Stick and H9 spit. I thought one of these would be a nice sunday flyer to replace the Arrow which I plan to recover and set up for my children/wife to learn on.