Lnewqban

What is fun scale?

Reading the AMA magazine's article about the National Championship, I have learned that Fun Scale is a category of competition.

So, my question is to clarify the line that AMA uses (or is used in general among scale modelers) to divide Scale from Fun Scale, besides the obvious degree of accuracy and detail.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Beats me?? When they started allowing ARFs in scale competition I gave up following it. I did enjoy building stand off {way off} scale for IMMA events for myself but there was no competition involved. I still enjoy going to some of the scale events to see what true master builders can do.

TFF

Fun scale does not have "builder of the model" rules and is only judged if it has a resemblance of the real plane, 5 points, all or nothing. The flying portion is the same as the rest and is the main focus, but there is no distinction of having a a world models P-51 arf, a almost ready to cover Top Flight P-51 detailed out, or buying or building a Top Gun winning P-51. It is a great place to get use to flying in front of a judge and get the lay of the land without putting everything into a scale plane.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think in order to get the 5 points you must also supply a picture of the plane that you have modeled. As mentioned, the flight portion is the same. All sport scale is doing is eliminating the static judging portion of the competition and focusing on the flight side of it. Good Luck, Dave

Lnewqban

What about covering materials and deviations from original dimensions?

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

That can depend on the contest and who is running it. Our club has scale meets and the planes need to resemble a real one. They can be painted or covered with iron on covering, but your model needs to be done as close to the picture you supply as you can. If I was modeling a P-51, Great Planes makes a sport scale Mustang kit. I would find some pics of a Mustang and cover it to look like the pic. You can add things to the plane to make it look better, however I usually only add things that will impress the flight judges, such as retracts or bomb drops. You only get 5 points for supplying your documentation so the next step in logic is to impress the flight judges. I know the rules say that retracts are not judged, however it is human nature to think that a Mustang doing a high speed fly by looks better without the wheels hanging down than one that has them down. Adding a bomb or fuel tank drop also allows you to do a maneuver that most of your competitors are not going to do so now the wow factor kicks in for the judges. You can also choose a color scheme that looks good in the air. A silver Mustang looks good, a silver Mustang with invasion stripes looks better, once again the wow factor. You can also go the other direction and choose a color scheme that is not seen that often. If it is done correctly and looks good in the air, once again the wow factor kicks in. Good Luck, once again, Dave

TFF

You can do anything to the plane you want to within reasonable scale taste. For AMA, Craftsmanship(building and associated) is only graded in the other classes. To be extreme, if you plane has tears in Monokote or big drips of paint on it it does not matter; it can be perfect too. It is not judged except for a yes/no does it look like the plane. You show them a picture of your plane and they say it looks like it or not. If you show up with a Goldberg Ultimate and try calling it a Pitts or a Skybolt, they wont give you the points, but you can still fly. A kyosho P40 and the best P40 model ever made has the same shot at 5 points in that class.