ORIGINAL: chistech

I BUILD a lot of my aircraft from plans and kits. I also ASSEMBLE a lot of ARF's and I agree somewhat with your terminology. If a kit has foam wings that need to be sheeted or a glass fuse that needs to be painted and have additional work done to it, then it is still building in my eyes (A Byron P51 is a good example). Today's world is one of instant gratisfaction and most will not put in the effort to build even if they have the time. When you bring up assembling an ARF is not the same as building, some get defensive when they really shouldn't. The hobby has changed and so should the terminology. I was just talking tonight with a senior member of our club who was on the USS Hornet during the war in the Pacific. In between flying his sorties in the F6F Hellcat, he built model airplanes in the state room he shared with three other pilots to help forget what was going on. He said he would think of building his models on his way back from missions to help pass the time. If this man could find a place and the time to build than anyone can! Of course, there were no ARFs back then. If you BUILD your house it means it was built board by board. There other ways to have a home erected, then the terminology gets changed to MODULAR or MANUFACTURED HOME. So the terminology changed in the housing industry why can't it change in modeling. Like others here are saying, the hobby is for fun and if someone is a builder, he is a builder. If someone puts together a pre-made airframe then in actuality, he is an assembler and don't get mad about the terminology. I have posted ''BUILD'' threads of ARFs in the past and later realized it's not really a build thread so I thinks it's nothing more than people using the wrong wording when describing what they have done. I have seen some guys who insist they are builders but at the same time admit that they would never open a box full of ''sticks'' and put it together. Their next comment is ''it's too much work'' yet they insist they are ''builders''! If you take a ARF and change things on it to make it more scale like (ie, war birds) then you are really detailing it, or accurizing it, not building it. This debate will go on and on because of people's interpretations and opinions but hell, let's have fun and not worry about it. I still like anyone in the hobby no matter what they call themselves as long as they are good people!