You might be right regarding the RTF aspect (is there really any such thing as truly RTF???); but ARFs were in their infancy when I began the hobby in 1986, and they haven't slacked off yet. Just about every R/C modeler I know, except for a couple of hardcore scale guys, would rather deal with a nice ARF than a wood kit. Its all about time; nobody has any. Hell, I'm retired, but have yet to get back to kit building. I'm "getting ready", since it would appear that my consulting gig has about run its course (i.e., the grant money they have been paying me with ran out), and I may decide to REALLY retire, since the few offers I've gotten don't appeal to me.

But ARFs fade in the face of a resurgence of kit building? I don't think so... I saw a recent thread where Bax from The Empire stated that their few kit sales were barely enough to justify production. Look at the latest Tower flyer... ONE page, maybe a page and a half, of wood kits.

Besides, from what I hear, good balsa is getting VERY difficult to come across. The last two kits I built, a Great Planes PT 20 and a GP Super Sportster .60, had TERRIBLE wood in them. The fuse sides of the PT 20 were actually HAIRY... never seen that before, and I like to never have got it sanded out.

And that was five years ago.

OTOH, I have a Sig Steen SkyBolt kit stashed that has beautiful wood. I have no idea how old the kit/wood is, but it still fires off thin CA. But there is some mojo building in that puppy; especially since I want to lose the plastic turtledeck and replace it with wood construction. I'm "saving" it for after I get a few simpler ones under my belt, to get back in the groove, so to speak.

Anyway... I, for one, am on the look-out for older, quality kits. But it would seem there simply aren't many "out there" these days...

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