ORIGINAL: nitro wing
I did a couple of scratch builds over the winter
The cost and time is well and way over any arf offered in the same
Category
I agree that scratch building does not save you any money over an ARF but the cost can be spread out over a few months so it's not as big of a one time hit. IMO you end up with a better built model that has been built with better materials. You won't be showing up at the field with a corbon copy of what someone else has either.
As for the cost of ARF's, I'm sure there are many factors but what comes to mind. For me is that sales are down due to the economy. When GP or Horizon places an order for 100 airplanes as opposed to 250 they ordered last time the manufacturer is going to charge more per unit.