I have the GP Extra 300 kit in mind. I've heard alot of good things about this kit, and have collected information on the building process. It seems to be a reliable kit to start with no unpleasant suprises. I am trying to start slow and progress slowly to gain confidence, starting with the proper use of tools and equipments in order not to damage anything in the kit.

I know the ARF experience is really minimal compared with kit. I want to put myself to the real test of kit building, before graduating to scratch building. I have seen a guy picking up raw balsa wood from the hobby shop with a big plan rolled up. I wish one day, I could be taking a plan to a hobby shop, unrolling it and so forth.

I have been doing search, but I haven't been successful so far in getting advice on getting the fundamentals of kit building. Hope to hear some great advice.

How do I position the balsa in the grain direction that will maximise the strength ? This may seem to be question for scratch building but I ask as I want to know if the woods are cut in the wrong grain direction and I could do something about it.

Building a kit sounds to me like fine carpentry work dealing with delicate balsa wood. I would guess that the saw to cut the balsa has to be suited for cutting up balsa, and the drill to make a hole on a balsa must have the correct drill speed and bit to ensure a nice edge of the hole.

And what about some shape that are rounded like a square with rounded corners ? Do I need to buy a special cutter for that purpose and how thick can I go ?

Hope that I don't pick up a lemon, with broken balsa or missing parts in the kit. It would really slow down my building a lot more as I have to find ways to make new parts by getting some balsa.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice, and I hope to hear more tips on getting started with kit building especially the GP Extra 300....