ORIGINAL: FHHuber
The current state of the ARF industry is really VERY good. A HUGE improvement over what they were passing off 10 to 15 years ago. (and most of the ones from 20 years ago were junk compared to 10 yeas ago's standards...)
I was around when ARF's arrived and its true they were junk and they were also lousy fliers.
I hope FHHUBER's post is read by many of those who expect an ARF to be of museum quality for cheap money. I think most of the complainers are fairly new to the hobby and have built few if any kits. Even if someone built a kit for me I'd probably still make modifications to suit my taste. ARF's save you a lot of time, effort, expense and they look good.
Take a look around your flying field, how many kit built models have you seen with an intricate 3 or 4-color covering job plus decals? Have you ever tried to do a covering job like that? Most people are not even willing to buy that many different colored rolls of covering material.
Over the years I've built from kits and plans and designed a few of my own and even assembled an old ARF. The ARF was so crappy I almost puked and the thought of it still bothers me today. I stayed away from ARF's for years. These days ARF's are built at the factory with the same materials and coverings we build kits with. I buy ARF's almost exclusively now. And yes, I still add some epoxy here and there.
The ARF market is very competitive and new and impressive models keep popping up.
One good quality one that impresses me is the KATANA. Its a 72-inch 4th scale 3d/IMAC class ARF for 1.60 to 1.80 size engines and costs only $199.95 complete with hardware, fiberglass cowl and wheel pants. And, its a spectacular flier. Can I beat that?