I had thought of a build ease rating also, but have decided it's too subjective a element. A person with 10 kits under his belt will rave about how fast it went together, and a first timer will lament the confusing manual.

You can start and stop with the building, but you do need a decent size table to work, and you'll have quite a sprawling mess fairly quickly so it's a pain to have to clean it up after every session. I have a dedicated table set up in my basement that my wife doesn't have to look at every day.

I've never built the [link=http://www.greatplanes.com/airplanes/gpma0180.html]RV-4[/link] but from reading the description, it seems similar in terminology (interlocking, die cut, etc) to the Ryan STA-EP I built last year. If they can be compared, it didn't seem very tough. You're lucky the one you're considering is a Great Planes model, because they offer the RV-4 [link=http://www.greatplanes.com/manuals/gpma0180-manual.pdf]manual[/link] for download. I would get it and read the whole thing. It should give you an idea of what the process will be like.

One last note. While there are a number of benefits to building your own airplane over ARFs, don't bother unless you really love putting things together and seeing the final result. The cheap kit price is enticing , but it will cost you MORE than the same model in ARF! I'm a woodworker anyway, so I love the build, but I really don't do it in the summer.

This is building season in Chicago though. The 10 months of winter.