The question probably doesn't even make sense to most people, so they just say something to get you off their backs and stay friends, like, "I don't have time". The truth is they don't build kits because they don't enjoy it and they can afford not to. Who would go to all that tedious difficult work if they could just pay an expert to do it for them? The truth is 10 years ago not many people could afford ready-to-fly model airplanes, and today, a lot can.


I don't think you'll have to worry. Technology to the rescue! Big guys like Great Planes will have fewer and fewer kits, but anybody with a CAD program and an laser cutter can turn out a kit today. You may pay more for it, and you'll have to go to smaller companies, but there will be kits as long as there are people who want to build them.

This doesn't make sense to a lot of people either. They already know that they are not handy with tools, do not have the patience for tedious repetitive manual labor, can't follow instructions, or any of the hundreds of other skills that modelers have and most people don't. I never try to get someone to try kit building. Most just don't have the skills. They could easily just end up hurting themselves or someone else.