You are correct. A few months ago I started a thread on making kits from ARFs in the Giant Scale forum. I was wondering why I can't buy a kit of the pieces used to assemble the ARF version. I don't need a manual or lots of pics, just the parts and a set of plans to work from. A number of ARF suppliers spoke up and said that the ARFs make poor kits because of the way they are constructed, using jigs and so on. They are definitely NOT like kits built by someone else. They are a production version of a kit built by someone else, which is a different animal completely.

That said, I call bullsh*t on not being able to build a kit of ARF pieces without their jigs. People have been scratch building forever and they don't get any fancy alignment tabs on their self-cut parts, either. I have scratch built more planes than kit built and I am certain that I can make the fuse come out straight if they give me the parts and a set of plans to work with. It just seemed like laziness on their part in not looking for a new niche to fill. Granted, most of them can't keep ARFs in stock, so maybe they don't care about the extra business at the moment. Eventually, things will change and they may be looking for a new area to target their products into. Then we may get some cool new kits to work with... I would love a kit of the Wild Hare 33% Extra260 and the Hangar9 Showtime and and and, but it's not going to happen soon.[]


Mark