I think there is a place for all interests in this hobby, and I don't see why anyone should try to convince anyone else of which is better. If this hobby is only about the flying for you, why not stick with ARFs? I don't think you need to make up a bunch of excuses for doing so - some people just don't like to build.

As for myself, I have been in this hobby since my early teens (around 1984 or so). In that time, I have built four kits: two trainers, one sports aerobatic model and a Marutaka P-51D. All my other models have been either scratch built (own design), or built from plans. I really like scale models, but since my profession is aeronautical engineering, I have built the odd sports model or a model to try out a specific configuration. The greatest majority of my models are scale though. So far, I have not assembled a single ARF, but see my comments in the first paragraph above.

I would like to address a few misconceptions though:

Time: I work very long hours. My building time is often from about 22:00 to 02:00 in the morning, and on weekends whenever I can put a few hours aside for modeling. Often I only spend about 20 minutes or so a day on my models, as that is all that is available. I have spent anything from about 9 months to 3 years to finish a model, but the level of satisfaction when I complete a model is tremendous. Seeing it fly is then the culmination of all this work. I just love it!

Space: While I was studying in the US, I lived in a one-bedroom apartment. My wife later also joined me in the US. During that time I did my building on a "portable" building board and a coffee table in the living room. Each night, after completing my work, I would put everything away (except when I was waiting for something to dry). I did the same at one stage when I was living with three other flatmates - I would build on the dining table late at night and put everything into a closet so the table was available for breakfast the next morning. Finally, I have done a lot of building at one stage when I had a single carage and I could manage a small bench that just fit in front of the car, and some shelves that I could fit against the wall.

Tools: I now have a very nice collection of both power and manual building tools. But when I started out I basically had some hobby knives, various hand saws and a large collection of sandpaper. The rest were all just standard tools like screwdrivers, etc. Sure, it takes a bit more time and patience, but it can be done with very basic hand tools. Todays kits all come laser cut - surely you don't require much beyond a building board, hobby knives, some basic hand tools and glue to put together such a kit?

The reason I mention these things is not to try and convince anyone who does not want to build that he should do so. Rather, I am sometimes a bit concerned about people who enter the hobby on ARFs and think that kits or plans are only for people with professional artisan training, a fully-equipped workshop and lots of space. To those that would love to build but think for the above reasons that they can't - I would really encourage them to have a go at it regardless of what you think you can or cannot do.

Finally, when it comes to scale models, it is only the really very expensive ARFs that come close to what can be done with a scratch built model - and then they usually require extensive extra work to get there. Sure, you can build a model from scratch and it can still look like junk when you are done, but my experience have been that those people that enjoy building from scratch very rarely produce something mediocre. The majority of scale ARFs I have seen over the years are not great and, besides, I would feel absolutely no satisfaction flying one as it would be like flying someone else's aeroplane. The whole joy in scale modeling for me, personally, is to build a scale miniature of the real thing and then to see that work culminate in something that looks almost like the real thing in the air when flown correctly. Of course, there are many non-scale ARFs that are excellent flyers and as I said, if you only enjoy the flying part of the hobby, why not stick with ARFs?