Steve, I think you might find at least one Proctor EIII build over on RCScalebuilder. And on the aerodrome site you can see Achim Engel from Fokker Team Schorndorf building a full-scale replica.

One of the regular builders over at RCSB (or at least he used to be a regular) was "scratch-building" a Proctor Jenny from just the plans. I asked him once whether this was going to work out cheaper than buying the full kit. His answer was that because he had lots of materials lying around and because of his years and years of building experience, he'd probably be able to do it cheaper himself. But then he was a true master of improvisation (and Scottish to boot).

My impression of the Proctor kits (and for that matter the other premiere kits from designers like Mick Reeves and Glenn Torrence) is that they are sort of like a really REALLY elaborate Chinese woodblock puzzle. All the pieces of the puzzle are provided (no matter how small) and they fit together with incredible precision. They have everything worked out for you. For example on the Proctor Nieuport they have even "pre-bent" the fuse longerons. It's almost like they build the model and then disassembled it for you to build again.

Now that's a bit overboard -- and it certainly takes a ton of skill and patience to do a great job -- but the "Chinese puzzle" metaphor captures what I see as the essence of the construction process.

Me, I'm an inveterate kit-basher. I like having to work things out for myself and I like changing stuff around. So I've come to suspect that the deluxe kit route might not be the best for me. Or maybe I'm just to cheap to spend $500+ all at once.

BTW, it's much easier to slip modeling costs past the wife $10 bucks at a time!