It's all relative... old timer scratch builders could probably scoff at folks building kits and assembling ARFs... I guess the really super hard core avoid any shortcuts and grow their own balsa.

These days, being a kit/scratch builder at the field means belonging to a small number of folks unfortunately which seems to lead to the LHS carrying squat for materials. I've learned to get everything online as the LHS takes a few weeks sometimes to get stuff in when requested and the good shops are roughly 30-45 minutes away.

somegeek