ORIGINAL: combatpigg
Herr Ober, I was just mostly being facetious [a jolly jokester] by saying that. I do know of a guy in Canada who does mill his own balsa. I agree with you about scratch building, if I have to knife out my own parts......it's a scratch build. If the "21st century" type guys have to CAD their parts, then have them LASER cut, that is also a scratch build in my eyes. I've been doing this stuff long enough, I don't need anyone to tell me what a scratch build really is.
Pig,
Don't want to sound like a purist, but if you did not draw your own, you are not a scratch builder. Here's the way it works, and this is the, "Time-honored", definition of each.....
1. ARF or RTF: Buys a model either built by someone else, or is produced as a set of sub-assemblies that require minimal assembly to be able to fly.
2. Kit builder: One who purchases a set of plans, and the pre cut, or deliniated parts, and builds the model from these parts and plan.
3. Plan builder: One who purchases, or pirates the plans which were drawn by someone else, and cuts his own parts, and builds from these plans. (note) These plans are the property of the person who drew the plan, and if you have a set that was not bought and paid for, it is piracy, much like copying a movie, or a song from another disk, record, tape or film. It is the intelluctial property of the drafting entity, and as such is his property. You are licensed to use the plan, but not to make copies to distribute to others. *
4. Scratch builder: One who draws his own plans, and cuts his own parts, and builds from these plans that he has drawn.
If you order a set of plans, and have a cutting service cut your parts, you are still kit building, since the parts were cut to the plan specifications, and you are sent what is in effect, a kit.
Hope this clears up the misconceptions.
Bill, AMA 4720
Waco Brother #1
* When L.M. Cox gave the Pica plans for the Waco UMF to the AMA a few years ago, these plans became the property of the AMA. They had become the property of Cox, when they bought the inventory list of Pica. The Plans were not viable, since Pica, nor Cox had ever offered the parts as a drawing, or as a template. There was not any viable method of cutting the parts to be able to build that kit. I made the parts templates from an existing virgin kit, and have allowed the AMA to include them when a plan of this model is ordered. The templates are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. In short, they belong to me, although they are available without limitation to members of the Waco Brotherhood. How can this be, when they are simply templates associated with someone elses plan? It's simple. They never existed before I drew them.
To put a point on it, if you order a set of these plans from the AMA, and make a copy of the templates and give them to someone else, you are stealing from me, since you did not have my permission to do so.
Even though the AMA has been granted permission to include these templates to the purchaser at no additional cost, they remain my property, even though all they do is to add value to the plan that you are purchasing.
Bill