does anyone know anything about modeltech arfs? Are they any good? Just looking at hobbypeople and noticing some good looking models, still trying to decide what to do.

I've got the Dragon Lady. It's a great plane, but the covering has a little to be desired. It's some weird covering that's almost impossible to remove wrinkles and bubbles. There was a thread a while back about the DL covering, and trying to get it smoothed out.
Other than that, my experience with them is that they are well built, and fly well.

That's the exact bird I was looking at. I have a vmar that has the same problem with the covering. I can't decide between the dragon lady arf, or the top flight contender kit.

I have the Magic Extra 300L. As others have discovered, the Modeltech covering is not the best. The quality of the kit and flight performance is average to above average at best. I probably won't buy another Modeltech ARF since there are other ARF companies with better qualities for the same price range (Graupner, Vectorflight, Great Planes, etc.).

I've got the Extra 300S. I think it's a good plane.

Modeltech is fine for the price... The covering is crap but it usually lasts awhile before it starts to separate, then I just patch or replace it---

The Magic-3D, Magic Extra, and Simply-Magic are all great fliers... And the Excite-90 is a superb "fun-plane" to fly!

I've been waiting for their P-47. It's been backordered forever and a day seems like. [>:]

I have the magic extra and love it. The covering is certainly different than most, but on my plane there was not a wrinkle to be seen and it looks great. It also does not seem to wrinkle when the temperature changes. I think for the price the magic extra is great plane.

I think they've changed their ways with their covering. Anyone else heard anything on this? I believe that they used to use "in-house" covering and now they're using name brand stuff ( Monokote?? ). I have a Dragon Lady, a P-47 Thunderbolt, and an Aviator, plus I had a PT-19 & a Fokker D7, and they've all flown well and went together well. Modeltech doesn't do as much as other manufacturers which is why they're a tad cheaper and may take you an hour or two extra to put them toghether. Don't get me wrong - still good quality planes.

Gotta agree with all the above. The oracover covering is beautifully applied, but comes right off with a little hot fuel. I sealed over all the leading edges with clear monocote on my last extra 300 and that seemed to help allot. Ive flown the wings off of three magics and two magic extras. They are inexpensive, very capable airplanes that work well with a large range of engines. Gave my last magic to a friend, who made some covering mods with combat tape, put floats on it and flew the stuffine out of it. the extra weight of the floats didn't seem to matter much with the .52 magnum he put on the front. For the money, you can always recover them either out of the box, or wait until the fuel wins the battle after 50 to 100 flights. The majic is extremly tough, except for the landing gear. The extra is more fragile. You will also want to put a dubro tank in, since the one they supply tends to split and dump fuel inside the plane.
Hope this helps, but don't be discouraged from trying one, they fly great and are cheap.

I have the magic-3D and it had ZERO wrinkles in the covering.

I have a magic extra and love it. Execpt for the covering problem that has been adressed. I think that will be my winter project.

I won a Magic 3D V2 at a club raffle and I love it. I had no wrinkles in the covering, and it went together beautifully.

I've got the Mini Magic Extra ARF. It's a great little plane. The plastic engine mount and control rods it came with were crap, but I like the airframe.

I'd debate that.

Wonderful flyer.

But the really cheap plastic cowl, wheel pants, belly pan, cockpit, etc. is for the birds...

The cowl is oversized, and doesn't fit well.

While mine now has a bunch of flights on it, were I to do it over again, I would PASS on this plane.

The Model tech planes are sold by Hobby People

http://www.hobbypeople.net/mfr/mtarf01.asp

Model Tech has been a proprietary brand of Global Hobby Distributors (Hobby People) for many years however the planes & accessories are made by a variety of different companies in the Orient

The planes have good cost effective value

Some versions are covered with Monokote and do not have the covering problems mentioned by others

Ironically the covering on my Modeltech Extra is pretty nice.

It is just those silly plastic pieces that hold back this little plane from being a good value.

Hahaha "ironically" haha

My 3Demon went together without problems and flies 3D. It looks and flys great.

3-d 3-d 3-d.....Modeltech 3-DEMON, FORMULA 3-D, or MAGIC 3-D???? anyone have any experience with any of these modeltech planes? videos of these planes look pretty sweet but would like some input from someone with personal experience or knowledge of these planes! how are they? and which of these 3-D planes perform the best and with what engine and prop?
thanks in advance and ANY help greatly appreciated!!!
-kevin