Beginner
 

Hi All, It said beginners start here so here I am, I'm brand new with a strange situation I hope someone can straighten out. First just a little background I built houses most of my life also kitchen cabinets and some furniture my latest was two sea kayaks and a guitar 1/2 finished(lost interest). I would love to build stick built airplanes but have no interest in flying them(I know I know STRANGE). There are a number of problems one being I have no knowledge of where to place servos push rods for elevator,ailerons,rudder etc. I think I'm able to build 1/4 scale models but lack knowledge about firewalls and engine mounts etc. I suppose your first question is "what do you intend to do with these planes so again ???? most likely hang them on the wall like the kayaks.I highly doubt there is a market for finished planes, another quest is books on model building with balsa just can't find them. Hope someone was here and found a solution,sorry to be so long winded promise not to do again. Best to all Nick R.

first off, welcome to the addiction. no you are not strange at all, the beauty of this hobby is that a person can enjoy it however they want, some prefer to just fly, not really interested in building, some prefer to build and fly, and some such as yourself, prefer to just build. you might want to check out the "kit building" section out for some of your answers

There's a market for newly built planes. What you get for them probably won't pay for your materials, but you can recoup some of your costs at least.

Thank you both for your quick reply, I'm headed for the kit building section Thanks again

Nick R, If you're going to hang them on the wall for display only, with no intent to ever fly them you can eliminate installing engines, servos, or any of the other equipment we put in them to make them fly. It's called a static display model. You don't even have to make the control surfaces as separate movable parts. This will simplify construction and reduce the cost of each model you build. But I warn you, after you build one or two, one night you will be staring at one of your planes, admiring your work and think to yourself "I wonder what this would look like in the air?" "I wonder if it would even fly?" That's when you're hooked! Good luck with your adventure. My practical advice would be to start with fairly simple kit from a brand name kit maker so you can get the hang of it. A maker who supplys a good detailed set of instructions that leads you by the hand with step by step detailed instructions will help you succeed. Great Planes and Topflite come to mind but there are others and maybe someone else can suggest a good kit maker for ease of construction for a novice builder. Perhaps a modern laser cut kit. Maybe something from Alien Aircraft Corp.

For that matter, since you don't plan to fly them, you could just go the route of building highly detailed static models that are designed for that purpose. That will reduce the expense and make it a lot easier to make them look great.

Another idea would be to buy an existing kit and build it. It is probably the best way to get a feel how they are built and how all of the various pieces go together. And it will take you through all the different steps on what is done and in what order. And there are books and videos on covering techniques and the like. I would at the very least stop by a bookstore and pick up a couple of the magazines in the subject. At the back are dozens of ads that have places you can get those books

Still you have some very good suggestions here. Here are some places to visit. Dumas Products ( www.dumasproducts.com)
Diels Engineering, Inc. (www.dielsengineeringinc.com) Brodak Mfg. and Dist. CO. ( www.brodak.com) Dare Design and Engineering Co. (http://brodak.com/spirit-of-yesteryear-kits.html) Easy Built models (WWW.EASYBUILTMODELS.COM)
I have converted some of Easy Built models - 50" wingspan - by increasing structure for small engines, .15-.35 for RC scale-like models.

A fine magazine can be found at carstens-publications.com This magazine can perform magic. It is NOT ALL RC - BS like the others which only provide information pleading the case for the advertisers. HA!

Hossfly, thank you very much, you are truly a wealth of information

A couple of more things to try - If you are interested in the large (5 ft wingspan or more) planes, do a search on this sites forums for the following:
plans
vintage planes
vintage kits
radio assisted free flight
etc. Also, if there are some clubs nearby, try visiting their meetings, In any club of 50 or more, you will probaby find some guy who enjoys building, has quite a few plans, and who loves to talk about construction methods and finishing methods. Also, unless you are building scale models, you will probably want some engines just to use for display and mounting a prop. Swap shops are a good source of engines, particularly if you dont care about them running.

Building as an end in itself can be very rewarding. If you are serious about building non flying models then buying wood/glue/paint from Home Depot can be much cheaper than buying supplies from a hobby stop.

Unless you build to order it is unlikely that you would sell any non flying models even if they were museum quality. Flying models on the other hand do have value and if you were to get good at it there is a market for people willing to build for others. Those that are good have a waiting list. But you would need to get experience in fitting engines and radio gear plus setting up flying controls.