I'm in process of building a Sig LT-40 and am already thinking ahead to my next kit. I'd like to build a scale model but dont want to jump all the way up to a giant quite yet. Somthing from Cessna or piper maybe as i have a fondness for GA planes. Can anyone give me some ideas?

Kind Regards

Finally ! I thought I was just about the last person on earth that liked civil scale . You know, civil scale was THE thing back in the 1970's when I started. The mags were full of construction articles of civil scale. They covered the stuff you might see at any airport now to the famous historic planes.

Gee, I can't believe I would actually recommend a CUB , but they are a good place to start. And I suppose everyone is required to have at least one in their lifetime. There is a good Decathlon kit, Great Planes , I believe. Its actually a fairly hot ship. ANd I think SIg still shows their Citabria on their website. Sigs are good kits. They have good wood and they are a reputable company that has been around for a very long time. Glen and HAzel Sig were like the hobby's Godparrents when I started flying. In fact, I'm building Glen Sig's Bonanza right now. The Bonanza is out of production.

Jack Stafford kits are great, very scale civil kits. The Ercoupe, Commanche and Rearwind, Twin Commanche and the new giant Mooney are very fine kits. However thess are a bit difficult to build. They probably wouldn't be suitable for your second kit. Stafford has gone out of business and come back a few times. So its a good idea to stash them away.

You can find the old OOP civil kits on ebay. Have you ever watched the Barret Jackson collector car auctions ? Well, thats the OOP civil kits on Ebay. They get good money for them. The good kits that were made by reputable companies and are being sold buy reputable Ebay sellers, fetch several hundred dollars. And there is alot of junk on Ebay also. So I wouldn't recommend shopping there until you learn witch kits were the good ones.

Well, good luck. I hope to hear about your new project soon.

FYI http://www.jsmodels.com/

Goldberg Anniversary Cub (Clipped)

I built the Sig Citabria as my first kit and then built an LT40 to practice flying on. Yes, I definitely did it backwards! The Citabria is much harder to put together than the LT40 but was a blast to build. I found myself getting up at 3 am to sneak downstars to build! If I were to do it all again I would build the LT40, then something like a 4*40 or Somethin' Extra, and then the Citabria. The things I learned building other planes would have helped a bit on the Citabria. I'm looking forward to finally getting that bird in the air in the summer of 2006.

How about a Beaver? I built a 72" Unionville Hobby Supply deHavilland DHC-2 as my second kit and really enjoyed it. The kit was inexpensive (due to US-CAN exchange rate) and fun to build. It is a "builder's" kit, with just a few typewritten pages of instructions. It was challenging for a new builder without being frustrating at all! There is plenty of room to add your own touches here and there.

The resulting model is a blast to fly. I built it with flaps and learned flap flying with the model. It is also at home on floats, so that's an option for the future.

Good flying,
desmobob

Go with one of the Cub kits , either GP or Goldberg.
Either will give you good basics on GA scale.

Fighterpilot, your not alone .

Regards
Roby

Top-Flite has their Piper Arrow. Fairly big plane, but smaller engine (.60 - .90). They have a scale cockpit/cabin.

http://www.top-flite.com/airplanes/topa0290.html

Also, Jack Stanford has some great civilian scale aircraft.

http://www.jsmodels.com

Mooney, Alon Aircoupe, Cesna Birddog, Rearwin Speedster, Piper Comanche, Twin Comanche...

Great ideas on the kits guys, thanks a bunch. I'd been eyeing the Goldberg .40 cub and have been waiting to fly my parkzone J3 due to wind. Of course I dont think you can ever have enough cubs . I'd also seen that Arrow which looked interesting as well. The Citabria would be great since i got my private ticket on one several years ago. A question on the clipped cub though, would that be a little hot for a 2nd nitro plane?

A little hot would not be a good description of a clipped wing cub. This term might apply to a CAP, Edge, or Laser. I think any cub clipped or not will be slow enough for a second plane.