In your oponion, what is the hardest part of a kit to build??

The final sanding to get it all smooth and ready for covering.

I vote for covering.

No way to answer a question like that. It depends on your likes, dislikes and skills.

I used to dread covering with monokote but I now find covering to be a breeze. My dreads at present are how I'll do with Sig Koverall and paint (:-).

IMHO experience eventually makes it all seem easy and enjoyable.

Final Sanding??

Hard: No
messy: yes
Time consuming: yes
Annoying :yes

For me the hard part is the drilling and installing the motor mount, setting up the push rods and installing control horns.

Why because they all involve drilling holes in your new baby and a mistake here can be difficult to repair.

None of it really difficult. Some things just take longer than others.

The first and the last... If it's scale, you never finish it, you just stop working on it. Doc

None of it is difficult untill you screw something up. Fixing something seems to be the most difficult and fustrating.
My biggest dislike is gluing hinges. I never feel like I get enough glue in the slot.

If it's a two-part wing, getting the wing joint / dihedral correct and fitting well together.


Covering? Nope.. that's just tedious and takes a lot of patience.
Sanding? Nope.. you get out of it, only as much as you put in.
Control rods? I can see that.. especially if it's a smaller plane and space it tight.
Motor mounting? I can see where that's a hastle.

My biggest problem with kit building is sometimes you have do keep several factors in your head at the same time. "If I do 'this', it impacts 'that' and I have to adjust 'this other thing' to compensate." Sometimes there just isn't a clear path or list of things to do..

VMS, I use motorcycle tie down straps to hold the wing togeather this allows me to get just the right tweaks on dihedral and alignment while the gorrilla glue kicks off overnight.

The flaps on a TF Corsair.

Oh, all right. For me it's the "hardest to get motivated to complete properly" then.

How about two-piece cowlings that have to be tacked together and then faired with modeling putty and endless sanding and filling? No, I guess that's just hatefully fiddley and tedious, not hard.

Canpoies. Anything involving a canopy is difficult for me. I lack the canopy gene. I can't dye them to my satisfaction (color is always wrong & sometimes not even close), paint the frames convincingly or attach them flush and neat. I think I have a mental block. I should just paint the inside silver and forget it.

When you think about it there is quite a lot that can be time consuming without really being hard. I don't worry about true scale, and I imagine color-matching paint finishes is hard.

Following the directions/instructions in order can be hard. I always skip around and bash something or other into how I think it should be.

Building light! Now building light is extra hard. Not over-gluing, over hardware equiping, over powering or over engineering the model and selecting the strongest and lightest balsa. THAT is hard.

hardest part?

Canopy!!![:'(]

any canopy, you cannot remove glue from it, cannot use CA makes it dirty, and it attracts the most attention.
got to be fitted to the plane uniquely.

covering is fun, sanding is just dirty.
canopy is the worst [:'(]

Over powering is never an issue for me...in fact I didn't know it was possible[sm=50_50.gif]

Bottom line put the most attention on what makes the plane fly. A great looking plane that is difficult to fly is far worse than a terrible looking plane that flys sweet.
Put your extra effort into proper dihedral, incidence and proper alignment between the wing, tail feathers and thrust angle. Thats what makes it look good in the air where it counts.

Setting up the fuel tank/clunk/lines/copper tubes, it's glamourous!!!!!!!!! the rest is fun

For me:

Deciding which kit to build!! haha!!

No, seriously, for me is completing it. I have about 5 kits in various stages of building..

Love covering. Don't mind sanding (except breathing while doing it) and I don't mind the eye sting from CA.

For me, all is good, provided it is a good kit...

I would have to vote for Sanding.
Finish sanding is easy and i dont mind that.
It's making a square wing tip block into a nice rounded shape or a nice rounded cowl out of square blocks thats a pain.[sm=confused_smile.gif]
One block always sands easy the other side sands like aged oak[sm=sad_smile.gif]
Pat

OK you got me with the canopy or windows..

It's so far out on my don't wanna do it list I blocked it out when I thought about what I don't want to do.

I don't mind shaping blocks.. Get a good iron hand plane.. half the fun is tuning it to make little fluffy curls of balsa..
Flattening, sharpening and tuning a plane can be fun itself.. OK I know I have a sickness..

A few of the guys on the wood forums lauged at me for tuning up my old tradsman plane but it's been great for building.

I hate all of the stuff from when you have all of the wood pieces glued together and it looks like an airplane, to the time I am ready start covering. Covering... I actually enjoy that part!

Mike

AMEN!! I second the flaps on a TF Corsair!! Making me wish I hadn't decided to put the flaps on.


Otherwise, I say covering!

--
Tom

The gear set up. I have the aileron servos and wires set up first then the throttle servo, that's easy. Then I move things around to get the CG. I assemble the complete plane while in the bones and make sure everything works correctly and is in the right place then hard mount everything, take the plane apart, finish sand and cover.
Building the plane is easy, setting it up takes A while.

Just getting motivated to start one

Patience! Thats the key, nothing else, just Patience!

That is SO true! That's why ARFs dominate the market and kit builders are few and far between. I know everyone says they're too busy today, love to fly not build, etc. but I think it all boils down to patience. We've become a fast food, drive through, I want it now culture and if there's one thing I've learned having built my first kit you've got to be willing to go slow, take your time, and have patience.