trainermaster80

My Feedback: (5)

Flyerinoak,
i went to westlake ace hardware today and bought 4) hitch pins. I got the next size up from the ones you bought. The 4 cost me $7.69 . A bit pricey but thet will do the job for me,
thanks for the info. Will also check out fastenal as i have an account there. Frankie trainermaster 80

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I was thinking (And you know how dangerous that can be!) I wonder what the percentage of new kits sold were never built and just sitting out there somewhere gathering dust? I have been mystified how often and old kit comes up for sale in this or other forums or on Ebay. The prices are also allover the place too. Some are priced reasonably others the seller is looking to make a killing. Anyone else care to speculate?

GallopingGhostler

No doubt there are price speculations on kits. I see many overpriced that don't sell. Others where a reasonable starting price are set, go for what a reasonable modern laser cut kit would go for. Except for a few rare historicals, there is a limit to the value of these. My personal opinion is that I'd rather see one built and flying, than continue as a hand-me-down become inheritance auction item, which I have seen many, lately.

Telemaster Sales UK

Flyer, the way I see it, few people build models from kits or plans anymore. Even I must admit to owning and flying four ARTFs on a regular basis. We are also of a generation which is beginning to die off. Therefore, the many of kits are sold as the result of estate sales and there are real bargains to be had, supply outstripping demand.There are a few very well sought-after kits or kits with a fine reputation, Proctor kits for example, which can command high prices.

However, in the end, the last one of us left alive will be left sitting on a huge mountain of kits which he has not had the time to build when he was alive. When he dies, no-one will be interested in building model aeroplanes so the pile will be thrown out or set on fire by the widow, children or significant others! .

I am as bad as anybody else when it comes to buying bargains. See below for the latest inventory. Sorry if you've already read this elsewhere.

Un-started kits
Fokker D VII, Stampe Monitor, Flying Flea, DB SE5, Supra Fly, ARTF Acrowot, ARTF Foam glider of some sort and a French kit called a Baron. Total 8.


Complete airframes awaiting engines and radios
DB Auster, North American Harvard,(AT6) (I have two of these!) DSM Aerostar. (The Dave Smith Models Aerostar was a 1980s pattern ship for ordinary mortals.) Total 4.



Projects or part-complete models
KK Outlaw,( a small British vintage model,) Telemaster 66, Peter Russell STOL, , WOT 4, (I have two of these as well!) Majestic Major, (Large British vintage Model) Double Sized Tomboy,(another British vintage model) Roy Scott 1/6 scale BE2e, Mick Reeves 1/3 scale Sopwith Camel. (I was given this model on condition that I finished it!) (9)

So that's twenty-one models in the attic.


Serviceable aircraft
SLEC Fun-Fly, WOT 4XL, St Leonard's Models Gemini, Stick, Junior 60, Senior Telemaster, WOT 4 Mark 3, WOT 4 Foam-E. (8)


Unserviceable aircraft
Roy Scott BE2e

Under construction
Veron Cardinal

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I can't help but feel you could be right.

GallopingGhostler

You mean they are going to have to pry my McCoy .35 Red Head out of my cold, dead hands?

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Sounds like a good plan to me!

acdii

Pica kits always seem to sell high, and I heard are very good ones, never found one I could afford. One of the main things today is the type of plane the kit is for. Those old school planes are not what people look for today, they want 3D, Fast, or warbirds.

rcmiket

The longer something is out of production the demand increases along with the price. I have owned 3 Pica Kits (still own a 1/5th P-40 kit) and all built and flew well.One of these days I'll get to do their Waco kit if I get lucky.

Mike.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

What surprises me some of the kits that seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Does anyone besides me remember building the Jack Stafford stand off .40 size P-51D? This kit had a foam core wing with balsa skins and I remember building mine with Goldberg mechanical retracts.

acdii

My friend has a Pica P-40 that he copied the plans from. One day we are going to get a box of balsa and sticks and to a group build of them using the kit as the master template. Right now I have too many unfinished ones though, with the B-25 taking center stage this winter.

trainermaster80

My Feedback: (5)

Flyerinokc.
Well, i am 87 & remember all those kits you guys mentioned. I had a few kits for sale one was a marks models hell cat which i sold to a well know modeler. For 30% less than tower which i thought was a fair price. I have kept all my tower hobby catalogs & when i sell an engine or kit i pick the oldest one i can still find the item i want to sell & knock 30% off that.
I have 3 lou andrews kits for sale that are most desireable also 25 nib engines for sale i'll keep the other 6 engines for my future modeling.i am still building on my dynaflite super decathlon. If i dont sell it my next will be a midwest cap232.
Have not been able to get one inquire to purchase. I attribute that to the lack of modelers building from kits other than arfs.
To me i/2 the fun was in building from plans or a kit.
I have a lot of plans i wanted to build from but like lots of older modelers i never got around to them. Will probably round them up list them & send them to outerzone where they can be copied for free. I1ll at least get some satisfaction that some one will build an airplane from one of my plans.
The same goes for my 25 n.i.b engines priced the same way i have not had any inquires on those either.
There seem to not be modelers who build any more.
ah ! Yes those were the good old days when we would gather at the club meeting and look over plans & kits. Some times we would all build the same model and see the various color schemes & modifying. Frankie trainermaster80

Telemaster Sales UK

Lest we forget.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

May they forever rest in peace and may their sacrifice forever live on in our memories!

jollyroger

My Feedback: (6)

Yeah, some of those old kit makers are gone but have been replaced by newer manufacturers along with laser cutting and CAD design.
There are many good kits out there if one wants to take the time to look.
One question that comes to my mind is WHERE HAVE ALL THE KIT BUILDERS GONE?
I know so many people who simply don't want to build , even though they may have the time, I believe many of us in this hobby have gotten spoiled and lazy.
Buying an ARF is the easy way out and you now own a plane that looks like every other one. In our club there are several of these electric foamies all from the same company all the same models and they all look just the same cookie cutter models with no pride of build in them.
If that's what these folks want, then so be it.
personally I'll take a nice kit any day.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

In answer to your question I'm order this week the short kit for the Rich Uravitch Cessna C-195 Businessliner, I already have purchased the plans and plastic several years back and have the back issue of Flying Models magazine with build article.

http://www.richuravitch.com/baseline...tm#Product%203

http://www.richuravitch.com/baseline...evised_013.htm

Telemaster Sales UK

You're right Jolly Roger, of my club in France with about twenty members,only three of us actually build anything. To me, one of the attractions of building from a kit or plan is being able to choose the final colour scheme of the model but the others don't seem to be bothered.

However, one of the other members of the club is building his first kit, French three-channel trainer called a Baron, http://www.envergure-modelisme.fr/av...aron-1914.html and I know of two elderly gentlemen elsewhere who build superb models then never fly them! These two were advised to buy electric foamie trainers. Because of their low wing loading these models flew extremely slowly and our nervous elderly debutantes were able to get the hang of radio controlled flight. After several more ARTF foamies, they've now started to fly their old balsa i/c models! I suppose that they were too emotionally attached to their kit or plan-built models to be enthusiastic about flying them but having learned to fly on foamies they can now get on with building and flying proper models!

So electric foamies have their uses. Even I own one! However, most of us traditional modellers are all destined for that great flying field in the sky over the next twenty or thirty years so let's get on with building and flying our models and not give a flying fig about the future!

PS. I have two ARTF glow-powered models too. .

smkrcflyer

Flyerinokc,

Let us know how the short kit looks. I was looking at his Fokker D7 but I could not find the specs on it. Do you call him to place an order then send a check?

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Rich doesn't take credit cards so a check or money order is required. I plan on using a USPS money order. I have it sent to the LHS and pick it up there. It keeps it out of site, out of mind of SWMBO! ;-) I offer to pay him a handling fee but he declines I guess he figures to make it up on all the bits and pieces I have to buy to complete it. All he asks is to make sure I have my name on it and C/O the store. I would call him on the D-7 specs. I will take a few pics when the kit gets here and post them.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I did some checking and I believe that is the same design Leading Edge kitted back in the day. The specs are as follows
Wingspan 51"
Wing area 756 square inches
Weight is 4 to 5 lbs.
Engine .35 - .45 2 cycle or .40 - .60 4 cycle.

acdii

OH, there are times having an ARF like everyone else can be exciting, such as the SIG flyin when all the Something Extra pilots are all up at one time( I declined). Lose your plane for an instant and its game over! LOL

smkrcflyer

I'll have to give them a call. There is a Hobby Hanger SE-5 kit on ebay for $80 buy now. I think the Fokker D7 was the same size 50" wing.

Telemaster Sales UK

The Baron 1914 is a classic three-channel French kit dating from the 1970s. It has probably taught many more Frenchmen how to fly R/C than any other model. With a wingspan of 1550mm (61") and a length of 1100mm (43.5") it looks vaguely like a Fokker Eindekker or Morane Saulnier Type N but with enlarged tail surfaces. Indeed, the fin and rudder look totally out of proportion to me and I may well reduce their size or at least change their shape.

Having retired to rural France in 2015 and joined a little local club with about 20 members in it, I've found that we have at least six Barons in the club either in flying condition or under construction. One is an electric powered ARTF finished in translucent red, another is red a la Richtofen, a third is an extremely "well-flown model" covered in repair patches of whatever coloured film happened to be available at the time, two others are in a French airforce camouflage scheme, and the other one, still in the course of construction will be covered in orange translucent film! We plan to have an open day in the summer and a mass flight of Barons is planned.

The kit cost a very reasonable 80€ delivered and came in a plain cardboard box, 1 metre long, complete with a set of Iron Crosses!

I'm starting on the wings with mine. This is unusual for me as I usually start with the fuselage, then the wings and finally the tail surfaces. However, I plan to do a fair bit of "bashing" to this kit including reducing the dihedral and fitting ailerons. The piece of cheap plywood within the wing structure will retain an aileron servo. I had to open up the slots in the wing rib to accommodate the spars but otherwise the build has bee straight forward. I have also modified the wing tip by building it flat rather than under-cambered as shown on the plan. You may call mine the "Mark 2 Baron!"

I haven't decided how to finish my model except that I will finish it in an RAF scheme, either Tone Bayetto's WW1 Morane or a spoof inter-wars scheme, silver dope and geometric patterns between the roundels. What do you guys think would be the best option? I'll give the German crosses to one of my colleagues for his model!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Hoiw about some Canadian, Australian, or some obscure country fighting with the Austria - Hungry Empire, markings just to be different?

Telemaster Sales UK

Russian WW1 with a black tail-plane and skull and crossbones marking!