Hello,

I bought a JHH F-15 probably 8 years ago and always had intentions of building it. My interests have changed over the last couple of years and I've actually been thinking about selling it to help fund Heli's that I'm now into. With the advent of all the arf kits now I was wondering does any one actually build jet kits any more? Is this thing actually worth going through the trouble of trying to sell it (is it worth anything) or should I just keep it in a box in the basement in case the inspiration hits me again?

Short answer.................Yes.

Hi Kelvin,
I just sent you a PM. The world has definitely gone ARF. Of all the F15's out there, I think the JHH one is probably going to be the toughest one to sell sadly. Skymaster, Fei Bao, Jet Legend, etc etc etc all have ARF F15's. Avonds, Yellow Aircraft, they have kits that have already been (re)designed for turbine.
Having said that, the EDF craze is growing all the time, and having a kit that basically has nothing done to it such as the JHH kit, is probably pretty attractive to the EDF crowd. They can have full control over building it and the weight.
I think there is value there, it's just to a different crowd today than it was 10 years ago.
Does it have any value, sure it does, does it have enough value to justify selling it and dealing with shipping and such, well, I don't really know.
But that's the great thing about RCU, you can put an ad up, and if nobody buys it, it doesn't cost you anything
Jeremy

Absolutely yes. Just completed a Yellow F-15 in a Russian camo scheme that took about 6 months to build. Awesome kit as everything fit perfectly and the airplane looks and flies great. Nothing beats building a kit and then getting to fly your handiwork.

Rob
FG15driver

yes.....

Only for myself though, the costs involved offering scratch built models as commissions are enormous. I'm sure you will find someone wanting a kit. I've got a Knat kit coming this year that will be a good little winter project, always hanker after some real modeling

Bingo! Just bought an old JHH A-4 kit off of RCU for exactly that purpose! It'll probably be next fall before I can really get to it, but I'm looking forward to going to flyins with an airplane that nobody else has...

Bob

For me building is at least half of the hobby. There are people who are just want to fly and that's their thing. All kits have value just how much is the question. If no one wants to collect or build it it has no value except to you. I have over 50 kits in the collection room of many types so that as my flying skills degrade over time I can still build nice planes that I know fly well and are from good kits that you cannot get even now.

what everyone else said.. So you wanna trade that thing for a Rave 450?

I wish I had the time to build an ARF!

I think there are many builders out there, but finding the time to do it is a challenge. I don't know of many people that actually dislike building.
Me pereonally, I like building more than flying. It is therapy!and I need therapy right about yesterday.

Yes definitely a builder. I am retired and manage to put in a few hours most days if I'm not flying. Current project is a 1:5.5 TF9J (two seat Grumman Cougar), six months in and another 3 to go! Ron.

Building is part of the fun!

Being retired - I´ve got the time for it. I go stale after a couple of ARFs...loose interest, and then it´s time for scratch building again!

Just invested in a Reaction 54 from Bruce Tharpe. Best kit I ever saw.

Last time I built a jet, was Ziroli´s Panther.

/Pete

Lol, no but I'd trade for a Trex 700 and I'll throw in some cash.

Yes building a PA F-15 kit

Here are some pics of two scratch build's I've done. The bomber was made specifically for the bombing event at Fresno Jets and uses a P-80 on a homemade pipe. It's been to 3 events andstill going. The camo P-70 size sport jet crashed at Sin City Jets a couple years ago due to a servo failure after 175 flights.

Right now, I just started working on a new scratch build with laser cut parts I just got back. A~15% upscale of the sport jet for P-80/120 is just about ready to go off to the laser cutter. So I have two in the pipline for later this year. These jets cost well under $200 per airframe less radio, gear&amp; engine and they are painted using latex. A very attractive alternative to $2K+ARF's if you can stand the 3-4 month build/finish cycle.</p>

I do,
No fun for me flying something out of a box ready to fly.
Build it, fly it, feel the pride.

Scratch building is the ultimate satisfaction!

Pete
PJPJets

well that i dont have anymore (have had to many QC issues with Align stuff in the past)

Hi, There are five of us building from plans in Chicago.

Next year I hope to build a quarter scale ME-262 from factory plans.

I don't build jets but I do build prop driven planes. Building is the best part of the hobby. The ARF guys come into the hobby and spend a few thousand bucks. In a couple of years they are bored as could be and drop out. I think it's great. There's plenty of money coming in that would not be there if it wasn't for the ARFS and the fields don't get crowded. It's the best of both worlds. I keep telling them that it's like sex without the foreplay. They don't listen to me. Dan.

Love to scratch build!  For me, building my own plane is 1/2 of the r/c hobby.   Building from someone else's tryed and tested plans is most enjoyable;  especially when it flies great.   The most satisfying build is drawing a set of plans from a photograph or 3-D drawings and engineering a plane that flies as good as the full scale craft.   My Wedell-Williams racer with a G-23 on it was such a build!!

It just surprises me when I go to the r/c field and the guys that fly only,  brag about their new plane(built by some China-man in a far away factory).  These planes are are built alike and are covered all the same.    Its bad enough when all our radios,servos, batteries and motors,etc. all come from the Pacific rim.   Balsa wood comes comes from S. America.  Some lite plywood and glue does come from here in the USA.   Taking pride in building my aircraft I fly lets me hold on to a little something that was built here in the USA.

Absolutely! I much prefer a kit build over an ARF.

Put the kit up on RCU and see what interest it generates. Do you have the scale retracts as well, or just the kit?

Paul

Too True. It's the risk versus reward thing. When you have spent 100s of you own hours labouring to build and finishing a project, every sucessful flight is so much sweeter. You cant buy that feeling.

Roger

After you scratch build planes & then buy an ARF you tend to spend so much time fiddling with it to meet your own (higher) standards that you may have well have scratch built one yourself anyway. But maybe that's just me! Other people may be more easily satisfied. - John.

Googles, you have opened Pandora's box, I am currently building (assembling 2 different aeroplanes, my Cougar and an an arf. I much prefer the scratch build. Ron.

And I do!

Scratch build is fun, it just the feeling that you have a 'one off' nobody has. On the other hand: going trough the whole cycle of making it ready for production/distrubution will just take too much time. ( I would love to though.....)



Frank

Yo Frank
Who is your "helper" in the Backround ? Looks like their ready to race the Meteor .
Semper Fi