Hello, I am new to R/C, but I love scale aircraft. Nothing looks as good as a well made scale airplane. With that said can anyone recommend a good scale aircraft to start with? To either a good civilan or military aircraft. I apperciate your guys time, I hope I do not sound to dumb on here!

Chuck

There are MANY scale aircraft out there you can "start" with.

For a nice flying plane that is also a good intro to scale, I would suggest either a Piper Cub or Cessna Bird Dog.

Either plane can be detailed to what ever level you desire with available kits/parts or you can scratch build your details/components.

The level of detailing is a matter of personal preference, hovever, be advised that detailing a plane often times involves MANY times the hours needed to build and cover it.

Chuck- Ditto to what Campy said. I would add that you should start with an airplane that you yourself are interested in as you will spend lots of time with it. A lighter wing loaded plane that will fly predictably is important, many good civilian subjects out there. There are many good kits out there. Check my previous post in this forum under Ikon Nwest to see my first attempt at a scale civlian model, the monocoupe. Best of luck- Matt

It might be heresy to suggest it, but why not find an appealing scale-like ARF model and add a few more details to increase the scale effect. This would get you into the air quicker; able to go to some scale fun-flys and keep your flying skills developing. Then you can decide on a scale builder project which sometimes takes months or years! Just a thought.

To me scale is 90% about building. They are really just big models that also fly. Once a model is in the sky you can't tell the difference between a scratch-build precision scale model and a sport-scale ARF. I can see buying an ARF as a sort of trainer for a particular scale subject (like buying a Hanger 9 Corsair while you build your own true-scale version) but since scale really is all about building AND DETAILING you might as well get started right away on a project that will help you develop those skills.

And since we are talking about developing a skill set you should think about that kind of planes you really like and the sort of detailing that will be needed. For example, if you (like most people into scale it seems) are into warbirds then you better start learning how to do rivets, panel lines, and scale retracts. On the other hand these are unneeded skills you prefer WWI era planes.

If I were interested in WWII (which I'm not really) I'd be looking at the excellent kits from Skyshark. Personally, I don't think I could stand to add one more Cub to the current pile.