Author Topic: Good News For Scale Modellers (Read 466 times)

Taiaha · « **on:** June 06, 2002, 06:28:29 PM »

This from the July issue of Fine Scale Modeller:

"Accurate Miniatures, which made some of the hobby industry's top plastic models and closed in June 2001, has returned under its new name, Accurate Hobby Kits."

Their new website is: http://www.accuratehobbykits.com

And one of their first projects? A P40.

Now I can get to my several unfinished Accurate Miniatures kits, secure in the knowledge that the world will see their like again!

Hangtime · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2002, 07:18:47 PM »

1/72 scale plastic desk-display models??

henh.

kinda like stamp collecting or model railroading. Safe, sedate, and totally boring.

I suppose it can be satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable. kinda like jello after a rousing meal of ms pauls fish sticks.

Now, R/C Scale modeling; thats something else again. Not only do you get to enjoy your models static perfection..

... you get to enjoy the incredible thrill of flying it.

Photos courtesy of Aerotech.

oh... and good news for scale modelers.. Turbines took the top 10 places at Top Gun this year, Dynaflite is releasing this month it's Giant Scale SE-5a, the Hanger 9 Giant Scale Clipped Wing TaylorCraft is shipping now (mines otw) and Yellow Aircraft has a slick new P-40 1/4 scale kit that's gonna be 25lbs of kickass precision scale warbird.

streakeagle · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2002, 07:59:32 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Hangtime
Now, R/C Scale modeling; thats something else again. Not only do you get to enjoy your models static perfection.

But for the cost of R/C modeling, you could get an ultralight and fly every weekend

Hangtime · « **Reply #3 on:** June 06, 2002, 08:17:05 PM »

Not even close to correct. 1/12 scale combat birds are about $50.00 fer a kit. Radio's and all, getting flying costs less now than it did 5 years ago.

as for hang-gliding... a lil story.

Saw a powered ultralight and hang-gliding demo.. guy was a pro. Was breathtaking to watch. Discovery Channel was there filming the guy. Wind shear got him though.. slammed him into the ground, killed him outright. real tragedy.

Last summer, out in the hamptons at the Gabreski Air Show i watched a pitts go in. Same result. Real tragedy. Horrified everybody. Was even talk of never having an airshow there again.

Some months later, at a Scale Warbirds meet, I saw a mid-air between a P38 and a Jug. The lightning went straight in, the jug made a safe forced landing and demonstrated great skill in doing so. The crowd cheered the Jug driver, commiserated with the lightning driver. When the guy brought his many pieces of wrecked P38 into the pits he was smiling. Sombody asked him why he was smiling. His answer:

"I wasn't in it"

Yes, there is risk... it's horrifying indeed to lose a year or two's worth of work, many hundreds, even thousands of dollars worth of fine scale warbird... and therin lies the rub... and the diffrence between us and stamp collectors, plastic model bulders and model train set designers.

pimpjoe · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2002, 09:10:36 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Hangtime
Not even close to correct. 1/12 scale combat birds are about $50.00 fer a kit. Radio's and all, getting flying costs less now than it did 5 years ago.

where the hell are you buying your equipment?!?!?

streakeagle · « **Reply #5 on:** June 07, 2002, 02:51:42 PM »

Between the radio, engine, kit, construction materials, tools, support equipment, fuel, AMA membership, flying club membership fees, etc, it is easy to spend more than $2,000 getting started in R/C. A pilots license can be had for $3,000 through a formal school, or much less through independent instructor pilots. Prices haven't changed all that much since I was involved in 1981-83. Radios are a little cheaper, but engines and kits are a little more expensive. I would rather put my time and money into real flying. Though to tell you the truth, virtual flying has proven to be almost as entertaining and far cheaper. But I still build plastic scale models simply because I like them. Gives me some kind of warm feeling to look at my ceiling every night and see nearly a hundred years of aviation history all within reach of me... like having my own museum.

Chairboy · « **Reply #6 on:** June 07, 2002, 04:09:01 PM »

Your numbers are absolutely inflated.

AMA membership is something like $50
Airplane kit $50
Monokote, hinges, glue, landing gear, etc maybe $40-50

(or get an ARF (almost ready to fly) for $120. ARFs are sometimes even less expensive then building it yourself. it has everything except engine & radio)

6 channel radio, $150-200 (which includes servos, receiver, transmitter, and battery)
Field kit (w/ fuel, gel cell battery, fuel pump, starter, charger for gel cell battery, etc) $60-70
.40 size engine, $75 (actually, that's for a .46 Magnum XL, my favorite)

Total cost: $515, and that's if you go with the high cost on everything. You can get all of the above for between $400-500.

$2000? Maybe if your first plane is a quarter scale P-51 w/ retracts, bomb drop, and 4 stroke engine.

Hangtime · « **Reply #7 on:** June 08, 2002, 12:29:29 PM »

Yup; Streak.. like anything else, you can spend as much as you want in the hobby.. and over the last 10 years or so, I've spent prolly more than 5 grand on my hobby. And it's a pittance compared to what the company pays to keep it's Piper Dakota airworthy over the same time frame. Frankly, I'd rather fly R/C than 'full scale' It ain't likely anybody is ever gonna let me climb behind the stick of a real P51.. and even less likely i'll ever let some 'full scale' pilot fly my 1/4 scale verision.

To build a quality 1/72 scale model requires superb building skills, the same skills required to build something that actually flies. I really ain't trying to knock building plastic models.. I'm just banging the bandwagon drum for R/C.

Now, you ain't really tryin to convince us that 'full scale' is cheaper than R/C are yah?

Chairboy hit the numbers on the head.. normally I can get a guy fully equipped with a Scale Warbird ARF, radio, engine, ground support and all for less (sometimes a lot less) than $600.00.

My Dynaflite PT 19, complete with a Zenoah G38 gas (not fediddlein glow) cost me less than $400 to get in the air, and I have more fun flying it (due to the low investment) than I do the more exotic stuff... and it's a superb flyer.

R/C rocks. Beats hell outta stamp (or plastic model) collecting.

SirLoin · « **Reply #8 on:** June 08, 2002, 02:38:09 PM »

Lol..Great posts Hangtime..

streakeagle · « **Reply #9 on:** June 09, 2002, 01:16:00 AM »

What I am saying is that R/C flying isn't a one time $500 purchase. Your first plane won't be that Byron Originals P-51 with retracts. You will go through many "consumables". My dad didn't realize until after the fact that for the time and the money spent on my 2 years of R/C flying as a kid, I could have gotten a pilots license, which I can assure you I would have much rather had. I would still have and be using the pilots license, whereas I don't have anything but a couple of photos to remember my R/C aircraft.

Ultralights are not too expensive to operate once purchased. Nor do you have to buy a Cessna to fly one. I know plenty of not so wealthy people who fly real planes through clubs.

If by your logic, R/C is better than plastic because they actually fly... Cessnas ultralights are better than R/C because you get to fly in them. I have as much fun flying my 2-string stunt kites at 50 to 70 mph in good winds as I ever had flying R/C planes and they can be flown anywhere. When I want to look at a P-51, I have my plastic models and books. When I want to fly one, I have Aces High. If I have a $2,000 to blow, I will ride in a real P-51 and get to fly it as well. If I ever have $2,000,000 to blow, I will buy a P-51 outright

But I have lost all interest in standing on the ground watching a toy fly when I can play a game like Aces High that puts me in the cockpit or hop in my Corvette and feel some real g's going through banked curves or go to Busch Gardens daily and ride the rollercoasters.

$500 buys 30 to 50 plastic kits in 1/48 scale which I can enjoy every day whenever I look up at my ceiling versus one plane that I can only fly at a designated field.

I have done scale plastic kits, balsa rubber band, R/C, real flying, and even hang gliding. Given my current time and economic status, plastic is all I am doing right now. Within a year or two, I should finally be getting a pilots license or an ultralight. Having access to real flying, I don't ever expect to do R/C flying again.

SirLoin · « **Reply #10 on:** June 09, 2002, 07:13:41 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by streakeagle
What I am saying is that R/C flying isn't a one time $500 purchase. Your first plane won't be that Byron Originals P-51 with retracts. You will go through many "consumables".

I'm still flying the same "consumable" 20 years later.It was my first kit(Top Flight "Metrik" 2 metre sailplane) and with an OS 1.0 it flies fast and gets me 18 minutes on a 4oz tank.Fit my budget when I was 16 and still delivers the most fun per buck of any plane I've owned.

Hangtime · « **Reply #11 on:** June 10, 2002, 10:16:05 PM »

Quote

My dad didn't realize until after the fact that for the time and the money spent on my 2 years of R/C flying as a kid, I could have gotten a pilots license, which I can assure you I would have much rather had.

ROFL!! And I spend more money every year on cigarettes and dope than it would cost to get a pilots license... (three times over) and I wouldn't know how to fly (full scale) any better than I do now, and wouldn't get all that much more (full scale) stick time than I do now.

Sounds like sour grapes to me Streak.. I bet you've spent more than 2 grand on bubble gum or tossed that amount away in beer bottle deposits over yer short lifetime. (i know i have.

) Why blame yer R/C experience for not getting a pilots license?

OTOH, there's the hobby and the friends I've made in it over the years. Solid community, lotsa 'full scale' guys fly R/C too. There's always a club nearby, and we road-trip with 'em when the itch strikes, load up 10 or 20 warbirds in a van cravan, rent or borrow an RV, hit a 2 day warbirds meet, get sauced every night, fly my brains out all day, laff my bellybutton off, bust the pattern and do some stooopid stuff with a bird low, slow and inverted, even auger in the process and not have some stuffed shirt in my face in the aftermath announcing "I'm from the FAA and i'm here to help" demanding i pee in a cup and surrender my 'license'.

Or I can just get up on saturday morning, toss a few birds in the truck and motor up to the local r/c field, and have a ball there. Givin the flight instructors a hand or workin the bugs outta some guys new setup is just as much fun as boring holes in the sky overhead.

And of course, when yah get bored, you can just switch regimes.. there's pattern, soaring, sloping, pylon, 1/12 combat, heli's, just to name a few.. always somethin new to see, somethin new to try. Some character even had a flying lawnmower out last month. Flew like toejam, but it flew.. and the laffs were precious.

Quote

Cessnas ultralights are better than R/C because you get to fly in them.

Horsepucky. perhaps you missed the 'i wasn't in it' part in my previous posts.

I've flown enuff 'light aircraft' to know that flying should not be a 'death defying feat'.. and thats EXACTLY what flying ultralights is.. defiance of the odds. Fly one of those woefully underpowered man toting kites long enuff, yer gonna get creamed in it. A windspeed change of 10 knots coupled with a 90 degree direction shift spells outright disaster on short final. No thanks. No way anyone walks away from one of those landings in an ultralite with a smile.

Nope. I'll take R/C; thanks. My 'annuals' are a lot more affordable.. and enjoyable.

Mudshark · « **Reply #12 on:** June 10, 2002, 11:19:48 PM »

Hello,
Hangtime, I take considerable exception to your post. Actually in a couple ways...
1st I have been flying Ultralights (underpowered man-toting kites? I think that is roughly what you said) for about 15 years now. I fly a Sorrel SNS-8 Hiperlight. It does everything I ask it to at a price I can afford. A wonderful little bi-plane (enclosed cockpit, wheelbrakes, and full span flaperons to boot) I bore holes in the sky, that is all I want to do. I fully check my machine and I take good care of it, as it does me. I am no way "cheating death or defying the odds. Your remark was, remarkable rude (see I remarked on it) and I am guessing uneducated as well on the subject. Take a look at a few of the very nice Ultralights that are out there.
2nd Geez, whats wrong with plastic kits? I used to build then..still do, It is a nice relaxing bit of a hobby. I do not fly R/C but I do not care if other people do, nor would I belittle them for it. I fly Free-flight scale (peanuts mostly, and Embryo) It is another nice hobby, it is all aviation related and it is all fun. So who cares what another person does in their relaxation time? As long as they are'nt buggering children, I don't care.

Well, that's my Pfennigs worth,
Chris "Mudshark" Scott

stat2000 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 10, 2002, 11:54:16 PM »

Here is my P-51....$150 for the plane off ebay....$100 for radio...$60 for engine.....$100 for all necessary field eqiup

stat2000 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 10, 2002, 11:55:46 PM »

my p47 a work in progress