Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Taiaha on June 06, 2002, 06:28:29 PM
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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!
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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..
(http://www.aerotechmodels.com/ridrunn1.jpg)
... you get to enjoy the incredible thrill of flying it.
(http://www.aerotechmodels.com/bigdoll.jpg)
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.
:D
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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 :p
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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.
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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?!?!?:eek:
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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.
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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.
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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. ;)
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Lol..Great posts Hangtime..:)
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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.
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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.
:)
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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.
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. :)
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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
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Here is my P-51....$150 for the plane off ebay....$100 for radio...$60 for engine.....$100 for all necessary field eqiup
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my p47 a work in progress
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and my f4u.....hate that plane they are a beotch to fly..so i sold it
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opps...file to big
Oh yeah if you want to find some EXCELLENT deals on R/C stuff or already have stuff you want to trade look at
http://www.rcvuniverse.com
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Hiya Mudshark!
If yah wanna ride a kite, hey kewl!! Personally, I'd rather fly in something that won't be swatted outta the sky on final by a fart from mother nature.
It ain't 'lack of education'.. in fact, after better than 40 years of matching wits and odds with the very same mother nature I've gained a healthy respect for her proclivities.. and like 'ol Clint said.. "Man's gotta know his limitations..."
Now if you wanna bunji-jump, play with parachutes, fly hot-air balloons, wander around the sky inna glorified kite.. hey; enjoy yerself. I'd love to be your insurance agent. :D
And as I said above.. ain't nothin wrong with static plastic kits. Ain't nothin wrong with stamp collecting, either. ;)
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Originally posted by Hangtime
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.
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.
wuss wuss wuss.
Danger is what makes flying glamorous. And I'm all for glamour and getting chicks impressed. And you don't do that flying your toy, no matter hos skillful you are.
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Originally posted by Hangtime
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.
Contrary to your later denial of offense to others, that sounds like an insult to scale modelers the way Monty Python makes fun of accountants.
Sorry, after jumping off a mountain strapped to a hang glider, I will never find anything "thrilling" about watching a model fly, even a P-51. Aces High far exceeds any fun I ever had flying R/C. I had a Sig Kadet Mk2 to learn, an ugly stick just for fun, and a Sig Cougar for aerobatics. They were all fun, but not as fun as my Corvette nor any real flying I have done. I have no delusions about the safety of flying hang gliders and ultralights. But I don't let fear of dying stop me from driving cars in traffic everyday, flying on airliners, or swimming at "shark infested" Florida beaches, so why would I let that stop me from doing my favorite thing of all time: flying in any way shape or form.
I don't fault you for liking R/C, I just fault your logic for saying those who only do scale models are boring and those that fly ultralights and real airplanes are crazy or stupid when they could be having so much more fun flying R/C.
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I just fault your logic for saying those who only do scale models are boring and those that fly ultralights and real airplanes are crazy or stupid when they could be having so much more fun flying R/C.
Jeeze, Streak.. you are Absolutely Correct! My logic is faulty. If it wasn't, and I was sane, I'd probably be an accoutant for monty python and have a big stamp collection.
Now, normally I'd rub my hands together with glee at the sight of the words 'corvette', 'hang-glider' and 'swimming at shark infested beaches' all in the same paragraph decrying a slam at stamp collectors ..err.. plastic model collectors...
ahh, what the hell. All in good fun; right? Yus, I wuz flickin some sand at the plastic model guys. Truth nbe told, I'm kinda envious of those guys.. they get all the chicks.
:D
wuss wuss wuss.
Danger is what makes flying glamorous. And I'm all for glamour and getting chicks impressed. And you don't do that flying your toy, no matter how skillful you are.
LOL.. 'getting chicks impressed'. 'Glamor' ROFL!!
You young puppies with yer flashy loud cars, gaudy death defying hang-gliders and shark filled pants are just the kinds of fellas that those poindexter amazinhunks at the FAA point to for justification of all the stoooopid rule toejam they come up with.
After the vette gets wrecked, yer license pulled, yer human-kite crashed and the shark winds up in the tuna can, then what'll yah have? Believe me, the chicks stop bein impressed when the kneepads wear out... and they vanish like the dew when the money runs out. Studley. *snicker*
So.. what'll yah have then? A 21" monitor mirroring your life with a GAME simultation of risk? Nath's bragging rights?? LOL!
Again.. no thanks. We may not have ANY big titted babes with pouty lips hanging on our arms when we fly R/C, but thats only because we prefer to show off our FLYING toys at the field.
;)