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Zetoyoc

Zetoyoc

Elite member
Does anybody know anything about the current situation with park scale models? I have ordered a few things from them several weeks ago now and have heard nothing from them. no response to email message or direct phone call. His inbox is full. I was excited about a few of the kits offered there and it is recommended highly in this thread. but things aren't looking so good right now. Any ideas?

-Jesse
 
Turbojoe

Turbojoe

Elite member
Sorry to give you bad news. Zeke is at the very top of my "shite" list! I ordered my Monocoupe 90a from him many, many, many years ago. Even then it took many e-mails and much waiting to get a reply from him and even longer to get the kit. Fast forward to about a year ago and I opened a sealed Zeke's Cessna 182 kit with the aileron/flap wing kit that I bought from RC Groups at least 3 years prior. I found several wing part fitment issues that were clearly laser cut file problems. The fuse is done and I had very few issues with that. I e-mailed Zeke a few times to see if he could give me some hints to make use of the funky parts so I could at least build the wing. The parts are THAT far from usable! I'm STILL waiting for a reply! That kit has been put back in the box and moved to the very back of the build queue.

It's a real shame he's so out of touch. My Monocoupe 90a built into simply the most beautiful kit I've ever had. So nice that I was afraid to maiden it many years after it was finished. It came out so nice it served mainly as a display model even though it was 100% flight ready. I was really expecting the same outstanding result from the Cessna 182 if the wing parts weren't so screwed up. I'll tackle it again someday and make my own parts if I have to. In the mean time if I must have a Cessna 182 I have a very rare early Dave Blum Cessna 182 laser cut kit. It's only R.E.T. but I can live with that. I have his R.E.T. Cessna180 from Mountain Models and just LOVE that plane to death! If it's designed by Dave Blum, Mike Molt or Mountain Models it's going to build and fly fantastic.

My suggestion is if you ordered from Zeke PayPal or credit card request your money back. Zeke seems to have just fallen off the end of the earth. I see posts all over the place from people that can't get a response from him.

Joe
 
Zetoyoc

Zetoyoc

Elite member
Turbojoe said:
Sorry to give you bad news. Zeke is at the very top of my "shite" list! I ordered my Monocoupe 90a from him many, many, many years ago. Even then it took many e-mails and much waiting to get a reply from him and even longer to get the kit. Fast forward to about a year ago and I opened a sealed Zeke's Cessna 182 kit with the aileron/flap wing kit that I bought from RC Groups at least 3 years prior. I found several wing part fitment issues that were clearly laser cut file problems. The fuse is done and I had very few issues with that. I e-mailed Zeke a few times to see if he could give me some hints to make use of the funky parts so I could at least build the wing. The parts are THAT far from usable! I'm STILL waiting for a reply! That kit has been put back in the box and moved to the very back of the build queue.

It's a real shame he's so out of touch. My Monocoupe 90a built into simply the most beautiful kit I've ever had. So nice that I was afraid to maiden it many years after it was finished. It came out so nice it served mainly as a display model even though it was 100% flight ready. I was really expecting the same outstanding result from the Cessna 182 if the wing parts weren't so screwed up. I'll tackle it again someday and make my own parts if I have to. In the mean time if I must have a Cessna 182 I have a very rare early Dave Blum Cessna 182 laser cut kit. It's only R.E.T. but I can live with that. I have his R.E.T. Cessna180 from Mountain Models and just LOVE that plane to death! If it's designed by Dave Blum, Mike Molt or Mountain Models it's going to build and fly fantastic.

My suggestion is if you ordered from Zeke PayPal or credit card request your money back. Zeke seems to have just fallen off the end of the earth. I see posts all over the place from people that can't get a response from him.

Joe
Click to expand...
Thank you for the information. I was hoping for a different outcome especially since he offers some neat kits I couldn't find elsewhere. But I guess it isn't meant to be this time. I'll likely move forward with getting my money back.
 
Turbojoe

Turbojoe

Elite member
Sorry to ruin this for you. Maybe wait a few more days or e-mail him several more times. His kits really build into great scale models and I'd love to order more from him. After my flawless Monocoupe 90a I firmly believe my Cessna 182 kit problems are a fluke. I'd love to order the rest of his Cessna lineup but not unless he steps up his game a LOT.

Brian from Mountain Models has had some serious life setbacks and is doing his best to bring everything back up to snuff again. He's still going to be hit or miss for a while as he get's recent life issues ironed out but I have every faith in him. I have over a dozen built MM planes and 15 NIP MM kits stashed away. Many of the builds are prototype, alpha or beta builds. Mountain Models would be my #1 choice even if I had to wait for things to settle down for him. I've worked with Brian for many years and always supplied my built MM planes for display in his booth at Arizona Electric Festival. He's the real deal.

Next would be Stevens Aeromodel. Bill has some really nice kits. I seriously have a hard time wrapping my head around his prices though. I built a small Extra 300 kit from him 15 or so years ago. It was nice but even then I kicked myself for spending so much for what anyone else would sell for 25% or more less. MM has the same or sometimes even better hardware packages for less complete kit money.

Joe
 
Zetoyoc

Zetoyoc

Elite member
Turbojoe said:
Sorry to ruin this for you. Maybe wait a few more days or e-mail him several more times. His kits really build into great scale models and I'd love to order more from him. After my flawless Monocoupe 90a I firmly believe my Cessna 182 kit problems are a fluke. I'd love to order the rest of his Cessna lineup but not unless he steps up his game a LOT.

Brian from Mountain Models has had some serious life setbacks and is doing his best to bring everything back up to snuff again. He's still going to be hit or miss for a while as he get's recent life issues ironed out but I have every faith in him. I have over a dozen built MM planes and 15 NIP MM kits stashed away. Many of the builds are prototype, alpha or beta builds. Mountain Models would be my #1 choice even if I had to wait for things to settle down for him. I've worked with Brian for many years and always supplied my built MM planes for display in his booth at Arizona Electric Festival. He's the real deal.

Next would be Stevens Aeromodel. Bill has some really nice kits. I seriously have a hard time wrapping my head around his prices though. I built a small Extra 300 kit from him 15 or so years ago. It was nice but even then I kicked myself for spending so much for what anyone else would sell for 25% or more less. MM has the same or sometimes even better hardware packages for less complete kit money.

Joe
Click to expand...
I do like stevens aero I built the 4charlie as my first balsa. I have an old school model works on the bench now. I even ordered a switchback from mountain models yesterday. I don't mind waiting if I know there is movement or even life on the other end of the order. :)
 
Turbojoe

Turbojoe

Elite member
Many including myself consider the SwitchBack Sport to be the first true "park flyer". It will quickly become your favorite plane. I've built at least a dozen with many mods from retracts to trike gear to twin to EDF to...... Still my absolute favorite is my very first one built in 2001. I still have her in flying condition! I'll never let that plane go. Be advised that kit was designed back when the GWS geared 300/350 stick mounted motors were popular. Good luck finding one now and if you do why would you want a brushed motor? There are stick mount adapters for outrunners and MM sells them . So do may others.

I have a first run OSM Comet kit. I had some issues that I've seen with several start up kitters in that they make slots at .125 or .250 but the lite ply tab is not even close to those sizes so everything fits really sloppy. It seems they took care of that in the later kits though. I'll get back to that build hopefully soon. If I don't have at least 10 kits in various stages of completion I feel I'm not busy enough. LOL

Joe
 
nhk750

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
I think Sig is the number one for kits right now and Balsa USA is number one for old style planes. Sig kits build like no other kit I have tackled, nice, easy, complete and great flying airplanes.
 
Ryan O.

Ryan O.

Out of Foam Board!
Are larger Brodak/Dare kits good?
I saw the add for Dare Brodak kits in the latest issue of Model Aviation, and they have some interesting planes. I knew about their smaller kits, like the Ercoupe, but I didn't know about their many, many large kits. There's a C-119, which there isn't much info on, and even a Lancaster. Almost all of their planes seem to be built light, similar to the Guillows kits, just scaled up a lot. Their website is odd. Some of their products are hard to find, from their home page I wasn't able to find their DC-3, DC-6, C-119, and a few others. When I searched them on google I was able to find the specific kits. I was wondering if anyone here has experience with them, and if it's possible to skin them for extra scale detail without adding too much weight?
https://brodak.com/
This is a video I found of someone assembling their DC-3 which shows the internals:
 
nhk750

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
My friend built the DC 3 and it came out very nice. A typical stick build that is very light and fragile. TexMechRobot is his user name on this site. His was a little underpowered which resulted in a tip stall and crash damage so I would recommend some good power.
 
Last edited:
SlingShot

SlingShot

Maneuvering With Purpose
I've been looking around some at kits, and it seems as though the short kit route can open up a lot more options. Anybody dealt much with the shorts?
 
Turbojoe

Turbojoe

Elite member
My problem with "short kit" suppliers is that they sometimes charge MORE than the original kitter and supply much LESS product. eg. plans, landing gear, hinges, motor mounts, hard wood, canopy, etc. etc.etc.

Joe
 
speedbirdted

speedbirdted

Legendary member
I almost entirely don't bother with short kits. If you have a scroll saw and are decently skilled at using it you can make 99.9% of the precut parts yourself. As Turbojoe said it's also often cheaper to just buy the accessories that the airplane needs separately.
 
Turbojoe

Turbojoe

Elite member
Yep, some of the "short kit" suppliers are asking more than the original kitters for way LESS materials than the original kit contents included in the "original" kits. These "short kit" "leaders" should be shot in the head repeatedly for deleting those posts taking advantage of those of us in the hobby! What about us "normal" people that support Horizon and Spektrum. Don't we count?

Joe
 
Zetoyoc

Zetoyoc

Elite member
I recently ordered my first few short kits from blasaworkbench and am quite pleased with what I received. Very well packaged and very clean cuts. I will order more from him soon.
 
rockyboy

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
SlingShot said:
I've been looking around some at kits, and it seems as though the short kit route can open up a lot more options. Anybody dealt much with the shorts?
Click to expand...

I've built a couple short kits from Manzano Laser works and have really enjoyed them. They came with the vacuum formed plastics, plans, and all the formers and sheet cut parts. All I had to add was stick and sheet materials and hardware. For the price it was a good way to get a start on a kit of a plane that otherwise I would need to tackle from plans alone. Some short kits are priced a little too high for my liking, but at least shipping is cheaper!
 
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