Scale Detailing

Recently, for our “Question of the Week,” we asked what turns our readers on about scale RC airplanes and their favorite pieces of scale detail. For the diehard MAN editors, perhaps the most important detail is a scale pilot figure—one with the correct equipment and goggles. Here are some of the answers we received.

Adam Graves: I like the whole package of a truly scale airplane: working flaps, scale propeller, dummy engine, retracts—the whole nine yards. Add a functional bomb drop and a sliding canopy and you’re really cooking with gas.

Keith A. Voelker: While any additional scale appearance and/or functional item will always enhance a scale airplane, one of my favorite additions is the RC pilot’s ability to fly the plane in as scale a manner as possible. For most of us several yards and more away from a scale plane, the appearance of all the scale items blends into the entire plane. What is left is the entire plane’s overall appearance for what it really is: namely, flying as the original full-scale plane flew.

Dan Dirksen: I really like a well-detailed cockpit. There are many models with scale outlines, working flaps, retracts, bomb drops, etc. However, the cockpit is where my eyes are first drawn to when I look at a scale model. There are so many features to most cockpits that one can spend almost as much time in the cockpit detailing as building the rest of the plane.

Hank McCabe: I think detailing is very important. To me it’s personal satisfaction, even though, like Dan said, it is time-consuming. But it’s well worth it in the end.

Jeb: I agree. An accurate and realistic scale pilot is the most important to me. There are many available at high prices. Unfortunately, anything priced for the average modeler is just plain ugly.