Hey Shultzie!
I too have been very fond of the Novi 4. Heck I'm old enuf to remember seeing the ORIGINAL - absolutely drop dead gorgeous. A V-tailed N-4 would be off the charts cool... got pix?
Not sure you can get "rich" off the difference one way or the other...
Yes....Dave Gierke made a permanent impression on my tortured creative nature..
Let me share this with my brotha's n the Lord and stunt.....since I first saw those models of Dave's and watched him fly those great patterns....my prayers were filled with "I WAAANA'S AND GOTSTA' HAVES!...
GADS! WHY THE THE GREAT LORD GIVE ONE MAN SO MUCH DAMNED ARTISTIC-SKILL IN BOTH BUILDING AND FLYING STUNT...AND LIKE THE MOVIE "AMAAAADAAAAUUUUSSSS!" PRAYING THE THE LORD ABOVE WHY, WHY, WHY, WHEN I LOVED CLPA SO MUCH....WHY DID GOD GIVE ME SO LITTLE AND MEAGER TALENT IN BOTH.
(In prayers...be very very careful in what you ask for....CAUSE U JUST MIGHT GET WHAT U NEED AND NOT WHAT U CRAVE.....
(shortly after that......I changed careers and started out as a wind tunnel "flutta-modelman!" where the Great and Good Lord reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaallly dumped a bunch of reality onto me...and was shown just how little I really knew...and how much amazingly gifted and talented model builders they are in the world. I HAD TO LEARN TO NOT ONLY IMPROVE MY BUILDING SKILLS BUT TO ALSO CREATE ALL OF THAT STUFF ON COMMANDS FROM OUR ALL MIGHTY CUSTOMERS.
Was my prayers answered?
Yes, but NOT IN THE SELFISH WAYS THAT I HAD BEEN WANTING...but was lucky enough to find a job that I found actually fun...well, maybe most of the time for almost 30 years...when I retired in 2004.
Sad to admit, that I haven't carved a notch since!!! But the love of flying stunt and all the folks I met during the years...is where all the blessings flow, flow n' flow.