Tag Archives: F-4 Phantom

Freewing F-4D Phantom II 90mm EDF Assembly, Refinish, & Flight Review

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Phreewing’s “Rhino,” TRCG Target Drone Edition…

Well, in full disclosure, this article started close to two years ago now after purchasing the Freewing F-4 Phantom in the second batch of releases.  So why did take so long?…well, it’s a myriad of things really.  First of all, I’m a glutton for punishment.  I liked the airplane so much and being unable to leave well enough alone (not to mention with some kind ribbing from my friends) I just had to do a full refinish on the airplane.  Well, shortly after filling all of the panel lines, we sold our house and moved into a new one which put a halt to most modeling for a few months.  After the move, I actually almost sold the airplane because after all that, I had a tough time just getting back to it.  Well, not to be defeated, I decided it was necessary to finish up the project and I have since acquired a bunch of flights on the airplane with both 6s and 8s power.  And so, here we are!

The funny thing is, since finishing the project (after almost selling it), I’ve been kind of on an F-4 Phantom kick having reviewed the E-flite F-4 and then also acquiring a mostly built Jet Hangar Hobbies 1/10 scale F-4 to accompany my other half built JHH F-4 Phantom sitting in my storage racks…what can I say, a collector never stops collecting! 😉

 

AIRCRAFT ASSEMBLY NOTES

The assembly of the Freewing F-4 Phantom II was quite straight forward as a whole.  No major issues were noted and the fit of everything was good.  The fuselage comes in two pieces, so the first step is to glue the back end onto the airplane and frrom there the tails and wings are installed.  The anhedral tails slide onto knurled shafts and are held in place with a screw on each tail.  So, it is recommended to ensure that Continue reading →

E-Flite F-4 Phantom II Assembly & Flight Review

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E-Flite’s Phabulously Phantastic Phlying Phantom…wait, was that excessive? 😉

This week we’re looking at the E-Flite’s F-4 Phantom II.  The F-4 is an unmistakable airplane and E-flite has put together a really nicely engineered kit here that flies great!  Also, it’s another jet with SAFE select, so this adds to the growing number of EDFs with this as an option if that’s something you’re looking for.

The F-4 is an iconic airplane with a colorful history that served for quite a long time with a number of different countries.  It was produced for over 20 years and the last US F-4 drone was only just retired back in 2016.  Though it wasn’t designed as such, the F-4 could technically be considered the first JSF since it was the first jet fighter to serve in all three branches of the military.  It started out with the Navy as the F-4B.  Catching the eye of the Air Force they decided to make a few mods and then started flying the F-4C and then later the F-4E of course.  Well, the funny thing is, the Navy took note of some of the F-4C mods and incorporated those into what became the F-4J and later the F-4S.  Obviously, this is an oversimplification…but the C and J models have a number of similarities.

AIRCRAFT ASSEMBLY NOTES

Pulling the airplane from the box, you are met with a nice smooth airframe with a nice low parts count.  It’s impressive in fact considering the complexity that could be with the F-4 airframe.  As a whole, the is engineered extremely well.  The parts count is low and everything aligns so there’s not guess work on the alignment anywhere, most notably Continue reading →