Official Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom II Thread

[Topshot19]

Great thanks for the info ! One good looking jet !

[MOFO1]

" Mucho Macho trouble say I. There was a clue given sometime back. Cannot recall if it was on this site or RCG. I do believe it was from someone at MRC. The clue was "don't give up hope or don't lose hope" when queried about the F-4. This was during the time the teaser photos for the 64mm F-105 were released. There are times when what is not said is as important or more important then what is said. This observation is based on decades of experience negotiating with some pretty tough hombres. Backwards keep talking I do. " WAS I RIGHT OR WAS I RIGHT. I ORIGINALLY POSTED THIS ON JAN-28. BACKWARDS KEEP TALKING I DO.

[Alpha]

Nice flight, Bajora! I'm hoping Rob can comment here on his impressions and tips for how this bird handles to add to the others who've flown it so far. He's been flying it really well in your videos! I enjoy seeing the range of maneuvers, too.

[Alpha]

"There are times when what is not said is as important or more important then what is said.

Right on, Mofo1, you just described 98% of my job!

The Action will do the talking when its Time has come.

[RCjetdude]

So, what mods are people planning for this awesome bird outside of the 3D printed parts from MRC or paint? Functional canopies? Additional ordnance? Drag chute? Oily exhaust? Functional arresting hook? After burner rings?

[Dlxpkg2000]

Hey Steve, I've got a set of 3 color AB lights, that I was going to install in my FW F-15. I'm thinkin' they just found a NEW home.

[RCjetdude]

Hey Steve, I've got a set of 3 color AB lights, that I was going to install in my FW F-15. I'm thinkin' they just found a NEW home.

Excellent Jim! I take it you are going to be at Jet Jam again?

[Dlxpkg2000]

Wouldn't miss it my friend....

[RCjetdude]

Still have the big F-15?

[Alpha]

Tcat and the others are right about wanting dirty Rhinos. Here are some photos from last year of the model I painted here at Freewing to use as the base reference for the production model. We tinkered with the idea of fading in some staining, but ultimately decided to do the four-tone silver/gunmetal/titanium/smoke paint masking that has been seen so far on the Stock Production pics from Bajora and Xplaneguy.

I'm posting these photos just to show those who are curious what a little airbrushing can do to bring out the grit in their brand new factory fresh painted PNPs. On the PNPs, a lot of the paneled painting is already done for you out of the box. Personalizing the model even further takes little effort and in my opinion is very rewarding.

To start off, I used a flattened bamboo skewer to make "rivet" impressions, same as I did on the Freewing 80mm A-10. Then I used a Post-It to quickly mask thin panel lines along the upper section, using reference photos. These panel lines were too thin to be molded as panel lines into the foam mold --they would have looked too overdone-- but a quick dusting with an airbrush gives the impression of a shadow where it's actually entirely smooth foam. The colors shift depending on how the light hits it, because I used some matte aluminum on certain panels.



It's difficult to tell, but the burner cans are airbrushed with aluminum, titanium, clear gold, clear blue, and the slightest hint of clear purple. Some of the F-4 references we had showed very colorful heat patterns. The trick on a model is to remember that a little goes a long way. The stranger colors should only show up in certain light and at certain angles. Otherwise it looks "too blue" or "too gold".

For the top side of the SEA Camo colors, I airbrushed shading into the panel lines at random areas with darker variants of the top colors, and also mixes of reds, browns, and blacks. Over each of the three base colors I also dusted the same color mixed with 10% white. This is a good technique for breaking up the harshness of the colors and to simulate fading in the hot Vietnam sun. Based on reference photos, I also highlighted certain vertical panels to simulate stresses and slight waves or differential shading. Finally, I dusted the entire model with a hazy mix of light brown, again to blend in all the colors as they would appear to the naked eye in true scale. Mask off the bare metal areas, obviously, to protect them from that final shade of dusty overspray. If done properly, the final effect of all of this layering is that the weathering shouldn't look overdone in real life, and in photos, it should barely show up. Less is more.




For the underside, I sprayed varying colors into the panel lines. Dark reds, rust, brown, tan, yellows... all kinds of strange colors mixed together. In areas where heat or oil or other agents would accumulate on the real aircraft, I sprayed more sensible colors, like oily blacks. Then, I covered 98% of all those colors with the original underside color. Again, it shouldn't look overdone up close, and should look reasonably sensible from a distance. Compare my in-flight underside pic (slight weathering) with Bajora's in-flight underside pic at a similar angle (factory fresh PNP). 30 minutes of painting goes a long way.



For color references, I used a brand called "MiG by Ammo". Credit to my good friend Levendis for his recommendation. The "MiG by Ammo" paints were surprisingly extremely accurate when put up against the real F-4 at the museum we used as a color reference (hands on, in person, I did it myself to ensure accuracy). The four colors are available here as part of a set. One set is enough to add the differential shading to the stock PNP colors, if you find that you want to simulate the paint fading I recommended about. Painting the entire model would require more paint, but again, as a top coat of shading, the set linked below is more than enough, and the point is for the paints not to be 100% exact, but 90%-ish to show a difference in age. I really like these MiG by Ammo paints. They're water wash up acrylics, like Tamiya. Odorless, very easy to use, and easy to shoot at 15-20psi with a 4:1 paint to thinner ratio, depending on distance from target and desired line thickness/attributes.

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/paint/mig/paint_mig_7205.shtml

[Alpha]

For a bit of fun, here is one of our test pilots holding up my weathered F-4


and probably my favorite picture from last year.... an afternoon ops picture taking off of our dusty gravel test field!

[RCjetdude]

Thanks for the tips Alpha. Awesome sauce.

[Aros]

Truly outstanding (and perfectly executed and understated) weathering Alpha. The exhaust trail especially is incredible.

[Dlxpkg2000]

Yes I do still have "The BIG-BOY", and she will be at "The Jam", hopefully with a spankin' new "Phantom".

[Grossman56]

Man, all I can think of is the guys who flew them in Vietnam, it looks so real.
What a tribute to those pilots and ground crew who did a dirty job and never got the credit they deserved.
I know we have a number of Vietnam vets on the Squawk and this plane reminds us all of the sacrifice you made for our country,
Thanks Guys!!

Lest We Forget.

Grossman56

[Alpha]

Amen to that, Grossman! Forever and ever, amen to that. We'll never forget!

[ikeTurner]

The new plane looks incredible!

Could anyone tell me if the fuselage same as the LX Model Phantom? I don't believe anyone will reproduce the lx model and would really hate to trash whats left of mine? I would not mind one bit saving everything until fuselage is available.

thanks in advance and happy flying

[Avi8tr 5615]

My Mini-Review of the Freewing 90MM F-4 Phantom

Jon Barnes (Bajora Media guy extraordinaire!) hit me up to pilot this new pre-release Freewing 90mm F-4 Phantom at our local flying field (our videos are the ones with the lush green grass in the background). All flying was done by myself with Jon shooting stills and video with a variety of 4K media equipment, even some in flight from Jon's quadcopter, and the addition of a RunCam 2 mounted below and above the fueselage.
It's a big jet, but Freewing has taken an inspired approach by making it lighter and simpler than other 90mm offerings. They have also concentrated on simplicity of design and some innovative construction techniques that an F-4 airframe would require. In short, they got the elevator design right, light, and responsive but not twitchy, and without a hint of coupling!! The scale appearance you can see from Jon's media offerings and the lighting looks great! The lack of cheater holes and tall, but scale looking, wheels make operating on one of our local gravel flying sites or grass something I would not even think twice about doing. Apparently, we have never really needed cheater holes and everyone can go to 10 bladed 90MM EDF's now??!!!! That's right.
All flights conducted with Admiral 5000 mAh batts and my Spektrum DX7S radio. For each flight, the timer was set sat 4" and our post-flight battery checks gave us average cell values of 3.77 Volts which we found well within our, and our batteries, personal comfort range. All flights were on a stock ship and throws, linkages, flaps, and flap mixing per the manual- one exception: I did increase aileron throw linkage to the outermost hole at the servo horn and 30% expo on the Elevator which I have on most of my EDF's. This plane is no "Lead Sled". The plane is confidence inspiring and has the agility of a smaller 80MM EDF but has retained the penetration and stability a 90MM can afford. Takeoffs don't eat up runway and banking hard and bleeding off energy doesn't cause the nose to drop. Landings are just sooo stable. I was doing aerobatics on the first flight and inverted gear passes with turns from downwind to final are actually comfortable maneuvers. This F-4 has been been the second EDF, in very recent history, I have rolled while climbing out after takeoff with flaps and landing gear down- it is THAT confidence building for me. The airframe and power system have a perfect balance of power and lift that works in a landing configuration, maneuvers, and high speed passes. Most of the flying you see is at 1/2 to 3/4 power settings with a slight descent (or unloading of the airframe) before entering a maneuver. This big airframe has no trouble building up some kinetic energy which you can transfer into a climb, turn, maneuver or what we call: "Fun"!
(PS this same mini-review has been duplicated by me on RCGroups!)

[RCjetdude]

Excellent review. Thank you!

[farmflyer]

I’m still not interested in owning any of these jets but as an airplane enthusiast I have to say the recent new offerings from MRC are truly works of art. I am very impressed with the appearance and the apparent performance of these planes. It seems that from a lot of the comments from you jet guys that the power, stability, and flight times are jumping by leaps and bounds in the most recent new planes. This is a testament to all the hard work Alpha and his development team are putting into these new products and I commend them for their dedication to us in all these new endeavors in both the jets and prop driven airplanes. Thanks again for all your hard work to all the members of the MRC team that includes all of you who are testing and advising them on all these wonderful new planes!