JHH F-4 Phantom

Read the preface

Updated 3/25/09

March 24, 2008
Well, the order has been placed. I called Jet Hangar Hobbies on Good Friday, knowing that they might not be there... and they weren't, so I left a message. I had also left a PM for Chris to tell him that I was ready to order. Chris and I had exchanged messages about two weeks prior, me asking questions about the JHH F-4 and him encouraging me. Well, Monday afternoon a very nice young lady (Larry's wife??) called me back and I logged on the the PC and started down my laundry list of items to order. They included the plane, retracts, and a 12s version of the eBax. She also gave me the name of someone that will manufacture a nice set of scale struts (RC Crafters). As a side note, I also ordered a set of 10s batteries for a eBax that I purchased a year ago for my Father's F-86, which is finally getting ready to fly this summer. Of course, my timing is terrible on this purchase. Everyone is getting ready for the Toledo show next week, so delivery will not be until the end of April. Until then I've started purchasing all my documentation. I've got books on order from Amazon and HLJ, which if nothing else will give me something to read while I wait.

March 26, 2008
I e-mailed RC Crafters and got excellent response from them. I've got a quote in my had for the scale struts, modifications to the pivot block, and wheels. In order to get them I have to mail them the retract units, so nothing can happen until I receive them in late April. Which works out fine since RC Crafters is busy until that time period anyway. Paint scheme is still a little up in the air. I was originally thinking of going with VF114 Aardvarks, which has a nice orange stripe on the top... handy for visualization top/bottom. There are a lot of images on the web of VF114 phantoms, plus some side views in books.

VF51 Screaming eagles (at the top of the page) has enough color topside to help with top/bottom visualization too, and is a classy paint scheme. The CAGs ride is more colorful, and Pro-Mark has dry transfers for this scheme, although they are for the larger size phantom from BVM. I think they could "shrink" them for me easily enough. I'm leaning toward the VF-51 scheme... it's just so cool!

April 14, 2008
I had to call JHH this morning to check on the estimated ship date, not because it's "getting late" but because I'll be out of town for a few days and I didn't want a package sitting on my porch with no one to bring it in. Well, it was a nice surprise to hear that they will be shipping it today or tomorrow. I can't wait !! I'll have my father stop by a few times, just in case, but I expect I'll be back just before it arrives.

April 21, 2008
Right on time... DHL stopped by the house today at 1:09PM with a large box that needed my signature. Of course I wasn't available, so he left a note on the door with a request for release signature form. Missed him by 10 minutes. I could have kicked myself!! Fortunately, he stopped back about 4:00. Said there were some packages that he just didn't want to haul back and forth (I could have kissed him! Well, almost.). I didn't get a chance to open it until today and I must say that JHH did a fine job of packing it all up. Lets see... first impressions. Kit appears complete, nice hardware package. The formers look nice. I haven't checked the foam cores yet but I don't expect any issues there. The glass work on the fuse looks nominal (nominal is good... means I got what I expected with no surprises). Time will tell if there are a lot of pin holes, but it looks pretty good. I'll have a little work to do on the seam but that's expected. It's not a huge model but I'll bet it will look great in the air. The instructions look complete with a nice set of rolled drawings.

May 19, 2008
Today I received the 12s fan.

June 18, 2008
Some interesting things have happened over the last month. I've sent my landing gear off to RC Crafters to have a set of scale gear made for the F-4. Their communication has been great, though they are not fast (and I'm not complaining, I was told up front that these are custom made on an "as ordered" basis). I expect to see them later this month or early in July. I also looked harder at the Stumax fan. I just love the sound (or lack there of) so much that I just had to order one. I already have the e-bax 12s, so I'm not sure what I'll do with that yet, but I think I'll be pleased with the decision to go with the Stumax. It will require a little modification to the duct work... hope I'm up to that. As for the JHH kit... I've been pouring over the plans, now neatly laid out on the pool table, and I've read through the instruction 3 times at least. I'll probably start construction on some of the minor items next month.

August 12, 2008
Recent pictures.

September 17, 2008
Today I received the modified landing gear from RC Crafters. I'll post a picture soon.

November 24, 2008
Let me start by posting a few pictures...

Pictures above show the retracts from RC Crafters. Nice gear, as you can see.

Images above show one of the wingtips in "rough form"... basically glued together with little carving done. The second image shows one of the wingtips sanded about 80% completed. The tips are a nice solid construction built from two layers of balsa, cross grain. Some of the wood is HARD and shaping is tough. I ned to find a power tool <G>. I did find an error in the wingtip root template, it's too long. I did some measuring and sanding and I think I've got it fixed. Basically, you need to shorten the TE by about 3/8 inch.
I received some great news today... Stumax said that my fan should ship this week!

January 12, 2009
Once again time has flown past. Actually, I had to get past the holidays before much could take place. I've also fallen into "paralysis by analysis" mode. It happens from time to time with me. I start agonizing over details so much that nothing happens on the model. So... onward. I was hoping to have the intakes glued to the fueslage last week, but it didn't happen. Getting the intakes lined and fitting the intake ducts has taken a bit of fiddling. Should be done this week. I've duplicated the M1 former so I can extend the fan mounting rails. The Stumax will be moved back between 3 and 4 inches from the plans, however I've made the rails long enough that I could install the e-turbax in the original location if I ever need to. It's my hope that at the end of this week I can post some pictures of the installed fan and ducts.

February 4, 2009
Progress. I need to get a few pictures in here... let's see...

We have the mounts in place for the fan, as you can see. (edit: details added here) Since I decided to go with the StuMax fan I needed to make some changes. I duplicated the M1 motor former and made new rails that are 7" long (see photo). These are longer than I need because I wanted the ability to put the turbax in if I wanted to. So I can keep the turbax in it's original location OR put the stumax behind it (shown in the photo). It was also Stuarts suggestion to move the fan back further to help with CG and give a nice straight section in front of the fan. I also have the inlet extensions installed, though they need to be faired in a little bit better. Not show yet (I'll take more pictures tomorrow) are the intake ducts, which are ready to be glued together. The hatch is also lined and only needs a little more fitting to be completed. I made a template of the wing using cardboard so I could get the foam cores marked for the landing gear plates. Double checking things, I found that the main gear struts are about 5/8" longer than shown on the plans. Good thing I checked, but I should have checked earlier. I'll modify to plates a little and move the location of the LG pivot point out 5/8". Hope the plane doesn't look silly with longer gear legs, though I doubt it will be noticable. Since the main gear struts are longer, I checked the nose gear too, since that will also need to be 5/8" longer. Well the nose gear strut is over an inch too long. It will still retract easily into the existing door location, I just need to install it "higher" in the fuse, by 1/2" as it turns out.

February 5, 2009
For only two days to work on the plane this week, I feel pretty good about the progress. Although... I spent most of this morning cutting out the canopy hatch. Here are some pictures.

So what we have is a top view of the intake ducts and the fan. I need to make a reducer section to join the two. Next a shot of the fan with the hatch. A view through the left intake. The cardboard template I used to mark the gear plate location with, and the marked foam core. I'm also finding that delaying installing the intake ducts is making it easier to to other things, like finish off the cockpit area.

February 13, 2009
Lots going on. I have the adapter inlet duct done, it just needs to be final fitted. We created a mold from heavy plastic with cardboard circles of the correct diameter on each end. Here are some photos...

So we have the mold, the part coming off the mold (one layer of heavy glass, no release agent needed), the unfinished part. Maybe a total of a couple hours to make. Most of the work was in makeing the mold (getting the correct funnel shape).
With a little trimming you get this.

Then a little more finishing and you get this...

It still needs to have a final fit, but you get the idea. I've added a little paint (needs a bit more special color treatment) for effect.
Next item of interest is the landing gear mounts. I noticed that the rear wing spar (W4 I think) is very close to the rear of the landing gear mount, if you extend the line. So I did that and found that I could install a 5/16" spar, tied into the front edge of the rear spar, and tied into the rear of the landing gear plate. Here is a photo.

I don't think the wing needs the spar, but being able to tie the gear plate to the wing better is a good idea. I'll also install some dowels to the front of the plate. More pictures later will explain it better.

February 18, 2009
Yesterday I placed an order with Robart for some new retracts and here's why. The retracts from JHH will not allow the scale struts to retract all the way into the wing (when mounted in the "sport scale" location. The offset oleo on the main gear lacks a good 1/4" retracting all the way in. No way gear doors will sit flush. They might if the gear were angled in the scale manner (located in the scale location, but that means choosing a version of the F-4 that includes the wing bulges). I couldn't simple "tip" the mounts inward so the legs would go further into the wing because the cylinder is already right at the top wing skin. I thought it over and decided to get a set of low profile 95 degree retracts. That gives me two benefits. First, I get 5 degrees more retraction into the wing. Second, the cylinder is mounted slightly lower so I can set the gear mount in the wing a bit more (further recessed into the wing). I also ordered a new nose retract because the one I received from JHH was tight. I could barely move it by hand. Eventually I'll take it apart to see if I can find out if it's binding. I'm also sure I could have returned it to JHH and got a new one (or got that one fixed).

February 27, 2009
Progress over the last week has been hard to see. I've got the canopy area cut out, lined, and re-installed with the proper latching. Something to to mention here... in the instructions it mentions installing the intake ducting long ago. I didn't do that because I wasn't sure what might pop up with the different fan installation. Well, the fan installation was pretty straight-forward. However, it's much easier to work on the canopy area without the duct installed. So, if you're building one of these I suggest you hold off on installing the intake duct as long as possible.
For my birthday I received a hi-torque JR servo for the elevator, and a 2.4 gig receiver for my 9303. I also received a set of robart retracts for this plane (mentioned in the feb. 18 log). The retracts arrived today, which is not as fast as I'd like to have gotten them, but actually faster then I expected. Next week I'll get them installed.

March 3, 2009
Always have a backup plan. As luck (or fate, or just lack of proper planning) would have it, the new retracts from robart are not drop in fits. They will make the gear a bit longer still when in the down position and it appears that when moving them out further into the wing (so the wheel still fits into the wing) makes the cylinder hit the top wing skin. This gave me fits for a few hours until I realized that I now have the mounting plates modified so that either retract will fit, so just glue them in and one or the other will be made to work. Later at home, during a restful moment I remembered the very short struts that I put on my top flite P-39 (electric). I dug around the internet and found two sites. Eurokit and Altecare . I've never dealt with Altecare before but they have the perfect sized strut for the F-4. It's not as scale but it would solve a lot of issues I've had pop up. Eurokit's struts are a bit longer, but could be made to work. These will be my backup plan. Between the JHH retracts and the robart... and the RC Crafter struts and Altecare/Eurokit I think I have things covered.
In the mean time, as the glue sets on the mounting plates I've played with other areas. The plans call for a hatch latch to be installed for the canopy (rear) which you access through the fan access hatch. Well, the front duct work would not allow access to the hatch latch so I made a modification to it.

I fabricated a rod/bellcrank to allow me to operate the hatch latch from the fan access area. When you pull up on the bellcrank arm, you pull the hatch latch open.

March 6, 2009
Just a quick update. I've been working a lot this week, but I'm at that stage with it doesn't show very much. I've got the stabilators rough shaped. I've got the retract plates installed. I've got the fan hatch pretty close to done. I've got the intake ducts about done.

March 12, 2009
I have to find something to talk about, just so you think I'm doing something... This week has mostly been about wings. As I write this, the wings are fully sheeted and resting in the cradles. I applied some light glass cloth to the inside skin on the upper wing sheeting, to add a little strength. Here are some pictures...

Bottom sheeting applied. Flip view of bottom sheeting A little paint on the intake parts

March 16, 2009
Question: How many sets of wings do you have to prepare when you're building a JHH F-4?
Answer: Two, at least when you do what I just discovered.
Someone out there already figured out what I did, and no I didn't build two right wing panels (or two left). This morning, after letting my foam cores sit all weekend drying I pulled them out of the cradles and started sanding the edges in preparation for adding the leading and trailing edges. Just for sport, I grabbed one of the outer wing panels and held it up to the inner panel to check the fit. It looked a little funny, didn't really line up like I thought it should. Well, a little filling here and a little trimming there and I can make it all right. The leading edges look terrible, what am I going to do with that. Hmmm, I wonder... I grab the other outer panel and hold that up. Wow, that's more like it... in fact it looks great. I must have... wait a minute, NO. I couldn't have... yes I did. I built them up side down. Put the gear plate in the top of the wing. Goodness, how long have I been building planes... 38 years now? How could I possibly have done this? I guess in my defense I thought... no, there is no defense, I just screwed up. Not the worst thing I done... can't think of anything else this bad right off the top of my head but there must be something else.
So, I've called JHH and placed an order for another pair of foam cores. Larry didn't laugh too hard, at least not when he was talking to me. I remember back before starting on the wings I looked them over, trying to tell top from bottom and it wasn't that difficult. I also remember the night after I glued in the gear plates thinking "did I check to make sure I got them in right?" (bottom vs. top). I kid you not, I remember thinking that. I also remember thinking "I must have, no worries". Well, at least I'll know what I'm doing on the second set. They should go faster. Plus I can add the channels for the retract tubing that I forgot the first time. In the mean time, I'll start on the tail feathers. After admitting this to my father (I build at his house. It's more fun to build at a buddies, and it's only a mile up the road) he was watching me take out the vertical stab and look over the core. I was thinking "is there any way I can get this backward?". My father then asked me "You can't get that one backwards too can you?". Like I needed that...

March 24, 2009
Today I received the new cores. While I've been waiting for them I've been working on the vertical stab. and rudder (also sanding the airfoils on the rest of the tail feathers and outer wing panels.]

March 25, 2009
I finally opened the box today and immediately started to make the panels "top" and "bottom". Then I found this... from Larry ...

Thanks Larry! You made me smile!


Bottom sheeting applied.	Flip view of bottom sheeting	A little paint on the intake parts