I’ve always had a “soft spot” for the F 4 Phantom II. Don’t ask me why, because I can’t give you a straight answer. As Scott, I’m a member of the F 4 Phantom II society so I consider myself lucky to have seen a few Rhino’s in my time.

 Over the years, a lot of Phantom kits have seen the light of day, in almost every scale imaginable. I don’t know if I should be proud of the following, but I have many of those beautiful kits in my stash. Some were built, while most are still in their respective boxes collecting dust.

 Much has been written of the history of the F 4 Phantom, as well as the available kits, so forgive me if I forgo this part.

 Yesterday, I got an email form my “local” hobby shop (www.lhshop.nl, no affiliation whatsoever) and I found an Aires RF-4B/C electronics bay among the newly arrived items. As I have an RF-4B somewhere in my stash, I went out this morning to visit the hobby shop and see if a set was still available.

They still had a set, and it somehow found its way into a plastic bag and into my car (courtesy of my credit card). As soon as I came home (yes I could curb my enthusiasm this time) I opened up the package (carefully, as it contains fragile and small items), only to be amazed at the level of detail of the resin parts.

 The set contains 16 tan resin parts and 5 clear parts and a fret of PE frames. I’ve already test fitted some of the bigger parts and they fit like a glove. The instructions are clear and bilingual (Czech and English, which is good because my knowledge of Czech is nonexistent) and even include a nice warning about thinning the sidewalls and the need to keep test fitting. This also seems to be the only drawback to aftermarket sets as these, the need for thinning the sidewalls.

 My overall conclusion is that this is a nice set and a must for all Phreaks out there. I will have to start with the RF-4 as soon as I can.

June 2005