Phoenix Slick 580 - 30cc

[3dmikey]

Well, as it’s my new project I thought I’d start a thread, and there’s very little on the internet about these kits. I’ve never had a Phoenix branded kit before, but my Hangar 9 Pitts was made by them, so I’m familiar with how they build. I normally go for Extreme Flight or AJ for my aerobatic models, but I received this as a trade, so here we are. It’ll be interesting to compare how it goes with the more expensive brands.

My initial impressions are that it’s nice, but the components are heavy. The cowl is quite thick fibreglass (I will attack it with a dremel), and I really don’t like the shift towards fake carbon everywhere. I know it looks cool, but it’s so hard to repair and it cuts through everything with vibration. I’ve got an old 10S electric setup I’ll be using and some old gear. The plastic spats may actually be a good thing, considering my glass ones always seem to crack in the first few flights, and it comes with a comically sized green tailwheel, I’ve already ordered a small carbon one. First job with any build of mine is spending hours making the cockpit look more scale by ripping out the weird Depron interior and adding a 3D-printed pilot, of course...

 

[3dmikey]

One thing I immediately noticed is that it just hasn’t got the last 5% done, like most ARFs manage these days. No holes cut in the covering, no gear drilled, hinges still needing glue, the usual “some assembly required” situation. No biggie, but I guess that’s one way to shave a few dollars off the price.
So out comes the soldering iron, and within minutes I’ve melted holes everywhere… including a couple of places that absolutely were not supposed to have holes.
Then came mounting the gear, which was… let’s call it “character building”. The legs are slightly undersized and came without a single hole drilled. The spats are 2 plastic halfs glued together like the pitts. Drilling the gear was almost too easy - genuinely a bit alarming - best to describe like drilling butter, so I’m fairly sure they’re mostly epoxy. We’ll see how long they last...