I was going to give this version of the FMS T-28 a 3 star ( average ) rating at first, mainly due to the kits’ fit and finish, along with my build experience while putting the model together. There was a few reasons for this. Firstly the factory had painted yellow over the top and bottom fuselage LED lenses, and there was overspray all over the servos. Very sloppy. Secondly, and this one I thought was pretty dam important, while putting the prop hub and blade assembly together, I tried screwing it all up and the 2 halves of the hub assembly would not seat properly and left a gap of approximately 1.5 to 2 mm no matter how hard I tried to tighten the screws into the corresponding nylocs in the rear of the assembly. This required disassembling and lightly spraying all of the meshing components with a lanolin based lubricant ( inox ) and re-assembling. This helped the hub seat together as it should, however on the initial powered spin-up there was a noticeable vibration factor in the whole prop/hub assembly present. But that wasnt the worst of it. As always when Im preparing any model for flight, I take the time to check that the factory fitted motor screws are tight. They were…. but the motor mounting plate which is part of the fuselage was not. Movement was up to about 1.5 mm on one side of the plate so required epoxy to rectify and secure. Next on the list of assembly frustrations was the forward ( longer ) screw that was to secure the front section of the vertical tail plane, did not bite into anything at all and once again the glue had to come out to secure the front half of the vertical tail plane assembly onto the main fuselage. The rear screw held as it should. Just one other small thing was that the tape used to wrap the wing wiring and hold it in place while boxed, left extremely sticky residue on the wires upon removal. At the flying field. Upon take-off, straight away the Trojan did its Trojan thing. And by that I mean, flew as stable, straight and steady as any warbird, or any plane for that matter, ever would. The balance was absolutely beautiful, the plane looked terrific in the air in the yellow, and little to no trimming was required at all. Now, was this claimed 30% increase in power evident??? Well I recently sold a previous version of the FMS 1400mm T-28 Trojan which I had for quite a while, and I have to say that…. a resounding YES! The extra power and speed of the V4 is extremely evident and makes this new one, not only a pleasure to fly, but makes it exciting to fly as well. This is where this model gained its extra star rating in my review due to its overall flight characteristics and superb performance. Im confident that this one will remain in my fleet for a long time to come. Landings were typical Trojan too, comes in nicely even on dead stick, and flares just right to touch down on the mains. So if you can deal with the foibles of the current assembly and quality issues… this plane is well worth having. Come on though FMS… for a near on $500 block of foam, you need to lift your game ( well …. on this model anyway ).
