I have the parts of the engine completed prior to installing in the fuselage structure. The exhaust ports will be installed after the paper skin is installed as these are likely to be damaged in this process.
I am making the intake manifolds from Evergreen 222, 1/6" rod. I will use Evergreen or Plastruct when bends are required as I have not found a way to get bends from rolled up paper. Below is the in process build.
I pre-bend the Evergreen and secure the bend by heating it briefly under a flame. My favorite flame source is this un-named torch which I sourced in a convivence store. I am told these are favored by people who heat Dubs (Concentrated marijuana).
This torch has a nice concentrated flame good for plastic bending work and is relatively cheap. The separate pieces are subsequently superglued together.
These are the completed intake manifolds and painted using Testors copper shot from an air gun. When making the intake manifolds, I was careful to not extend them outside of the footprint of the cylinder block. This is because the engine fits into a box in the fuselage structure and they will interfere with the box if they stick too far out.
I added a circular feature at the top of the neater manifold, to approximate a feature shown on pictures of this engine from the web. It is made from velum wrapped around a slice of Evergreen 214 1/8" rod. I wrap first, push the paper past the end of the Evergreen, slice then push the paper back so it is flat with the outside surface. What I wanted to achieve was good roundness and the Evergreen is thinner than the paper wrap so I get an indentation on the gluing surface side to help to position the feature.
Last is the ignition wire.....shaft? It is made from K&S .032 Music wire with dabs of glue to serve as the spark plug attachment points to the cylinders. Painted silver from the rattle can and followed up with Testors Dullcote. The silver may not be accurate but I wanted to paint with a contrasting color to the valve covers.
