Evening All,
As ever my sincere thanks to all who have dropped by and left such complimentary remarks. I really do appreciate them and your patience with what has been at times a bit of a slow build. This one seems to go in more fits and starts than some of my others - I don't know why. I have some real progress to report this week - I have not only managed to finish the engine, I have mounted it on its platform too. A big thank you to those who posted all of those engine photos and other details - they have really helped me to sort out the engine and mounting - I just hope that I have interpreted the photos correctly. No doubt you will let me know if I have not!!
The starboard side has push rods mounted on the outside so these had to be cut from 20 thou rod, except that when I tried to mount them I found that they were too thick, so I stretched some sprue and made thinner rod to use instead. The inlet pipes were cut from 20 thou rod and carefully bent to shape using two pairs of tweezers. The carburettor was made from a small square of 20 thou card and a piece of 30thou rod glued on to the front. The exhausts on the port side are 20 thou rod glued into the holes which I had already drilled into the tops of the cylinders.
Then platform on which the engine rests was made from a piece of 20 thou card with a suitable section cut out from the centre so that the sump fits snugly on to it. Holes were drilled into the underside to take the supports but then I realised that because of the angle of the supports (they are not vertical) it would be easier to cut the ends and just cement them directly to the card. Make a new platform……… The engine supports are simply rod cut to fit - I measured the verticals from the plans and the angled sections directly from the model as it was easier that way. The supports were fixed to a wooden cradle which was mounted on the fuselage sides at the front but on the rear spar of the lower wing at the rear. This was made from 20 x 30 thou strip with the curved feet filed to shape from small pieces of scrap. The platform went into place rather easily - there is plenty of room to move and everything was easy to see - much easier than I had anticipated. With the platform in place the engine was dropped into the slot and left to dry out. The radiator was cut from 40 thou card with the front and rear scribed to represent the mesh. I used Humbrol enamels to paint everything - the silver is standard metallic paint with some light grey mixed in to tone it down a bit.
The radiator pipes were made from very thin stretched sprue, cut to size and mounted when the engine and radiator had been fixed in place. Similarly the radiator supports, fuel pipe from the fuel tank and pipes on the side were made from thin rod and glued into place when the engine had been fitted. This is all a bit fragile and rather airy at the moment but I am getting ready to mount the top wing so that this assembly will soon be protected form my huge fingers and thumbs and hopefully will not be knocked into oblivion.
Thanks for looking.
