Home
| What's New |
Features |
Gallery |
Reviews |
Reference |
Forum |
Search
|
|
|
After
Market Engines by Ray Peterson
After
seeing a post in the HyperScale’s “Plane Talking” discussion forum asking
about replacement engines, I realized I had several examples at hand. I thought
that an article discussing the differences might be a good idea. All
photos are taken with an Epson Photo PC 800 Digital Camera with a couple
different close-up lenses. The ability to add different lenses was one of the
reasons I chose this camera over others. Lighting was provided with a
photographer’s spotlight. Both
engines in this review are of radial R2800’s. The two engines I have are an
Engine & Things R2800-8W (for a F4u-1D) and Teknics R2800 that is supposed
to encompass all types.
The
Cons Some
casting errors are apparent. The electrical distribution collar has some
warpage, and the second bank has some misshapen detail. There is also a small
amount of flash at the seams on top of each cylinder. This will be tricky to
clean up. On the positive side, there are very few air bubble holes and no plugs
to cut off. The
cylinders have wiring molded on their face, though wiring is not shown that
would go to the back of the cylinders, nor is any form of additional wiring
provided. This leaves me to believe the cylinders were cast from some kit,
though I have not found a kit with cylinders that match (I have checked
Revell’s P47 and Corsair, and Hasegawa’s F6f). Adding wiring to this engine will probably be difficult. No exhaust piping is included to attach to the rear of the engine. The instructions are simply photocopies of pictures of various R2800 engines, some drawings of engine mounts, intake and exhaust systems. Not too much help unless you have some good references yourself. The same instructions are used for all variants of the R2800.
The
Pros
The
Cons This
engine is a kit unto itself. It will need some time to construct. Individual
actuator rods and wiring will have to be cut and installed. These are not
included in the set. This makes for a total of 72 pieces in addition to the 50
in the kit. Time
will also be required removing parts from their molding plugs. Some parts should
be removed very carefully, such as the electrical distribution harness and the
exhaust piping. While
molding is nearly flawless, there are a few bolts missing in the late front
cover, as can be seen in the detail photo. These should be easily replaced with
Grandt Line bolts however. That is about the only flaw I have found so far,
appearing on both my samples. The
instructions are pretty basic, and do not give much of a guideline to assist
with detail placement on different versions. The instructions are actually used
for all scales of engine they offer, but etched brass parts shown are not
included in the 1/32nd scale set. Another problem may be availability. I bought two - one each from Great Models: http://www.greatmodels.com and Aviation Usk. It took forever to get them from each place, and now it is listed as out of production on the Great Models site. It is also available from Meteor Production’s site: http://www.meteorprod.com, which I discovered just recently (so many sites, so little time!). Price is US$14.95. The Pros
The
Teknics engine is definitely the best aftermarket offering in terms of detail.
The flexibility of separate parts to create different versions is a huge plus.
And the price is actually less than the Engine & Things offerings. The
Engine & Things castings are fine if you don’t want a superdetailed
engine. They also offer many engines and variants of engines. My opinion on
Engine & Things offerings is the smaller the scale the better. Their 1/72nd
scale engines work great, the 1/48th scale stuff is good, and the
1/32nd scale engines are pretty rough for that scale. They would be
better off with a few more pieces for the larger scales. They do give you a
casting of the main works behind the engine, but you will need to add a lot of
detailing for all the plumbing. Taking
this casting and adding it to a Teknics engine with additional detailing would
give you an entire powerplant assembly. I’ll let someone else attempt it
first!
Model, Text and Images Copyright ©
2000 by Ray Peterson
|
The
Engines & Things offering consists of 3 parts: the front bank of cylinders
with front cover attached; the rear bank of cylinders with transmission
attached; and some yet to be identified small detail parts. These pieces are
cast in a grey, somewhat soft resin. Some of the detail is a little on the fuzzy
side.
Even
considering the faults of this offering, it is an improvement over most
kit engines in this scale. The cylinders look right in shape and size.
Most of the molding flaws are in areas that will not be seen once
installed in an aircraft, unless panels are opened. Other than cleanup,
there is very little to construction. 
The
Teknics engine is literally a model in itself. Consisting of 50