Revised and Updated: The "Right" Cyclone - The R-1820 - Now in 1/48th by Tecnics

Revised and Updated: Wright Cyclone R-1820 Engine – Resin & Brass – 1/48th Scale
Tecnics
Review by Ned Barnett
Review Copy by Meteor Productions (www.meteorprod.com)

The Wright Cyclone – the R-1820 – was one of America’s most widely-used aero engines. Cyclones served on every B-17 except the first prototype (which had a Hornet aero engine), as well as every SBD Dauntless/A-24 Banshee and at least some versions of the C-47, the Grumman Wildcat (the Cyclone powered both earliest G-36 for France and Martlet I for the RAF/FAA, as well as the last production FM-2 “Wilder” Wildcat), and the Curtiss Hawk 75/P-36. Finland in particular flew Cyclone and Wasp-powered Hawk 75s in the same units – no doubt a nightmare for the mechanics, but it made sense from an operational standpoint, since that country was cut off from the source. After the war, late-model versions of the R-1820 powered the T-28 trainer and other notable aircraft – a list of all the aircraft that flew with the R-1820 Cyclone would be extensive (and the list of British aircraft that were underpowered because they didn’t use the R-1820 – such as the Blenheim – is very nearly as extensive).

In addition to the many uses of the R-1820 Cyclone, there were licensed versions of this engine produced in the Soviet Union which powered many of their radial-engined fighters, bombers and transports – and there may have been unlicensed versions available as well (I’m still checking this out – the Cyclone seems so ubiquitous that it’s appearance as the powerplant of choice among countries having no commercial ties with the US is hardly surprising). From a modelers’ point of view, knowing that other countries used knock-offs of the Cyclone make a great after-market kit of this formidable powerplant even more useful.

Early versions of this remarkable engine – such as those which powered the earliest B-17s and commercial DC-3s – produced about 750 horsepower at best altitude; late-war and post-war versions, such as those in the “Wilder Wildcat” (the General Motors-built FM-2), produced nearly twice that horsepower – 1450-plus horsepower on the same 1,820 cubic inch displacement. The name says it all: “R” for Radial and “1820” for its displacement (internal volume of all the pistons, together) in cubic inches. The R-1820 was a nine-cylinder single-row air-cooled radial, with a greater frontal area than the similarly-powered 14-cylinder twin-row R-1830 Twin Wasp (which was used to power the B-24, many DC-3s and some of the Wildcats, among many other famous aircraft).

There are many excellent websites that feature photos of the R-1820 – but one of the best recent print-publication sources is the Squadron-Signal “Walk Around” of the SBD Dauntless. There are many superbly-restored (museum-quality) SBDs currently available, and both the color and the B&W photography of the Dauntless’s uncowled R-1820 Cyclone engine will give you both a taste for the potential of a super-detailed engine and the color/painting references you need to make this engine authentic-looking.

In-line water-cooled engines were usually hidden behind streamlined skin panels – they can’t be seen in models unless you open the panels for a maintenance diorama. However, radial engines are open to the front for cooling – unless the propeller has a streamlining spinner (such as is found on the Brewster Buffalo or Hawker’s post-war Sea Fury), the engine details are “out there” for all to see. In 1/48th scale, this can be quite noticeable, which is why so many modelers go to so much trouble to super-detail kit-supplied engines, or to go searching for quality after-market items.

If you need a Cyclone engine and don’t want to add the ignition harness and other details, Tecnics offers an exceptional alternative. Their 1/48th scale resin-and-etched-brass engine is little short of superb. Try as I might, I can’t find any resin pinholes or blemishes in my sample – and the etched brass is finely detailed and delicately to scale, which is a good trick for an ignition harness. As with all resin items, the molding block is a relatively massive affair – you’ll need a skilled hand with a razor saw to separate the engine’s components from their mold-pour blocks.

A word of caution – when you buy this set, be sure to count the number of engine cylinder blocks you get – there should be 10 (giving you 20 cylinders). This extra count is because of the way the cylinders are molded in pairs on a single pour-block – there is one exhaust pipe between each pair of cylinders (but each cylinder needs its own exhaust pipe – which is why Tecnics doubled up on the cylinder pairs). Mine came with just five pairs – enough cylinders for the engine, but only half enough exhaust pipes. However, Meteor Productions is very responsive: if you come up short, drop them a line from their website (www.meteorprod.com) and they’ll rush you the replacement set.

In all likelihood (though I’m tempted to use it in one of my soon-to-be-built 1/48th scale SBD Dauntlesses), this particular after-market engine kit is going into my conversion of the old Monogram F4F to an FM2. I have an ancient resin conversion set (its origins long shrouded in memory’s mist) that I begin building in 1987 on the kitchen table in our house in Tampa (and continued on another kitchen table in Atlanta later that same year – I moved a lot in 1987 – don’t ask). I put aside that conversion before I finished it, waiting an engine worthy of the rest of the kit – and now, just 20 years later, I can move ahead and finish this antediluvian conversion. Or, I could forget the whole thing and put this engine into a new, state-of-the-art FM-2 kit (there’s one on the market I’ve been eyeballing for some time, and I don’t doubt it looks better than even a superb conversion of the old Monogram kit).

Of course, I’ll probably finish the conversion instead (I can build the better kit later – waste not, want not, eh?). To do that right, however, I’ll also have to completely junk the cockpit and landing gear and replace them with after-market items (it’s amazing how far our hobby has come in 20 years!), but I’ve always been a Wildcat fanatic, so updating this as-yet unfinished conversion is no burden – and this Tecnics resin/etched brass set is perfect for it’s intended use. Since the rear facing of the Wildcat’s engine is visible through the landing gear opening, I’ll need those extra cylinder pairs (and exhaust ports) – for most cowled radial engines, they’d have be invisible, but of course, I chose the kit that demands the most detail, front-and-back.

My bottom line is this: I have at least a dozen 1/48th scale kits of planes that use the Wright R-1820 Cyclone – including the B-17 (four engines – and it’s high on my list since I got Eduard’s remarkable “Big Ed” after-market set for the Monogram/Revell B-17G), as well as the C-47 (two engines) and a host of single-engined Cyclone-powered birds (the T-28 leaps to mind, but there are many, many more). At this rate, I may wind up keeping Tecnics in business all by myself, just from purchasing enough of these after-market gems to dress up all those kits.

Revised and Updated: How Did They Do That? Seamless Intakes for Modern Jets

Revised and Updated:
How Did They Do That?
Seamless Intakes for Modern Jets –
Including the Newest One for the Tamiya 1/32nd Scale Phantom F-4B/C/D/E/F/G/J/N
Cutting Edge Modelworks
Review by Ned Barnett
Review Copy by Meteor Productions

Cutting Edge Modelworks has come up with the most fantastic, completely hollow and totally seamless intakes for modern jet aircraft kits – I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’m frankly blown away by the technology (and its result). I’m not an expert in modern injection-molding technology – if I was, I could tell you how Cutting Edge Modelworks produces seamless one-piece jet engine intakes. They do not appear to be resin – there are no flow-gates our pour-blocks to be removed – yet they’re not on sprues or anything else to suggest a normal polystyrene injection-molding process. They really look like the material found in PVC valves and other plumbing items – a sturdy white plastic material that doesn’t feel brittle – or too soft.

Thirty years ago I worked in industrial development, writing up innovations (and trying to recruit new industries to South Carolina – our motto: “Thank God for Mississippi!”) for the PR arm of the office of the Governor. As editor of the state’s magazine on industrial and economic development, I toured factories around the state that produced injection-molded parts for toys, games and other uses, and know how they produced complex shapes (but not seamless hollow “donuts”). But that was 30 years ago, and I’m totally at a loss to figure out the technology behind how this new seamless-intake series of after-market add-ons was done. Perhaps it’s a kind of magic – if it’s not, it should be, because the results are little short of magical.

Cutting Edge Modelworks – a Meteor Productions brand – has a rapidly-growing list of one-piece jet intakes on the market. They sent me six different ones to review – including the brand-new (and mind-blowingly-large) moldings for the intakes for the Tamiya 1/32nd scale F-4 Phantom (these intakes work for almost every version of the Phantom put into production, a fact that should please conversion fanatics). These after-market seamless intakes are – each one of them – superb examples of the mold-makers’ art. Based on the samples provided to me by Meteor Productions, this product line of after-market seamless intakes seems to be focused on Vietnam-era and more modern aircraft – earlier first-generation or Korean/Cold War-era aircraft are not included (at least not in the samples I received). As a rule, I tend to build “transitional-era” military aircraft – when it comes to combat jets, that pretty much covers those designed from 1943 to 1950. I’ve been known to build the Luftwaffe’s Me 262, Ar 234 and Heinkel He 163 Volksjaeger; the US Army Air Force/USAF’s P-59, P/F-80/T-33/F-94, P/F-84 and P/F-86 (and, of course, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1, that sleek and colorful man-carrying .50-caliber machine-gun bullet). Representing the RAF, I tend to build the Gloster Pioneer and Meteor, and the de Havilland Vampire (originally, if you can believe it, known as the “Spider-Crab”); for the US Navy, it’s the Phantom, Banshee, Pirate and Fury; and for the Soviet Union, the MiG 9 and Yak 15.

Yet in spite of the fact that I don’t generally build more modern jets, these Cutting Edge seamless intakes could persuade me to give state-of-the-art jets a try – they are just that good. While I haven’t built a modern jet since Monogram came out with their prototype of the F-16 (well, I did build a 1/200th scale diorama including an F-117 bombing an Iraqi airfield in ’91, but that really counts as a diorama, not a stand-alone model), I’m now tempted to reconsider.

Here’s what Cutting Edge has produced (and sent me for review).

F-4 Phantom – the Tamiya kit in 1/32nd scale: This, they say, is the definitive intake for literally every US version of the Phantom (I think the RAF/FAA Phantom had a different intake for it’s Rolls-Royce-built Spey engine, and it’s not listed in the packaging). These include the F-4B, F4-C, F4-D, F4-E, F4-F, F4-G, F4-J and F4-N versions of the USN and USAF Phantoms. Unlike the other Cutting Edge Modelworks seamless intake products (see below) that have additional parts, such as engine turbine face plates, this set has just the very l-o-n-g intakes (so long and so compound-curved that, presumably, no engine facing could be seen – unless, of course, the Tamiya kit already includes a serviceable turbine face plate).

I make no pretense of knowing that Tamiya kit (except what I’ve read in the hobby trades), but the idea of Tamiya providing extra parts that others would overlook doesn’t surprise me at all. This set is priced at $23 retail – that’s about what all the sets go for (the prices vary, but not much – check the Cutting Edge Modelworks website (www.meteorprod.com) for current pricing). Considering the price tag on the Tamiya kit – and considering how fantastic these intakes look (and they really do NOT have any seams – period), this is a small price to pay for an added measure of perfection.

F-8 Crusader – Hasegawa Kit – 1/48 (not for the Monogram kit): This includes a long and seam-free intake – detailed top and bottom because parts of it are visible from the cockpit and the nose gear openings – a “standard-issue” engine faceplate with rotating compressor blades, and a nose-gear bay that is designed to snug-up against the long intake. The instructions detail what has to be cut away to make room for the intake (this is very clear – not at all confusing); they also include four photos that clearly illustrate the five steps needed in installing the intake and nose gear bay.

A-6/EA-6A/EA-6B (Monogram/Revell) – 1/48: First, the instructions make it clear that these parts are not for the old Airfix kit – and, to quote from the instructions, “… and cannot in any case recommend the Airfix kit.” Refreshing honesty – it could cost them sales, but clearly, they know their models. The instructions include six photos – a fair amount of detailed plastic surgery is needed on the Monogram kit before it’s accurate enough to take these intakes (which are superb in the bag and look even better on the model). The engine facings are very clearly visible down the intake trunks – and the “standard issue” engine face used in all these after-market kits looks effective and authentic. This is enough to make me revisit Vietnam – at least the Intruder – it’s clear that these new parts will really dress up the already-decent kit.

F-15E Strike Eagle (Revell) 1/48: The instructions make it clear that Cutting Edge does not believe that these parts will work EXCEPT with the Revell kit – try any other kit and you’re on your own. The instruction sheet is just large enough to show the minimal plastic surgery needed to fit the new parts into the kit. The detail on these parts is impressive. It felt to me that the instructions could be clearer, but when it comes to chopping up expensive kits, I want to be sure I know what I’m doing before I put saw to plastic. Most modelers won’t have any problem figuring out the way these work. At six parts, this set is the most extensive of the Cutting Edge intake products I’ve seen and reviewed. It is fully up to the standards of the others.

F/A-18E Super Hornet (Revell) 1/48 – This comes with the standard-issue engine face plates and two intakes – and, at least in my version, no instructions. I’m going to take a wild guess here and assume that there’s a one-to-one replacement of parts.

F/A-18 C-D Hornet (Academy) 1/32 – In a larger scale, this set includes the standard-issue engine face plate (with compressor blades), but because of the differing structural geometry of the earlier Hornet, the intake trunks come in two pieces each – a seamless intake lip and a seamless intake pipe. They fit together snuggly and clean up with a minimum of putty and sanding (if you’re careful, “minimum” means none at all). Again, no instructions, leading me to conclude that these are a one-to-one replacement with kit parts.

Bottom line: these are an engineering and production marvel that left me wondering “How did they do that?” They are spectacular enough to lure me back into more modern jet aircraft. If you build jets, check out the online catalog at www.meteorprod.com – if Cutting Edge has a set for your next jet-build, you’d be a damned fool not to invest in this plastic perfection.