Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340 1/8th

[chassisdude]

Build on Dr Dave ... Diversity is what makes this hobby so cool..Ive been contemplating starting back on my wooden ship..got so wrapped up in my coupe that I put it aside for the better part of a year... probably have another year of work to complete...its tempting but in all reality ill probably wait till the winter months to work on it...Engines are another of my favorites al types..ill be keepin an eye on your wasp build....

[Dr Dave]

Thanks Mike. Speeking of ships, I found some old photos the other day of an old sailling ship I built for a mate many years ago after he lost his thumb in an accident we had. He was so upset when he realised he couldn't do it. That was a terrific model to build and it was hard to hand over to him when finished, but he was thrilled and that made it really worthwhile. Yep, diversity is a wonderful thing.

[semijoe]

this looks like a really look build , I have a couple of ships sitting on a shelf too, some day

[chassisdude]

And Joe.. I suppose that when you build the ships, youll build a working a dry dock that works like you did for trucks in your garage scene..

[Dr Dave]

The instruction sheet is pretty simple, just one sheet of paper with the engine on one side and the wiring on the other. There are also written directions to go with the diagrams. The instructions make it look easy but I’m sure I can turn that into a time consuming process. I'll keep it nearby to refer to occasionally. Right, so I’ll start in the middle and work out from there.

There are 7 main parts to make up the main body and then the cylinders and all the accessories are attached to that. The crank case is in 2 pieces and the intake manifold is in 2 pieces. You might be able to see in the photo how much flash is on the parts (actually the photo doesn't show it as bad as what I see on my bench). Lots of cleaning up, filing and sanding to do here. Oh wow, the parts don’t fit together very well at all. A bit of work is needed here to make it go together the way it should.

[Dr Dave]

The intake manifold has now been cleaned up to a much better condition than when the two halves were first glued together. Now the body of the engine is starting to come together, and you can see in the third photo how I’m going to keep it in two sections for easier handling. The oil sump which hangs underneath has a bolt head molded in for a sump plug, but it doesn’t look very good so I’ll be replacing it with a brass one that I’ve polished up.

[Dr Dave]

This part of the engine needs to be painted before any other pieces can be attached to it, so I’ll do that first and it can be drying while I move on to the cylinders. In all the reference photos I’ve collected there are a couple that, to me, stand out from the others. Their colours are brighter and more appealing, but that’s just a personal opinion. So I’ve tried to copy this blue/grey colour I like but now that the paint has dried it looks like too much blue, not enough grey. That’s ok, it’s close enough. The photos here show it to be a much brighter blue than it actually is.

[keramh]

Hello,

what a project, I'm excited. 1:8 can be much, can you tell me how big is the diameter of the motor?
This report I follow very gladly.

[BrassBuilder]

I think that blue is really going to look good. Nice cleanup on the parts too!
Mike

[Dr Dave]

Thankyou Marek. The diameter will be 160mm. The Clerget 9B is 130mm.

Thankyou Mike. I'm used to seeing the blue and now I like it. Much more clean up to be done. This is the worst kit I've worked with.

[Dr Dave]

These cylinder halves don’t fit together very well at all. The fins don’t line up properly, the contact surfaces are uneven, and there’s [B]lots[/B] of flash everywhere. First thing is to file the contact surfaces smooth so all the halves will fit together properly and then clean up all the flash . This really shows up the miss-alignment of the fins. I glued all the cylinders together and then set to work with a root canal file I got from my dentist friend. It’s like a ‘rat tail’ file that’s half the thickness of a pin. This allowed me to file across the joins and between the fins to get it all to line up and look smooth and continuous. It was a long slow process but it made such a big difference that it was worth the time invested. A coat of primer helps blend it all together. Oh no, I've still got 8 more to do.

[chassisdude]

At least its not the Pratt and Whitney twin wasp 14 cylinders

[xken]

David, Engines are more fun to build from scratch at half the size. Here is a 7 cylinder Continental for a N2S Stearman I started. One of these days I will get around to finishing it.

I have heard those kits were a little rough.

Ken

[chassisdude]

David, Engines are more fun to build from scratch at half the size. Here is a 7 cylinder Continental for a N2S Stearman I started. One of these days I will get around to finishing it.

I have heard those kits were a little rough.

Ken

WOW thats cool Ken !!!!