F4U-1 Corsair
Early Engine Upgrade Set

BarracudaCast, 1/32 scale

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BarracudaCast has released a four-piece engine upgrade set for Tamiya's beautiful 1/32 scale F4U-1 Birdcage Corsair.

The ignition harness ring and the two styles of magneto as supplied by Tamiya appear to be appropriate for later F4U Corsairs. Barracuda's teardrop magentos and ignition harness are correct for F4U-1 Birdcage Corsairs, as depicted by Tamiya's kit.

Specifically, Roy Sutherland describes the engine configuration as follows:

"The R-2800-8 Double Wasp that powered the early models of the F4U-1 Corsair was fitted with the Bendix Scintilla, a high-pressure ignition system with a tubular ignition ring that had stub openings through which a pair of spark plug wires emerged. This system was prone to failure at higher altitudes, so was replaced in later variants with a Pratt and Whitney system that featured the square section, liquid filled, cast ignition ring as modeled in the kit engine. Both ignition systems were designed to prevent cross firing inside the harness at altitude. This set provides the early Bendix ignition system as fitted to all birdcage Corsairs."

The set is small but perfectly formed, with four resin parts. Casting and detail are exquisite.

The magnetos are cast in one part each and are a drop-fit replacement for the kit parts.

The ignition haness ring is supplied in three pieces. Each of the duplex wiring points has indentations for two wires. I drilled these out and wired them up before the resin parts were glued to the engine. The indentations are fairly shallow, but I found that my No. 80 drill was too big to drill out both holes individually. However, the wiring will still look quite convincing if you secure one into a single drilled-out hole and glue a second wire next to it.

By the way, I used 0.2mm dark copper wire for my ignition wires in a simplified arrangement (A couple of the wires had come loose before I took the photo at the top of the page too - I glued them back in place afterwards). You do need to be careful only to run the wires between the cylinders and not over the the top, otherwise they will interfere with the fit of the engine cowling mounts and other structural detail.

BarracudaCast's 1/32 scale F4U-1 Corsair Early Engine Upgrade Set is an inexpensive and very effective improvement for your Tamiya Birdcage.

The corrected early magnetos are actually quite prominent at the front of your model, so the extra work can be appreciated by others too!

Highly Recommended.

Postscript:

After I posted this review, Roy Sutherland emailed with several good colour photos of early R-2800 engines and the following advice:

"You might want to paint that ignition ring a dull or even bright silver color. You can also do it in dull brass, but not engine gray. Will really help it to stand out more. If brass, the rings around the stubs can be silver. The bolts and nuts should also be silver. Will add a lot of visual interest to your engine."

He was right!

Although I had already sealed the engine inside the cowling, I managed to reach the ring and the bolt heads with a fine brush and a toothpick. The result is certainly more striking than my original effort.

Thanks to Barracuda Studios for sample

Barracuda Studio products are available online from their website

Text and Images Copyright © 2013 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 21 August, 2013
Last updated 23 August, 2013

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