Bishop Hobbies

9/12/2010 This is my next build.  As you can see I've assembled some aftermarket bits produced by Roy Sutherland (BarracudaCals and BarracudaCast) who is in the model club I attend.  These include decals with corrected colors for the roundels, resin seat, cockpit door and enhanced parts for the cockpit. I also purchased the Tamiya book on this a/c build – it has such great pictures and a lot of helpful information. 10/2/2010 ok – I'm about done with the dashboard – here is a pic (I gotta get a close up lens):

Ok – I've just received a nice set of closeup lenses (the screw on filter type) for my camera.  This is the first pics with them.  The first one is the control panel close up.  I've added 18 extra decals which include the black backing decals which go on first.  This stuff is all from BarracudaCast and are really great.  The set also includes the control stick and the gear retract and throttle guadrants as well as decals for them along with a lot of other bits.  This really enhances the already fantastic cockpit.  The second picture is the partially finished cockpit showing the resin seat.  I've done a oil wash to show some wear and tear.

Below are pictures of the cockpit sidewalls. Normally you glue the sidewalls to the control panel – seat assembly, but I wanted to add some extra wiring to the sidewalls – this necessitated gluing them to the fuselage sides instead of the seat structure.

I used as a reference the nice pictures that came with the BarracudaCast cockpit set as well as the Tamiya book on assembling the 1/32 Spitfire.  The cockpit set also included a great set of decals to enhance the cockpit – you can notice many of them on the sidewalls.  In order to replicate the fine stripes or brackets on the air tanks – I used clear tape (Scotch Tape).  The tape was laid down on the cutting mat then painted Tamiya XF-71 – the cockpit interior green.  When that was dry I cut some strips of tape using a new X-Acto knife and attached the strips to the pre-painted tanks.

The oxygen hose on the starboard side is a resin part included in the cockpit set.  I have also added two pictures of the cockpit with the seatbelts installed.

 10/27/2010 I've added pictures of the Rolls Royce engine – and a very nice engine it is!!! I painted it semi gloss black, oversprayed with semi gloss laquer and then used Tamiya weathering sets to add a little oil and grime.  I've also taken a few more pictures of the cockpit…

The engine is finished and as the following pictures show – enclosed in the engine framework this is a real gem.  Looking at the picture the exhaust seem a little too rusty so I will be toning that down.

 11/7/2010 I've glued the fuselage halves together – the fit is very good but I had to do a bit extra adjusting here and there as I had glued the cockpit sides to the fuselage halves.  I had to do just a little sanding on the seams but no putty will be needed.  And here are some pics:

12/31/2010 I've finished the fuselage and the wings.  The following pictures show the joining of these two sections as as well as the first coat spray of primer.  For the first time I'm using Mr Surfacer 1000.  I sprayed it outdoors where the temperature was 52 deg F.  It worked pretty good. 

 1/23/2011 I've painted the camo.  In the first picture you see my first take on this.  I took the model to the SVSM meeting last Friday and Ben mentioned that the camo demarcation was a little soft – I agreed, so yesterday I redid it and you can see in the following pic that effect.  It does look a lot better.  I have also dipped the clear parts in Future Floor Polish to improve the clarity.  I've also included a pic of the landing gear.

1/30/2011

More pics – I've finished the camo added the landing gear and painted the prop.

2/13/2011 I'm almost finished.  All that's left is adding the pitot tube and an underwing antenna plus the radio wiring – here are the latest:

4/28/2023 This is my finished 1/12 scale model of the Wright Cyclone radial engine by Atlantis.  This C9HE model of the Wright Cyclone was first issued in 1959 from Monogram, and was really advanced for a model kit at that time.  It shows it's age today, but still builds into a very nice model.  I had a lot of fun building it and the results to me are very satisfactory.  I weather the engine a little with Tamiya black panel line ink and also painted the engine stand yellow and weratherd that too.  I opted not to include the cut away cylinder showing the piston as I thought it looked a little cheesy.  The ignition cables and two additional pipes are made up of flexible plastic material and will not allow paint to stick to them.  I therefore had to leave them in their original copper color.  I was able to paint the ignition cable fittings silver tho.

Here is some background on the engine:

The Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 is an American radial engine developed by Curtiss-Wright, widely used on aircraft in the 1930s through 1950s. It was produced under license in France as the Hispano-Suiza 9V or Hispano-Wright 9V, and in the Soviet Union as the Shvetsov M-25.

Design and development

The R-1820 Cyclone 9 represented a further development of the Wright P-2 engine dating back to 1925. Featuring a greater displacement and a host of improvements, the R-1820 entered production in 1931. The engine remained in production well into the 1950s.

The R-1820 was built under license by Lycoming, Pratt & Whitney Canada, and also, during World War II, by the Studebaker Corporation. The Soviet Union had purchased a license for the design, and the Shvetsov OKB was formed to metricate the American specification powerplant for Soviet government-factory production as the M-25, with the R-1820's general design features used by the Shvetsov design bureau for many of their future radials for the Soviet air forces through the 1940s and onwards. In Spain the R-1820 was license-built as the Hispano-Suiza 9V or Hispano-Wright 9V.[2]

The R-1820 was at the heart of many famous aircraft including early Douglas airliners (the prototype DC-1, the DC-2, the first civil versions of the DC-3, and the limited-production DC-5), every wartime example of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Douglas SBD Dauntless bombers, the early versions of the Polikarpov I-16 fighter (as the M-25), and the Piasecki H-21 helicopter.

The R-1820 also found limited use in armored vehicles. The G-200 variant developed 900 hp (670 kW) at 2,300 rpm and powered the strictly experimental M6 Heavy Tank.

To view a video of the finished model go HERE.

Here are some photos of the finished model: