Monogram Wright Cyclone radial engine

[fordf-100]

This is an original Monogram 1/12 scale Wright Cyclone 9 radial engine. I picked this up on eBay for pretty cheap, it was complete but the parts were all off the spruces which wasn’t a big deal! Everything was in good shape except for the ignition harness and the oil pipe and the low tension lead, these were molded in gold and very brittle, they broke as soon as you handled them. The rest was in good shape! I think this is the original issue dated 1959 and the molding was really nice and very detailed! I had a blast building this and I think it came out ok! I have seen these kits in various reissues from Revell to Atlantis and always wanted to build one but what really got me going was this past summer my wife booked me a flight on the CAF B-24 “DIAMOND LIL” which I really wanted to go on as my moms cousin was a gunner on a B-24 in WWII and was shot down over Czechoslovakia in 1944 and was killed in action. I tried twice to get on the B-24 and both times it was grounded due to engine problems so they asked if I wanted to upgrade to the B-29 “FIFI” and I jumped at the chance! And it was incredibly cool! About 10 years ago for Father’s Day my wife booked me on “PANCHITO” a B-25, we ended up with my wife and daughter going on that! So that was my motivation behind building this! One thing about going to a WWII air show is the incredible sound of the engines! Let me know what you guys think of this build! All comments welcome!

[shoopdog]

Very cool build and detail. I’ve be checking out the Roden engines but they are just 1/32 scale and not WW2 era.

[fordf-100]

13 hours ago, shoopdog said:

Very cool build and detail. I’ve be checking out the Roden engines but they are just 1/32 scale and not WW2 era.

Those Roden kits are pretty nice! I like them a little bigger also, especially for display! They do have some unique engines the Hispano Suiza is pretty cool!

[TonyK]

First time I've seen one of these built and it looks really good. Liked reading your experiences with the planes.

[ChrisR]

Very nice.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Nice seeing one of these built. I buggered one as a kid, have a couple newer issues to get to someday.

Cool you got a ride in Fifi. Did you ever see the story of her being dragged out of the desert and restored to flying condition?

Pretty amazing amount of sweat and expertise.

PS: Williams has some nice large scale aircraft engine kits too.     

[TarheelRick]

Very nice looking build. Have never heard any of the WWII radial engines run, but have worked on T-28's. The sound of those will give a full-race Hemi a run for its money.

[PappyD340]

Very nice build!

[fordf-100]

21 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Nice seeing one of these built. I buggered one as a kid, have a couple newer issues to get to someday.

Cool you got a ride in Fifi. Did you ever see the story of her being dragged out of the desert and restored to flying condition?

Pretty amazing amount of sweat and expertise.

PS: Williams has some nice large scale aircraft engine kits too.     

I have not seen that Bill, I’m going to have to look it up! I’ve been looking for the Williams kits but I don’t see them that often, I would like to build a couple more! 

[Wickersham Humble]

If I weren't so bogged in other kits (some begun over sixty-years-ago!) I'd dive into my Cyclone!  I planned to build it as a derelict sitting on bamboo logs or an old pallet on some Pacific Island; maybe on cylinder removed, some bullet damage showing, and a puddle of oil on the sand below.  Something different!  Maybe from a Brewster F2A Buffalo after the Battle of Midway...  I always felt that the Buffs got a raw deal from the USMC historian (Sherrard?  Can't find his book...) when the mostly green Gyrene pilots waded into 60 seasoned Japanese pilots and lost over half their number in the little Cyclone-powered fighter.  I would think that even guys in Hellcats or Corsairs would experience some trepidation taking on twice their number; advantage usually going to the attacker, also.  Finnish Brewsters scored over Tomahawks, MiGs, Yaks, Hurricanes, and Airacobras over their border, and one Buffalo apparently holds the world's record for most enemy a/c destroyed by one ship -- flown in turn by two aces!  Lack of R-1920's eventually drove the Finns to using salvaged Rooshian license-built Wrights in their fighters!  It was obsolete, no doubt, but good pilots liked them, especially (like the P-39 and P-40) at mid to low altitudes.

I wrote a novel that was on Kindle Vella, now closed-down, soon on Kindle eBook/paperback, that is centered around a Cyclone-powered naval fighter I call the Brewer Bison, and a hard-luck pilot/engineer whose life is linked to it.  Begun in 1991, I've done a lot of research -- including Smithsonian A&S Archives in person -- on the beast.  The book is called "Bird of Ill Omen" and is inexpensive; eg, not very profitiable!  Wick

[stavanzer]

On 12/31/2024 at 1:13 PM, TarheelRick said:

Very nice looking build. Have never heard any of the WWII radial engines run, but have worked on T-28's. The sound of those will give a full-race Hemi a run for its money.

The T-28 is powered by the very engine that Phil built. the R-1820 Wright Cyclone, It powered the B-17, DC-3,HU-16 Albatross, S2 Tracker-Trader-Tracer & the T-28. Amongst many others. So, if you've been around running T-28, you heard the Cyclone.

[Wickersham Humble]

Our local (Chico CA) air museum has an awesome cutaway P&W R-4360 Wasp Major, and a salvage Wright R3350 which I wish we could spiff upig outside display on that one.  We have a P2V Neptune that used them.  Researching the 3350, I discovered that, being introduced prematurely because of the war, it had more modifications, upgrades, and 'enhancements' on record than the total number of engines C-W produced!  Eventually was a very good mill. On the P&W, I just tell young 'uns that in displacement, it exceeds ten Gen II Hemis! Darn, none of our engines can be run, so no 'sound of round' noises!

Also have a rare Fairchild-Ranger V-12, used only in a few a/c, and not a keeper.  However, this one is inverted (regular v-configuration that we're used to) and is the actual engine that Art Arfons used to set the top time in the Nationals in 1957 in his 'Green Monster 1'.  770-cubes, SOHC, centrifugally blown. Crazy Bell SP-77 mini-fighter was design that tried it -- inverted of course.  Also affiliated are a Travel-Air 3000 with Lycoming, and PT-13 with Continental (?), which get flown and are instantly identifiable, plus a PT-19 with Ranger I-44o six.

[SSNJim]

On 12/30/2024 at 4:41 PM, fordf-100 said:

<snip>...this past summer my wife booked me a flight on the CAF B-24 “DIAMOND LIL” which I really wanted to go on as my moms cousin was a gunner on a B-24 in WWII and was shot down over Czechoslovakia in 1944 and was killed in action. I tried twice to get on the B-24 and both times it was grounded due to engine problems so they asked if I wanted to upgrade to the B-29 “FIFI” and I jumped at the chance!</snip>

Good for you! I was able to see them both in Manassas, VA a few years ago and both were doing flights. The prices were way too expensive for a spur of the moment flight, so we watched them both (and several other WWII  planes including Mustangs) take off and land several times. Quite impressive. My wife's father was a bombardier in a B-24G (Chiquita Mia) which was shot down over Austria in 1944. Seven of the crew made it back to friendly territory, but he and two other crew members spent a year in Stalag luft 1. 

Edited January 5 by SSNJim

[Wickersham Humble]

Jim, always avoided 'Hogan's Heroes' so-called comedy series because of the mistaken impression it gave of Nazi prison life! "They knew notheeng!"  MAD Magazine did a scathing satire on H.H. back about 1970.

I was docenting at CAM when an older gent visited, and we got into a conversation about heavy bombers, etc. He asked if I knew the stories of Ploetsi in Rumania and the heroic/disasterous raid by B-24s there, which I had read a lot about.  There was one Lib that crash-landed on ag land, and the farmer helped the whole crew hide from the 'cops' and later sneak into Turkey -- he said it was his grandfather!  Some interesting stories come if one is ready to listen.  A friend of my late Dad was a B-24 tail gunner (little, short guy) who had some interesting tales to tell!  Thx!  Wick

[fordf-100]

20 hours ago, SSNJim said:

Good for you! I was able to see them both in Manassas, VA a few years ago and both were doing flights. The prices were way too expensive for a spur of the moment flight, so we watched them both (and several other WWII  planes including Mustangs) take off and land several times. Quite impressive. My wife's father was a bombardier in a B-24G (Chiquita Mia) which was shot down over Austria in 1944. Seven of the crew made it back to friendly territory, but he and two other crew members spent a year in Stalag luft 1. 

If you ever get a chance check out the air show in Reading PA. I have been there twice and it is really a good air show with tons of displays and usually a dozen old cars. They have tanks, motorcycles and other assorted military vehicles driving around with a lot of men and women in uniform and 40’s clothing with big bands playing etc!!! Very cool! This past year they had a P-63 king cobra flying along with a P-40 and several Mustangs making low and fast passes over they runway! They are also restoring a P-61 black widow!

[slusher]

Man, that is awesom'