This kit includes resin and photoetch parts to replace the base kit engines on the Revell Monogram B-17F/G kits. The Brassin engines have extremely fine detail, go together well, but require experience with resin and photoetch pieces. The engines add fantastic detail to the base kits and are a challenging but rewarding build.

This kit is the iconic Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 American radial engine developed by Curtiss-Wright, and widely used on aircraft in the 1930s through 1950s. These kit engines are replacements for the parts supplied with the Revell Monogram B-17F/G aircraft kits.

The kit includes parts molded in light and dark gray resin, five photoetch frets, a small sheet of details, and two pages of instructions. There is also a half-size errata sheet of instructions for step number 7. The instructions include eight steps and the illustrations are large and very detailed. The instructions also include photos, counts of the resin and photoetch pieces, and color call outs for Gunze Mr. Color and Aqueous paint colors.

The resin pieces for the main engine block have extremely sharp and fine detail, particularly on the backside of the engine. The cooling fins on the cylinders are very finely detailed, and almost unnoticeable until they’re painted.All of the parts are attached to casting blocks that will need to be removed. Several of the parts had broken free from the casting block in the bag. The resin blocks are individually bagged by type of part. The photoetch pieces are also bagged and separated by pieces of cardboard.

Assembly begins with attachment of the front crankcase section to the main section and its attached cylinders. Both the front and main crankcase sections are solid pieces that have very large casting blocks attached. There is a very fine line that indicates the cut line to remove the casting blocks. For the main crankcase section I started to remove the casting block with a motor tool, followed up with a razor saw. Once the casting block was removed, the back of the crankcase was sanded with a sanding stick flush with the cutline. There are flat spots on the front and main crankcase sections that need to be lined up when the parts are glued. I got one of mine out of place, which caused problems installing the oil lines later on in step 4. Paint colors for the crankcase sections are called out as intermediate blue and dark iron in Mr. Color paints.

Steps 2 and 3 install the pushrods and front oil pump to the front of the engine. The pushrods are individual small resin parts that have a front/back orientation based on the clamps at the inner crankcase section. I needed to cut the pushrods flush with the inside of the clamps to get them to fit, but then they fit very nicely. There are three extra push rods in case one gets broken or lost.The oil sump mounts to the bottom of the crankcase and has a photoetch piece representing the oil line. I've been painting the pieces as they are assembled. Step 2 includes some detail painting instructions for the front of the engine, and step 3 includes application of decal #2 to the oil sump. The Mr. Metal color dark iron called out for the cylinder heads is a buffing metallizer type of paint. It will provide nice shiny highlights on raised in surfaces, and with a little more rubbing will be worn off. I used pencils as holders to avid handling the painted engines.

Step 4 installs the oil lines and manifold to the front of the engine. The front crankcase section has nut fittings cast for installation of oil lines photoetch PE7 and PE8. The oil manifold pieces PE2 and PE3 should be rotated tight against these nuts, which will put them in the proper alignment. I annealed the oil line parts so they would be easier to bend into place. The longer oil lines for the top of the cylinders rest in a groove on top of the cylinder. The fit of the oil lines is very nice and they had considerable interest to the front of the engine, but require lots of patience and detail work. It does take quite a bit of fiddling to get all of the oil lines terminated in the right location. The instructions include a detail blowup showing the connection of the oil lines to the top of the cylinders, and the instruction diagrams are very clear for installation of the oil lines.

Step 5 includes the installation of resin part R7, a photoetch bracket PE6, and a photoetch drive belt PE4. The resin part attaches to the top of the front crankcase and there are holes in the main section of the crankcase for the bracket and drive belt.

Step 6 installs the forward mounting ring photoetch part PE1. I shaped this ring and soldered it for additional strength. I also soldered the two halves of the rear mounting ring, parts PE9 and PE10, for strength. Eduard has included an errata sheet for step number 7 that shows the location of the inner mounting ring on the fairing and the correct location of the engines. The correct position for parts R9, which are the left and right outer engines, are clearly shown on the errata sheet. The other two fairing sections R0 and R11 are not as clear. Eduard could have added some more clues on the correct rotational angle for photoetch parts PE9 & 10. This step also shows the correct rotational angle for the outside piece of the cowl, part R12.

Step number 8 shows the mounting of the engine and outer cowl to the Monogram kit wing.

In comparison to the Monogram engines, the Eduard Brassin engines have far more detail and add considerable realism to the engines. The kit requires lots of care and patience installing the oil lines and mounting rings, but will result in a very nice model. Experience working with photoetch and resin parts is a must for this kit.

Thanks to Eduard Brassin for producing another wonderful add-on a part for the B-17 aircraft. Thanks also, as usual, to The IPMS Review Crew for the opportunity to build and review this kit.