Quickboost

Engine Change: Making the Old and the New Fit Each Other F4U-1D Corsair Engine, (1/72nd scale) meets Monogram F8F Bearcat Kit For the Hasegawa 1/72 Corsair

Stock Number: QB 72 085

Reviewed By  Stephen Bierce, IPMS# 35922

MSRP: €4.50 Euros ($6.50) www.quickboost.net When I first received the engine set for this review, I had a few second-hand F4U-1 Corsair models in states of disassembly awaiting rebuild, and fully intended to use one of those. However, on closer examination I found that the Quickboost engine wouldn't fit any of them without me having to do drastic "surgery". So I ruminated on the issue for several moons. The answer came at a local IPMS meeting, when I was in conversation with one of our club's elder statesmen. We saw the Accurate Miniatures' re-issues of older Monogram 1/72nd scale fighter plane kits and I mentioned the fact that I'd previously owned a Grumman F8F Bearcat and a Curtiss P-36 Mohawk from Monogram and lost them both on my move from Florida to Tennessee. "If Accurate Miniatures re-issued those, I'd be all over 'em," I told him. "I got extras of both of those," he said, and offered to sell them to me. He didn't need to ask me twice! Next meeting I took delivery. The Bearcat I bought from him was the 1974 issue; the one I lost (and still had the instructions for) was the 1989 "Mini Masterpieces" version. There was no real difference between them, sharing the same color plastic and decal sheet. I haven't seen the Revell-Germany issue "Bobcat" F8F, but other builders assured me it also is the same except for the decals. Since the Monogram Bearcat kit already featured a hollow forward fuselage and a separate engine, it was better suited for an engine replacement than the Corsair kits I owned, even though the actual F8F plane sported a later version of the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp. If I were building a model for competition, the differences between engine subtypes would concern me, but in this case they don't. I mean, it's as though if you had taken an engine from a '55 Chevy BelAir and set it in a '72 Chevelle. Chances are, you could have a common engine block, and maybe a good number of the hardware details could match as well. But an expert would know what to look for and what looks out of place. The Quickboost engine is very well cast and has astonishing surface detail for its scale. The resin is very close in terms of hardness and workability to standard styrene, if a little more brittle. With that in mind I tried to work as carefully as I could. The first task was to saw off the resin plinthes from engine parts 4 (the cylinder banks assembly) and 5 (the engine/fuselage mount). This I did with a fine-tooth razor saw, working very slowly and deliberately to avoid damaging any detail. Once the plinth was removed from part 5, I compared it to the Monogram kit's starboard fuselage half (part 11). The cowl's aft end was a logical place to install a firewall (and there is a socket for a locator pin hole there as well). Comparison showed that the engine mount was the right width, but if I made a circular firewall, there would be gaps on the top and bottom of about a millimeter each way. I got out a scrap of 1mm thick sheet plastic and traced the outside of the engine mount on it twice, shifting it 1mm between tracings. This made the result an oval-and the basis for my firewall. I cut out the shape with a pair of dressmakers' scissors and fine-tuned its shape with sanding and trimming as I did a series of test fits to the fuselage. Once I was satisfied with the firewall's shape and fit, I tacked it in with a droplet of Tenax adhesive. I removed the engine mount pins from the Bearcat's port fuselage half and then ground down the nubs left over using a spherical pinkstone bit from a Dremel tool set. (I didn't use the Dremel-I just worked the bit by hand.) Once this was done I painted the interiors of both fuselage halves Testors Model Master Zinc Chromate Green as per the Monogram's kit instruction sheet. I sanded engine parts 4 & 5 (where they would mate so both would be flat against each other), glued them together (as per the Quickboost instruction sheet) and once the glue had dried, I drilled a hole through the center of the engine for the flathead pin I would use as a propeller shaft. The Monogram shaft, in my opinion, was too thick-I was sure if I tried to drill a hole large enough for it, I'd damage the part too much. I removed the shaft itself from the back of the prop hub (Monogram part 2) and also drilled a hole through the hub for the new pin/shaft. Comparing the assembled engine to the space in the cowling, I figured that the engine needed to sit further forward than it would if I glued it directly to the firewall. So I got more scraps of 1mm sheet styrene and made two layers of shimming around the perimeter of engine part 5. The pattern was rather like laying bricks around a well hole. I made sure to check the first layer for flatness before adding the second layer, and then sanding that one flat after the glue dried. I painted the main engine block Testors Model Master Steel (a very light coat), installed the prop shaft and hub, and then added the detail parts for the engine's frontal gearbox. To match a color photo of a real R-2800 I found over the Internet, I painted parts 1 & 3 Gunze Sangyo Mr. Metal Color Dark Iron, and the twin parts 2 Testors Engine Silver. The forward-facing area of engine part 5 was painted Zinc Chromate Green to match the interior of the cowling. After all the paint dried, I set the engine in the starboard fuselage, gluing the shims to the firewall with a drop of Tenax. And there it is. The rest of the build will be done per the Monogram instructions. The Quickboost engine is a world better in shape and features than the original engine. Highly recommended…and not just for Corsairs. Thanks to Modelchoice.Net, Quickboost, and IPMS/USA for my review sample, and special thanks to Bob Miles and David Lakin of IPMS/Knoxville Scale Modelers for their valuable assistance on this project.

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