TWO THINGS ON MY MIND

As the title of this article suggests, I would

like to address two topics in this Tail End Charlie

issue. The first concerns engines. Specifically,

I mean our Brassin engines. I will directly follow

up on the step by step article by Honza Baranec,

who, in my opinion, assembled and painted the

engine for the F4F-4 Wildcat in an absolutely

fantastic way. I approached him with the idea

of an article on the construction of a separate

engine right after I saw the result of his work.

Little did I know that at this year’s Iron Bunny

event, the competitors would be literally racing

Brassin Wildcat engines. I would like to take

this opportunity to apologize to the contestants

for the fact that the printed instructions do

not mention the need to cut the plastic parts,

and I recommend that all modelers, in case of

confusion, check out the instructions on the

product page of our e-shop, as they are always

the most up-to-date versions. If we find any

discrepancy or error, or if we receive feedback

from customers that some steps during

construction are not clear to them, we modify

the instructions. And since it is not possible

to send them to all customers afterwards, we

update them on the product page of the e-shop.

But there is one more type of question we

are receiving from our customers regarding the

Wildcat engines. This brings me to the second

topic, which is a certain modeling laziness,

and maybe I would even go so far as to call it

pampering. And we at Eduard are probably to

blame for this. We get a lot of questions from

modelers about which version of the Brassin

engine for the F4F-3 they should actually buy,

because there are four on offer – for the early,

mid, late and also for the F4F-3A. This also

corresponds to the concept of the plastic kit,

in which we also deal with several types of

cowlings and engine cooling systems, as well as

two versions of the engine. In short, Grumman

changed and improved these items on the F4F-3

several times during the war. And that’s not even

addressing the cowling of the first 19 production

machines, which was composed of two halves!

Our recommendation is quite simple. Each

modeler must first clarify what camouflage he

wants to model and thus what specific aircraft

he will build. Subsequently, according to the

selected camouflage in the instructions, the

choice is made with respect to the appropriate

version of the engine, cooling and engine covers

that correspond to the chosen camouflage.

We have all this conveniently indicated in the

instructions for the kits, and it is therefore also

a reliable guide for choosing an appropriate

Brassin set. A general question like “Which set

should I buy for such and such a kit” is often

impossible to answer because it deals with

multiple variants of the engine. If you don’t

134

INFO Eduard

Text: Jakub Nademlejnský

Engine with two magnetos on the reduction gear housing.

Engine subtype without two magnetos on the reduction gear.

F4F-3 early version engine. Reducer without the two magnetos, side intake for air cooling on the front of the cowl

ring and one cooling flap on the side covers.

July 2023