Contents

This resin engine set is designed for the Special Hobby P-40N in 1/72 scale. According to Wikipedia the resin engine represents the Allison V-1710-115. Some surgery to the kit is required noticeably the removal of the upper engine covers to gain the full benefit of this release. The instructions provide details of where to cut the panels. Included in the set are:

1 x Engine
2 x Fuselage engine covers
2 x Air filters
2 x Sets of engine bearers.
1 x Forward fuselage blank.
1 x Upper air inlet cowl
1 x Radiator block
1 x Rear firewall
1 x Sheet of instructions

The detail on the engine is very good and includes the supercharger to the rear. There are no exhaust pipes so I imagine the ones supplied with the kit are just glued on the blank strip on either side of the engine. There is no mention of this in the instructions. There is a resin blanking plate to fit in the nose, but there is no hole through it allowing the kits prop shaft to go through. So some careful drilling is required if you like seeing props rotate on your models. There are a couple of filtered boxes that fit behind the plate; they have some mesh detail on them. The detail on the front and rear of the radiator block looks good. The two separate engine covers look good and feature tiny perforations to the front, where the filtered boxes are located. The spaces where the exhausts fit need the very thin film of resin clearing. The upper fuselage air inlet cowl is disappointing as it does not feature any hint of the inlet itself. The inlet features in the drawing of the cowl in the instructions though. There are two sets of engine bearers and just as well as some of rods that make up the bearer are damaged. The detail on the rear firewall is very good.

Instructions printed on yellow paper,is actually easy on the eye to look at. Instructions are pretty straight forward although a drawn template for assembling the engine bearers might have been an idea to take some of the guess work out of construction. There are colour notes for painting. The instruction mentions using cyanoacrylate glue and degreasing contact areas. They should really advice folk to wash the parts thoroughly and also should point out the health hazards of cutting and sanding resin.

Conclusions

A bit of a mixed bag really with this engine detail set. Great looking engine, radiator block and rear firewall. The engine covers around the exhaust are fine, but the lack of any sign of an inlet on the upper cowl is disappointing and pretty inexcusable for a resin set. This set provides a good basis to really super detail the Special Hobby P-40N engine bay.