Painting round engines

Ashley, thanks alot for the info.

Engine parts? Lessee, the crankcase in the main center part of the engine, to which the cylinders attach. The bulbous affair on the front of the engine that the prop sticks into is the gearcase, because it houses reduction gearing. The engines usually turn 3000 to 3300 rpm, and the prop rpm is reduced to around 2000 on big radials.
The magnetos are box-like affairs, come in pairs, and could be mounted in front of the cylinders or in back, depending on the engine. The R-2800 had them in front. Usually black, they make the spark for the plugs. The plug wires are usually routed through a conduit around the crankcase, and exit at each cylinder, run up along a pushrod tube to one plug on the front of the cylinder and another wire to a plug on the back.

At the top of each cylinder, where it becomes Y shaped, are oblong bumps that are the rocker box covers, the valve rocker arm is in here, and they constantly leak oil. Heck, the whole engine leaks oil.

If cylinders are painted, it doesn't stay on long, either, the heat flakes it off. Gear and crankcases fare a little better. Hope this helps!

Sorry, typing has never been a skill I've mastered. To continue, can anyone out there give me a short breakdown of the parts of a radial? What is and where is the crankcase located, the magetos, the rocker covers, etc?

I've always been confused on the name of the various parts of radial engines. When you say "the crankcase is gloss black" what part of the engine is that?

It appears that US engines were painted by the manufacturers and sub-contractors in accordance with their selected color schemes. As for British engines, I have seen Merlins in photos where the cylinder heads are gloss black or aluminum, the crankcase is gloss black or aluminum, and the reduction gear case is in a medium gray, with the induction/supercharger either in a bronze metal or painted gray. German engines appear to me to have been mostly black for Benz engines, and gray for BMW. I am not sure about Jumos.

Has anyone ever checked to see what colour the engines were/are when new.Were wartime engines(say an R-1820of 1939) the same colour as an R-1820 of 1944. Were British and German engines the same colour as American engines?

One other nice thing about radials are that they are easier to detail-- you can add copper wire, etc as well....

The edges of the fins should be in aluminum color, since the slits were produced in many cases by using ganged saws to slit solid aluminum. The effect of the black wash is to distinguish the slits. Many museum engines have had the cooling fins painted black to retard oxidation.

These are all great methods which I use myself. I sort of stumbled on another way to paint radials as well not too long ago. Every now and then I'll use Testor's Metalizer paints brushed on straight from the bottle. I'm at work right now during my lunch hour so I can't remember the exact color but I think it's the buffing metalizer in aluminum that I'll use. It's extremely thin (since it's designed to be used in air brushes only) so it flows nicely throughout the cooling vanes. The "edges" of the vanes will remain silver while the recessed parts will be darker. The paint just naturally does that on it's own. If I feel like it needs it then I'll of course do the dry brushing but I thought this method really provides an even and natural look. By the way, just to clarify things I only use this on the cylinder areas.

Keep modeling!!!

Eric

AH! Good 'ole Butz! I taught him everything he knows! (But not everything I know!)

Drybrushing is my fave technique for this typa thing and looks good alone or can act as a guide for some steady-handed straight-detail-painting.

Try adding a few other metallics in there as well. Brass and copper mixed in with silvers and such can produce that "heated" or "burnt" metal-look. Heck, a bit-o blue, red or purple mixed in (sparingly) will liven things up as well. Experiment and have fun.

Fade to Black...

rcplane,
I'll put my 2 cents in aswell. All the above choices are good and this is how I do mine ( its a lil diffierent). I start off airbrushing the whole engine flat black.
Once that is done and dry, I lightly drybrush Testors Alum buff and Magnesium. Of course this would be done to the cylinders. Then go and use different tones of gray on the crankcase and magnetos. Then go back and highlight other parts on how I feel.
I use black as a basecoat because once all the drybrushing/detailing is done, it acts as a "natural shadow" where shadows should be.
But then again that is how I prefer to detail an engine. Flaps up,Mike

Good references help a lot here, since different manufacturers used different colors for crankcases, magnetos, nose cases, etc. I found a book at my local library called Allied Aero Engines, which has good illustrations, mostly in b/w.

Thanks guys. I your suggestions sound good. I hadn't thought of reversing the colors, silver first then washing with black or using metalizers for dry brushing. I will try these techniques on my Skyraider, SB2-C, TBF, F4U-4, P-47, B-25, A-26, P-61........Oh boy, I'd better get to work! Three cheers for the forum. Thanks again......Don.

I like a couple of different looks: flat black with gunmetal metalizer drybrushed; and gunmetal metalizer with burnt metal metalizer drybrushed. The crankcases and rocker covers I usually paint medium gray, and the pushrods silver.

you should try the other way round... paint the whole thing silver, then add dark washes to fill in the recesses. Then a bit of drybrushing on the other non-silver bits.