Dancona

Hi Renek I've stuck them in "vehicle discussion" how are the oil spots going ?

Glad to be able to help Admiral Puff sir, maybe some of this could be useful, NOW onto the oily bits ! The Airfix engine is a bit simplified, the biggest problem is that the vertical drive casing at the front of the engine is not separate from the block on the kit, the best way of illustrating this is showing how the real one is bolted together. This is the more or less complete 3 litre engine, advanced for its time it sported OHC, 4 valves per cylinder and twin plugs per cylinder plus an obscenely long stroke (for tax reasons- bore was taken into account for calculations but not stroke). It also had a “non detachable” head because in 1919 when the engine was being developed no-one had figured out how to do a reliable head gasket, this means that the valve chest and the bores were cast into one block which was then bolted onto a separate crankcase. If you take the block off you get this, pistons falling out ! On the right the lower part of the vertical camshaftshaft (plus waterpump and magneto) drive casing can be seen clearly. And the bulkhead, with the dynamo drive clearly visible where it normally conects to the rear of the camshaft. This is the block with the side water jacket plates off And on top of the block casting you have this, the camshaft casing which has the upper part of the shaft cover cast into it as well. and in place but without the top cover Finally another bit that I have noticed people asking about, the Rev-counter drive, that comes off the front of camshaft (the Dynamo comes off the rear through the bulkhead and under the dash). There is a very good blog, with a lot of pictures of obscure Bentley bits, here as well. http://vintagebentleyblog.weebly.com/ Thats probably enough for now, I have some more general chassis ones I will post later, hope some of this helps ! Cheers David

Ive noticed some wonderful "Blower" builds on the forum, and the odd request for information regarding some of the more obscure details of the real car. I am lucky enough to have access to a 1926 3 litre which was recently in bits and I took the oportunity to take some pictures of some of the more dificult to get to bits (the three and the four and a half engines are extremely similar). So I thought I would share some of the pictures and also help to clear up some points and provide a reference for obsessive modellers like myself, but fefore I do that I had a request to shed some light on water pumps. There seems to be a bit of a mystery regarding the water pump on the four and a half litre Bentley, Airfix kind of abbreviated it on the big kit and it is dificult to see on photos because it is buried in the radiator. I couldnt get any really clear shots of the whole thing on the 3 litre, so I've found some that should explain whats missing. This is a four and a half water pump, upside down, the big curly pipe on the right is connected to the waterjacket under the magneto on the RHS of the engine (Airfix got that right), the other smaller curly pipe on left goes to the thermostat, more on that later, and the flange with the studs (facing downwards on the car) has an additional casting and goes to the radiator. This is it on a standard (unblown) four and a half showing (behind the headlamp mount) the missing bit of pipe that goes on the flange and comes out sideways to the radiator (this car has unusual aluminium plates boxing in the lower part of the engine block). The Blower Bentleys had no thermostat fitted so the outlet was cut off before the bend and a brass screw in plug fitted, as can be seen on this superb 1:3 scale working model (brass plug missing). On a standard unblown car the water pump connected to the thermostat on the water gallery, but I dont think any of the supercharged cars had them fitted, as seen below. Ill post some oily bits next when I have a moment, hope this helps those that were asking !!!! Cheers David

Absolutely stunning result, congratulations !

Hi Ian, Actually I do, but I dont want to hijack Renek's wonderfull build log with lots of pictures of oily old bits of metal so what I'll do is make a new thread in the general car chat bit when I have a moment and post them there ! Cheers David

While I'm at it, in case anyone else is doing a four cylinder Bentley at the moment, this is the block/head bit with the water jacket plates plates removed. The only way to get to the valves is take this off and put your hand up the bore a la James Herriot, but the real nightmare is putting it back on again over the pistons !!

I know it looks bad ! With the block off (non detachable head) things do tend to flop out, but after a rebore and new pistons and rings things look a bit more recogniseable.....

Hi Renek, lots of oil !!! This is a real one in bits (actually its a 3 litre, but very similar)

I can only agree wholeheartedly with what has already been said, you've done a cracking job on the car, and the workshop is simply stunning, one can almost smell the straight mineral oil !

Quite simply a masterpiece, it is spot on in every way, from the gloss levels of different materials to the most convincing chrome trim I think I have ever seen at this scale........just gobsmacked !!!!

Watching this with a certain amount of professional, as well as modelmaking interest, good start !!

Stunning, simply stunning !

Difficult to find words really, probably one of the best examples of truly creative modelmaking I have seen, it almost has that old car smell of cracked leather and straight mineral oil, bravo...art and storytelling at its best ! I humbly doff my cap to you sir David

Thats a cracker that is, very clever base, spot on !!

Absolutely spot on, lovely job !