1:48 Handley Page Hampden - Bristol Pegasus Engines (2 pcs / for ICM Kits)

Radial engines for the flying suitcase

The radial Bristol Pegasus was the engine that lifted a whole generation of British aircraft of the 1930s into the air, and the Handley Page Hampden among them. It was one of the three bombers with which Bomber Command entered the war. It had an exceptionally narrow and deep fuselage, on account of which the crews nicknamed it the flying suitcase, and the four men inside could practically not change places during a flight. Hampdens flew over Germany from the first weeks of the conflict, took part in the first British raid on Berlin in August 1940 and later finished their service as torpedo carriers with Coastal Command, some of them even operating from northern Russia.

Two complete engines

There are two pieces in the package, that is a full pair for one model. A radial unit is exactly the part on which an injection molded kit most often gives up: the cylinders merge, the finning is soft and the pushrods are as a rule missing altogether. The replacement captures them in full detail, and with the engine cowling open a build takes on a different character at once.

The target kit

The set is prepared for the Hampden from the ICM brand. Before fitting it is worth checking how deep the engine will sit, so that the face of the cylinders lines up with the outline of the cowling, and only then reaching for the glue.

Painting a radial unit

Cylinders with dense finning are best dealt with before fitting, while there is access to them from all sides. A proven procedure is to cover the whole block with a dark base and then to apply a lighter shade only to the edges of the fins, which brings the detail to the fore. The pushrods deserve a stroke of the brush of their own, because it is exactly they that turn a casting into a machine.