WesR Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 I have the 1:48 Revell b-29a on the way and i know the engines won't be accurate and that the cowlings like the Monogram kit aren't accurate. Anyone know a source of resin replacements or how i can fix both issues myself? The engines don't have to be fancy but i'm never happy when i get a kit and the engines have only one row of pistons if they had 2 in real life. I have a Grumman goose that has that issue and i need to find a way to fix it. Any help is appreciated. I found the engines for the Goose easily enough but nothing for the b29. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Aldrich Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Well, a quick look on ebay showed me Cutting Edge made cowlings and true details make props. No engines listed though. You might want to check Quick boost. They have made lots of resin aftermarket aircraft items since I have been a reviewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Hi, Wes, Beware of the Cutting Edge B-29 cowlings. They are very wrong in shape. One of my club members bought a set and showed us how they compare to the Monogram kit pieces. He sent the Cutting Edge set back for a refund, which he received minus the shipping costs. That really ticked him off. He wrote a review about this for our newsletter many years ago. If I can find it I will post it. I wonder if Cobra Company produced corrected pieces. I'm using a 1/72 set designed for the B-377 Stratocruiser from Cobra Company. Two of the four rows can be seen inside the cowl. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 (edited) Hi, Wes, Here's the article from the December 2004 IPMS/Will-Cook Newsletter: Product Review —Ed Mate Cutting Edge B-29 Corrected Cowlings for Monogram (1/48) CEC48477 I purchased a set of the Cutting Edge replacement cowls because the Monogram cowls have a prominent step in them at the first panel line. Cutting Edge advertises that the Monogram cowls are too blunt and the air scoop is the wrong shape. At $36.99 plus postage, I hesitated for quite a while on buying a set of these replacement cowls. However, the Monogram cowls, with that step, were just too much, so I decided to ante up. After I inspected the Cutting Edge product, I wished I hadn’t! The Cutting Edge cowls have a few problems as well. The most important issue is that front of the cowl is not parallel with the back. The top front of the cowl is 3/32” (4 scale inches) further forward than the bottom front. This puts quite a bit of down thrust into your model. The air scoop shape does look better than the Monogram offering, but the grille lines inside are not evenly spaced. The first panel line on the Cutting Edge product is not straight – it is wavy as it circumscribes the cowl. So Monogram gives you an even ridge, and Cutting Edge provides a meandering river – pick your poison. Further, Cutting Edge does not provide any fastener details for the removable panels like are provided on the Monogram cowls. Finally, the Cutting Edge cowl has a flat spot on the right side (can be seen looking down from the top). These problems were just too much for the price of the product, so I called up Cutting Edge and arranged returning the product for a refund. Cutting Edge stands behind their satisfaction guarantee; they accepted the return with no questions asked. However, the refund check I received amounted to $31.49 – the retail price minus the fee paid to the credit card company. This was a little disappointing since I paid roughly $4 for the postage to have it sent to me and paid another $5 to send it back. Needless to say, the Cutting Edge B-29 cowlings are not recommended. I hope this explains the problems with both cowls. Ed Edited October 25, 2012 by ewahl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Hi, Wes, Roll Models has the engines you need for your Revell (Monogram) 1/48 B-29A Superfortress. Go to their website. On the home page select Catalog. On the list of Manufacturers on the left side, scroll down to Engines & Things and click. Within the Engines & Things list of products, scroll down to 1/48 Resin US Engines and click. In the list of specific engines on the right, scroll down to ENG48087. Here you see CW R-3350 -23, -35, -51, -57, CA-2 18-cyl. long nose box for B-29 Series, F-13A, B-32, Constellation 049, 649. 749 - 4 engines. Cost is $40.75 You may also find the two engines you need for your Grumman Goose on this site. Good luck. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesR Posted October 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 I managed to snag the grumman engines, sounds like the Revell/Monogram 29 cowls aren't as bad as people thought. I saw so many rave reviews about the Cutting Edge ones, i'm glad i didn't drop that insane amount on them. Wow 40.00 for one engine that's more than I paid for the kit lol. That's a good price for the goose engines though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmitz Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 I managed to snag the grumman engines, sounds like the Revell/Monogram 29 cowls aren't as bad as people thought. I saw so many rave reviews about the Cutting Edge ones, i'm glad i didn't drop that insane amount on them. Wow 40.00 for one engine that's more than I paid for the kit lol. That's a good price for the goose engines though. Wes, I think you get 4 for $40 - still kind of pricey... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesR Posted October 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Oh okay 4 for 40 isn't as bad. Some of these places make it look like you only get one engine. Well instead of starting another thread i'll just ask in here: do airplane tires really flatten alot sitting on the tarmac? I've seen pics in finescale modeler before that made them look half flat, i figures if anything it would be a very subtle flat spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Hi, Wes, The listing clearly states "4 engines." They come packaged as a set of 4. If they are like the 1/72 set of 4 I have for a Formaplane Vacuform DC-7C project, you will get the full engines front and back along with the two rows of cylinders. Quickboost if they had them, will only give you what you can see from the front with a flat surface on the back. You could hang one of these Engines & Things R-3350 engines on a maintenance stand for the mechanics to service, and the engine would look good. Detailing, of course, will make it look better. I have a set of True Details flat tires for my 1/48 YB-40 Gunship conversion from the Revell B-17F. They are way too flat for my eye. The bulges at the flat are so pronounced that they look like my SUV's tires when they lose half their air. I thought about sanding off some of the bulges, but then too much tire surface detail will be lost. The Revell kit's wheels have flat covers over the hubs, which is incorrect for a YB-40, but they are round with no flat spot. I need the Revell tires and True Details hubs, and I'm told that Eduard has a new set like that, so that's my direction for now. Good luck on using flat tires. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesR Posted October 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 I'll have to get those engines after christmas then unless i have cash left after buying stuff. I'd like to hide an electric motor behind it if there is room but i am still waitnig for the kit to show up. I appreciate all the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 (edited) The biggest trouble with the Monogram B-29 is that the entire kit is a pile of shoddy workmanship, but that is not really relevant to this thread, so I'll just point as quick as I can out the worst problem all kits from this moulding have (since you show an interest in getting some kind of accuracy out of it): What happened here to the B-29 right fuselage also happened to a lesser extent on the Monogram B-24D's right fuselage (but, interestingly enough, not to the B-24J mouldings): A flaw or manufacturing error was made on the right fuselage half, marring the finish inside the mould. Rather than starting over, as would have been done for any other kit, here Monogram chose instead the subterfuge of "grounding out" the mould flaw, resulting in the entire right fuselage half being "ballooned out", as the whole area of the right fuselage mould was bored out out to erase the flaw. Here you can see the "ballooning" due to grounding out on the right rear fuselage (left on image): For some reason the tail is off center as well: This has nothing to do with mould exit cool-down warping: ALL the kits are the same, and this is certainly from the very first 1977 issue as far as I know (please don't mention warping or individual de-moulding issues: This is not what is at issue here): You can see below here how the right fuselage is ballooned out to the right, making the nose curves seem off-centered, seemingly pushing the nose to the left: This is why the canopy fits so poorly: A Squadron canopy is an immense improvement in accuracy, but unfortunately makes things worse by conforming easier to the kit's crookedness... Heavy-duty pliers are the order of the day here to try to restore the nose's symmetry... As is shaving down the entire right fuselage surface (to half or even 1/4 thickness in some places) to help at least having a hope of an "impression" of symmetry... Again, here you can see the much more massive right "cheek" on the left side of this join-centered shot: The fin is tilted and its root is slightly off-center as well, but this seems to have been done to minimize the appearance of the other various tail problems... Finally: Both the main wingroot stubs are the exact same depth from the fuselage join on both sides of the kit, so you can see by their different prominence how the ballooning right side fuselage has diminished the prominence of the right side wingroot (here on the left), revealing the true nature of Monogram's fraudulent "fix"...: As for the Cutting Edge cowlings, they do have their face tilted "forward", and a slight excess of "rounding off" on the front cowling edges, but that can be mostly ground down from the front, and is nothing compared to the utter fiction of the horrible Monogram cowls (or the kit total of 8 identical exhausts instead of the actual 16 different ones while we are at it, Peccadillos at this point you know)... The Cutting Edge cowls are a little under 4 inch too shallow for the kit nacelles, which forces modifying the kit nacelles shallower: That looks quite accurate, as the kit nacelles are obviously too deep... Those resin cowls are a pain to fix, but still worth every penny if you want to hold on to any faint glimmer of hope of an accurate appearance... The very slightly unevenly spaced intake grilles, way deep inside the intake mouth of the resin cowls, are indeed there, but about as significant as a snowflake in an avalanche... I'll underline that although I have managed to fix somewhat the above symmetry issues (over 6 years of toiling at this), I have never seen such garbage workmanship compromise on any other mainstream high production volume injection moulded kit ever (Monogram's own B-24D excepted), including all other kits from the 60s or 70s that I know of... This is just to point out if you expect a similar soundness of alignment out of the Monogram B-29 (that you have every right to expect from all the other kits, and for all of them you do get at least symmetrically grounded fuselage radiuses), just be aware that this particular Monogram kit plays by its own rules and is a whole other ballgame... Gaston P.S. Oh, and the tailgunner's doghouse is 2 mm too long while the whole kit is one scale foot short (98 ft. vs 99), meaning you have to add 8 mm in the tapering area of the fuselage... Fun useage of a second kit! :) G. Edited November 2, 2012 by Gaston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghodges Posted October 30, 2012 Report Share Posted October 30, 2012 Very interesting Gaston! Glad this is just a hobby for me, and I won't need to worry about those flaws. Accurizers and perfectionists have their work cut out for them! I'm sure it won't make converting it to a B-50 any easier either..... GIL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 (edited) Thanks Gil, Usually when I point this out, and despite the photos, there are a lot of modellers who still question that there is anything of significance, or even that it carries over to all mouldings of this kit: However mouldings are hardly ever modified after being released, so I'm guessing the B-29s were like this from the first in 1977, and that Monogram counted on the kit's sheer size for this to be overlooked... Can't argue with success! Given how alignment is a big issue in contests, I'm guessing few Monogram B-29s ever made it very high in rankings... You might be glad to hear Monogram's superbly accurate B-17G has absolutely no such issues, and is still one of the most basically sound models ever in 1/48th. Unfortunately the Monogram B-26B in that scale has its left leading edge kinked sharply upwards, inboard of the engine nacelle, going to sharply downward outboard of the nacelle (unlike its own right wing and the real aircraft!), and there is apparently no reasonnably effective way I can think of of making the wings symmetrical on this issue, given the deeply "integrated" way the radiused material around the engine nacelle blends in with the leading edge... It is therefore doubly sad that large WWII kits in that scale have been quite rare for 30+ years, and that these particular old Monograms are seen as having "fulfilled" the market... In 1/48th WWII multi-engine types only the B-17G really lives up to that assesment. Gaston Edited November 1, 2012 by Gaston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WesR Posted November 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 I just got this thing in the mail and holy crap it's massive lol. I always laughed at the size of the 1:48 B52 the hobby shop could never sell over the years but even this is bigger than i had imagined. Which is fine by me as i hate trying to paint tiny details. It'll be a bit before i get to this project as i want some more after market parts that require saving up and then i'll come up with a plan of action. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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