While waiting for the answer from the cutter companies, I’ve been sourcing out a few other things, one of which is a dummy Wasp radial.
Wasp kit from Williams Brothers
Fortunately, Williams Brothers has a 1/4 scale Wasp radial which should work nicely. It looks to be a large plastic kit with 9 cylinders, pushrod covers, exhaust stacks, crankcase breathers, etc.
They’re selling it for $72.99.
Well, now it’s the time where I have to decide which of the kit cutting services to use.
I’ve narrowed it down to 2 companies – Precision Cut Kits and Kit Cutters. The problem is to whether they include the ribs for both wings (or more specifically, the shorter, scale wing). Also, do they include the tabs on the bottom of the ribs to aid in rib alignment?
The other difference is cost. Kit Cutters comes in at $300, while Precision is $375. Do you get the same quality in either case?
I’ve put in calls to both and we’ll see what they have to say.
The plans were originally drawn with a Sachs 3.1 engine for power, as it was one of the more popular way back when. Times and power plants have changed. After looking at what’s on sale these days, the DLE-55 will probably be the engine I use. It’s the same displacement as the Sachs, but quite a bit more powerful, and probably a bit lighter too.
I found a 3 view of the engine on the net and sized them to actual size. Looks like a perfect fit on the plans.
DLE 55 fit on the plans.
After going over the plans, the model can be built with 2 different size wings. One is the 84″ span noted on the specs, but that’s not scale. A 75″ wing is also shown and makes the plan true to the original design. That’s the way I will go.
Wing plans - closeup
I ordered a set of plans from Wendell Hostetler. His design is a 25% (1/4 scale) version. It specs out as: Wingspan: 84″; Length: 70″; Wing Area: 1275 sq. in.; Engine: 3-4.6 cu. in.; Weight: 20-22 lbs.
fuselage sheet
Wing sheet
