Does any one happen to know what colour the covers of the magnetos’ are supposed to be? I have found 5 BW pics of the engine and all five are apparently a different colour, ranging from black to what I think is a medium grey. I’ll probably go with the black as it looks better, but I would like for the thing to be accurate.
Here are a couple of links to color photos of the 2800:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/AWA1/301-400/walk375_PnW_R-2800_8w/walk375.htm
http://www.fine-art-models.com/f/model/aircraft/corsair/thumbsPW.htm
Since the engine is on display in both, and not actually in a plane, I think it would be safe to say that the colors are still open for debate [:)] When they put something on display they paint it up however it looks good.
Thanks for the links. They show pretty much what I was beginning to suspect, that the magneto covers are the same colour as the crankcase. Ah well won’t be the first time I’ve had to repaint.
At least it won’t be a big repaint job [:)]
I suspect that if you leave them black that it would be correct for some point in time. I really think that sometimes we take photographs too much for granted. Just because something cane from the factory in color “XYZ” doesn’t mean it stayed that way when the line mechanics got through with it.
True
The magnetos are the same colour as the crankcase (engine grey) . But the prop governer (between the two magnetos) is black. Every picture I’ve ever seen shows this, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some examples out there with black magnetos.
There are two types of ignition systems commonly used on most R-2800s, the GE and the Bendix. The GE magneto is rather heart shaped, with magneto and distributer contained inside each magneto. Almost all of GEs I have ever seen have been gloss black (when new). However I have seen them painted red, white or yellow by individual operators. The Bendix is a three piece set with the magneto mounted at the center top of the nose case (looks somewhat like a box) flanked by two distributors (round with a flat top). Magnetos and distributors were gray (Although I have seen the mags in black, probably the result of a visit to an overhaul shop)
You’ll need to research what type of magneto was installed on the engine in the particular version that you are modeling. (example: All the A-26s I’ve seen have the GE installed while all the PV-2s have had the Bendix installed. I’ve seen pictures of P-47s and F4Us with both types of magnetos installed - it depends upon the dash number of the engine installed)