Maybach HL230P45 Engine

It’s been some time since I completed the Tiger but the build is still incomplete the next phase is the Engine and compartment this has been done by one or two people but not to a reasonable level of detail I will try to add more detail than has been previously done the first stage is to build the compartment this I have already done the next is to obtain an engine there have only ever been 2 engines built one in metal from John Goode in America this is a very nice engine though not 100% correct and sadly no longer available http://www.sixtharmygroup.com/portal...pic.php?t=4836 the other in Resin from Spain http://www.planetacomic.net/militar_...e.aspx?Id=2433 these are €100 plus the postage and once inspected are less than perfect in casting and have a massive amount of in-correct detail so much so that a lot of scratch building will have to be done whoever did the master mustn’t have used much reference material for the build.
Once I received the engine which is pre-built and not to a high level I started to remove as many parts as possible the problem with this engine is the massive amount of air bubbles and warped ill-fitting parts some just not sanded down properly, parts are glued in the wrong place some parts don’t exist on the real engine, one thing for sure is this is going to be quite a long build to get it looking anything like, though I will only be concentrating on the top half from the rocker covers up.
After spending some time comparing the engine with pictures I have come to the conclusion that the engine bears little resemblance to the original and if you want an engine that is correct then the best thing to do is either try and obtain a second hand John Goode engine though vastly better still has a few flaws or scratch build one completely.
I won’t be doing a step by step build as I’m finding it difficult to concentrate on something so appallingly bad and inaccurate I haven’t taken any pictures of the engine recently so will use old pictures once I have completed the makeover I will post more

Reference Material.
This is proving to be a problem as most of the reference material out there is based on the Bovington Tiger which originally had a HL210 engine and apart from having a smaller CC size there are various other dissimilarity’s namely the different location of the magnetos and the addition of an integral declutch for the cooling fan drives most books only have small pictures of the HL230 engine and some are the slightly different P30 engine there is also a complete lack of late Tiger engine compartment pictures so I may have to make a special trip to Saumur to see what I can picture via my contacts though this may not be achievable for a few months if at all, it will also give me the opportunity to take pictures of my next project