The British Wolseley Viper engine was developed during WW1 from the Hispano - Suize 8Ab aero engine..

The SE5 fighter aircraft was designed to use the Hispano - Suize 8Ab engine but once in production it was found to be unreliable and often failed in flight.

Wolseley had a license to build the Hispano - Suize engines , which they did and called it the Adder, it only differed from the 8Ab by having higher compression, but it still did not solve the SE5 problems.

The Wolseley engineers then completely redeveloped the Adder/8Ab engine. This engine looked like its predecessor, however it was more powerful and much more reliable becoming the most successful water cooled engine of its time and consequently making the SE5a the excellent fighter that it was.

The kit has 2 sprue sheets ,1 PE sheet and a display stand base with the instructions in the usual Roden format, except that the writing is very small.

This is the first group build I have done, so if you see me doing something wrong please shout out.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Excellent entry, my friend @firelockg! The kit looks very detailed and the final result will be outstanding.
Looking forward to it!

George, Spiros and John, have been researching and studying the kit closely and can see some of the plumbing and ignition system will have to be upgraded from plastic. The fun begins.

So far have cleaned and joined the cylinders, drilled out the spark plugs, am making new ones. Assembled the magnetos, added the sparkplug leads also assembled the carby and fitted an intake screen made from 1/72 PE mesh for a machine gun. There are 8 wires on each magneto, .02mm.

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

I agree with John, Ian (@firelockg), some really nice work on the basic components and getting ready for some really complicated electrical wiring. Should be fun.

IAN Convey (@firelockg)

This looks like a great project. It’s going to be a good one to follow. I really like how you are upgrading the ignition system and adding the plug wires.

We are starting a brand new group build in about two weeks from now. On the 28th we will begin the “Great War” group. It will allow anything that is related to the First World War. It will also have a provision that allows us to add projects that have been previously started.

Your engine is a perfect candidate for this.

Please feel free to start a build journal there if you want to. You’re always welcome.

Keep it going. I’m looking forward to seeing your next steps.

Excellent job so far, my friend @firelockg! Love all these details added!

Cylinders fitted to block, carby also fitted. Removed the plastic manifold bleed/prime valves and made new ones out of .6mm tube with .4mm handles. Added 1mm copper wire for plastic coolant pipes.
Stand to be assembled then prop., PE parts final tidy and paint , job done! Might take a bit longer than that.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.