Introduction

The 400 horse-power Nuffield Liberty Mk. III was a V12, twin-spark plug, liquid-cooled airplane engine designed in the USA during World War One. It was fitted to the Cruiser Mk. IV Crusader and Centaur tanks during WW2. This 1/35th scale resin engine kit by CMK is designed for the Italeri Crusaders.

Contents

• 5 engine deck hatches
• Fuel tanks
• Bulkhead and cooling fans
• Rear belly-pan and transmission compartment side-walls
• Radiators
• Exhaust pipe
• Complete engine, with manifolds and accessories
• Transmission
• Rear brake drums

Construction

After building this engine kit, one can appreciate the reliability problems for which the desert Crusader tanks were notorious - there is precious little space in the engine compartment, once this V12 monster is crammed-into its home. This means very little detail of the engine can be seen through the access hatches, and is a clue as to why the Crusader engines were prone to over-heating.

Anyone with some experience building resin after-market sets will have no problem, provided one is patient when removing parts from the parent resin. Extreme care is needed with the many small parts, as resin is very brittle; a low-speed Dremel tool is just the ticket for this. As with any resin set, removing flash is an unavoidable job.

Parting Shots

Though photos of the original aircraft Liberty engine (see Below) are common, I was unable to find any of this engine installed in a Crusader. The very prominent conduit for the spark-plug wires, seen in every photo, is absent in the set. The intake manifolds seem to be a very simplified version of those seen on the Centaur engine, but don't really resemble anything seen on earlier Liberty engines. All Liberty engines had very distinctive cooling pipes protruding from these manifolds, placed in a very visible location at the top of the engine.

Those wanting to accurately depict this engine will need to carefully research the subject, and add the 24 plug wires, a dozen of which ran from each distributor. Another job will be to build a pair of tin shields which cover the exposed valve springs and rocker arms. This is still the only engine kit for an important subject, and a great foundation for an accurate scratch build.