One of the things I do like is a kit that comes with a good engine, it gives you a little something extra in the way of options for displaying your model. But what I don’t enjoy overly much is spending hour upon hour trawling books and the internet to find photos of the wiring that was attached to them, partly as that search can often be fruitless, leaving me with no option other than to just throw something in there that looks like a reasonable approximation based on what other engines have.
For some reason engines never come with any form of guide for how to wire them or add any other piping etc that would be present in the engine bay. The same can be said for radio sets, particularly the large frame pack radio sets included in command vehicles, especially if it’s an open topped armoured car where the radio can’t avoid being seen. They seldom come with any form of wiring diagram to allow you to add it yourself.
It’s not like I expect the manufacturer to supply moulded wiring, but if you’re going to go to the trouble of researching an engine to build it in kit form, either as part of a kit or as an after market part, is it really to much to ask for a little reference material showing what the completed engine looks like, and possibly a simple wiring diagram so that the builder can add their own. Just a couple of photos included in the instructions would at least be a start.
I think this probably applies even more so to after market engine and radio sets as these are targeted specifically at people who are willing to spend the extra money and the extra time to add more detail to their kit. So surely adding a wiring diagram or something showing how an installed engine or radio looks with all the correct wires and fittings in place is a bonus selling point. I know that for me personally if there is a choice between three or four different AM kits of the same engine I’m going to go for the one that includes extras like that as my first choice.
So if any manufacturer out there reads this then please throw us this bone. Those of us who like to detail a kit as much as we can want to add as much as we can, and be as correct as we can, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask that a kit includes everything related to the part you are putting in, whether it’s part of the kit or AM. I don’t expect it to be all done for me, but I would like to at least have an engine include details of everything that should be there so I can add it myself if I chose to.
In fact if someone wants to put together a book that simply contains reference photos of engines and radios with all their wiring etc then I will be first in the queue to buy a copy. And not just installed engines, but engines in parts, engine bays with whatever wires and parts are left inside once the engine is out. I’d like to think that there would be quite a market among modellers for such a reference.
