Robert,
Thank you for your kind words, I hope it will give you many years of good service.
Neil,
The 18 cylinder radial is built to Lee Hodgson's drawings (Ageless engines, USA) I think it would probably be more accurate to say that it is very loosely based on the Pratt & Whitney double wasp. The biggest issue I have had up to now was making the cylinder heads to a shape that I was happy with. I wanted to keep a constant fin width on the top fin and this could only be achieved by making the top of the head a spherical radius. Given that the head & valve towers are machined out of one piece of material, machining around the valve towers, whilst retaining the spherical radius proved to be a challenge.
Eventually, the penny dropped and I was able to achieve the desired effect. Progress has been stalled by dial production but I hope to restart the project soon. There is a photo in my albums for anyone who is interested.
Best regards,
Steve.