1/32nd aircooled engine

  

Airfix has kept the Beach Buggy engine pretty simple. Sadly, in the days it was designed, they didn't put in many positive location aids, so while most of the assembly is easy, the dual-cannon exhaust pipes sort of hang in mid-air while you assemble them with only half-lap joints to hold them to each other. 

The technique of using plastic cement for the initial grab followed by some solvent once they are tweaked into position seemed to work OK for me, although the tweaking went on for a while until the joints were solid and I was happy. 

Detail is sparse because (as I later found) you can see so little when the unit is fitted in the car. 

My bugs' engine is a bit different but was a useful guide. The air cleaner (missed out of the kit) is much larger than a mushroom version you'd have in a buggy. It's also more hemmed in by the tinware, something mostly missing on a buggy. You don't need those big hoses from the doghouse to the heat exchangers for a start. 

I've never detailed and engine before, but it looks like fun when other people do it, so I added a distributor and plug leads to fill the space. Pedants will point out I didn't include the vacuum advance canister, but I assume the buggy owner has replaced the stock VW unit with a 009 version which only has centrifugal advance. It's a popular mod, although one disapproved of by people who point out VW didn't spend millions fitting this stuff for it to be replaced by people who think cheap chrome makes their car go faster...

The dizzy is a piece of plastic tube, and the wires 15amp fusewire. The air cleaner is a bit more tube, which has since been altered to fit under the body. Main silver is Dark Star "Molten Metal" Old silver, a better match for a magnesium alloy crank case than the silver suggested. That's limited to the exhaust tips and pulley cover. A quick wash of black Citadel weathering ink finishes the job.