A question on the Anzani 6 cylinder radial engine

[maxmwill]

I couldn't find a pre-ww1 folder, this being the closest, so here I am.
I'm in the process of scratch building an Anzani 6 cylinder radial engine. It's amazing what you can find use for in old model kits, this one being the Williams Brothers Ford Flying Flivver. While the vintage of the kit is rather elderly, it does have something that could be used in scratch builds, namely the little Anzani 3 cylinder radial engine. I'm not going to discuss the WB Ford Flivver, because further research on that little beastie is that the Anzani powered version was an early failure, there were future developments.

Anyway, back to the engine, the cylinder jugs are the same on other Anzani radials including the 6 cylinder. And, as I had purchased the 1/32 Anzani ten cylinder resin kit, I'd noticed that while it is a two row radial(a pair of 5 cylinder radials bolted together), it doesn't appear to be quite right, compared with later twin row radials, instead each connecting rod was split for each pair of cylinders. A strange, but effective way to motorvate an engine(pun intended). My question is, are there any photos extant of the back side of the engine. Got plenty front views, and some not so good side views, but I have yet to find any pics, so I'm asking if anyone knows where I can go to find at least one view of the rear of the engine. And for my next trick, I'm going to try to figure out how to fabricate the case, and that's a job for my favorite superheroes, Pencil and Paper(to the scrap heap with CAD. Hand drafting is the best way to go, and "Onward Through the Fog!!")

 

[GrumpyOldCrewChief]

The six was effectively two threes, with the "rear" one rotated 180° from the front, and of course, a new design crankshaft and crankcase. The cylinders were re-used on nearly all of their engines.
All of the Anzani engines were designed a bit "left of center", compared to design norms. But the lessons learned from these odd little engines helped re-define said norms, so, hey, there's that...
There are better histories of Anzani engines than Hershel Smith's lovely, but limited, book.

 

[maxmwill]

The first time I saw a twin row Anzani was the 10 cylinder, which I was able to buy as a 1/32 resin kit from Copper State Models. While it really is a 2 row, it is a strange twin row because the rows look a bit too close. I found out later that each pair of cylinders are actuated by a split connecting rod on a single throw on the crankshaft. While it might seem a bit goofy, like the fuel induction system on a rotary radial, it is actually quite ingenious, as the 6 cylinder was the world's first successfully operating twin row radial engine.

 

[GrumpyOldCrewChief]

Ingenuity was seemingly never in short supply at the Anzani engineering department. But, since there were no real precedents to be following for "best practices", I suppose it should not be taken as too bizarre. Nothing had conclusively been proven to be a bad idea yet, so let's give it a try...