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Author Topic: Retrol HM-01 quality?  (Read 89 times)

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Retrol HM-01 quality?
« on: September 06, 2026, 10:15:11 am »
I like the look and size of the HM-01 and wonder how it compares to Jin’s engines. I would like to hear the thoughts of anyone who has both to compare.From everything that I have seen you can’t go wrong with an engine from OKMO.
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John

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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2026, 12:00:05 pm »
I don't have experience with the HM 01 however I have heard less than stellar comments from some owners.
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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2026, 12:22:48 pm »
Thanks Gil. I will probably stick with OKMO.
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John

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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2026, 03:19:15 am »
Bonjour,

I have this engine and here is my feed back in the description :
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Raphaël, Membre du Modèle Yacht Club de Paris : http://mycparis.fr/
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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2026, 07:38:03 pm »
I’ve built two of these engines so far and am very impressed with the quality. The first one I built started right up and ran perfectly right out the gate. The second one I haven’t run and may just keep it that way so it stays in pristine condition.
Assembly instructions are a bit vague, but if you know your way around a hit & miss engine, you shouldn’t have any problems. A novice may have a difficult time with it.
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Mike

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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2026, 07:58:03 am »
A friend of mine in his mid 80's who built many models decided to sell all of them as going to shows was a bit much.  He called about 8 months after selling them and said he was "bored" no engines to play with He does not have a pc and asked if I knew of any kits.  I told him about the Star kit lots of $$ and big.  I started searching and found the HM-01.  The reviews and video from all over the world were stellar. The price was right.  I told him about it and ordered it for him.  That was about 2 years ago. He built it in a couple of days and got it running within a couple of hours.  He had trouble with the setting the mixer and flooding it.  Once he figured it out he has been running it often.  He even brought out to a few gas engine shows for a day.

He was amazed at the quality and how well it ran.  Given his experience at building hit miss models and knowing him for many years that was high praise. I have seen it running and it just sits there all day banging along until it needs fuel.  From my own model building perspective, it looks great and if you do not have to constantly play with it to get to run it is a real winner.   

If I was not building them yet I would certainly have purchased one after seeing his run plus all the positive stuff out there.  People who have them also came up improvements to make them run slower etc.

Bob
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Re: Retrol HM-01 quality?
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2026, 07:35:12 pm »
I am mostly pleased with mine, and it generally runs fine. There have been a few issues including having to chase the spark plug threads in the head with a tap, a fuel tank leak, and a bad CDI module, but all of those issues were easily repaired. It doesn't quite reach the level of detail and refinement found in Jin's engines. I would like to see further refinements in the exhaust valve blocking mechanism including scaling the parts down to better match the scale of the engine. Otherwise I'm good with it.
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