Quickboost

1/48 Spitfire Mk.I / Mk.V de Havilland Propeller w/ Tool For theTamiya kit

Stock Number: QB 48 268

Reviewed By  Jack Wade, IPMS #45604

MSRP: $8.50 Website: www.quickboost.net This is another nice direct replacement part from Quickboost. It is cleanly molded and free of casting imperfections. Being a propeller, there is not much in the way of added detail except for some rivets around spinner. This set is, however, intended to add the alternative option for the Tamiya kit propeller rather than being aimed at enhancing detail. The set comes with a spinner, three blades molded from one block with protective sides and a tool for assistance with alignment when gluing the blades to the spinner. There is a bit of casting block behind the spinner as well. All the parts were easily removed from the casting blocks and cleaned up in short order. The tool was used to align the blades and off I went.

The parts took acrylic paint nicely without being washed prior to painting. The spinner fits the recommended Tamiya kit well. It is a butt joint and, therefore, intended to be fixed in position as opposed to the kit part which is joined with a post and hole. It looks nice when placed on the model, but, again, this is not really an improvement over the kit part so much as it is a variant of the propeller not offered in the Tamiya kit. Check your references as to applicability because the two propeller types seem to have been equally common and were contemporaneously used. I have not researched the reason for the different propellers, but I would imagine there was a functional difference. The best thing about the set is the alignment tool. It can be used when assembling other propellers including other manufacturer's replacement parts. The tool has a hole in it even though the Quickboost spinner has no post. This leads me to believe the tool is meant to be adapted in this way and actually adds a lot of value to the product as it will continue to be useful for other projects. I can recommend this product and thanks to the manufacturer for supplying the sample.