Attached to the front of a BMW 132K nine-cylinder, 960-horsepower radial engine, the VDM propeller helped the Arado 196 to reach speeds of up to 193 mph at 13,120 feet. The seaplane was used for reconnaissance missions, and it was initially produced in 1937 as a prototype, with the first production planes being delivered in 1938. By the end of production in 1944, Germany and her allies had deployed over 540 of the aircraft during the Second World War.

Packaging for Quickboost’s Arado Ar-196 Propeller set is simple. The three propeller blades are attached to a runner, and the hub is attached to a pour plug on its backside. Also included is a tool that is used to set the pitch angle on the propeller blades when attaching them to the hub. The tool doubles its usefulness by helping to set the length of the blades as well. Finally, a single sheet of paper illustrates attaching the blades to the hub. The resin used by Quick Boost is gray in color, and I found it easy to work with.

My hits for this item include the level of detail, especially for the hub, which is a step above the kit-supplied part from Encore. Additionally, the inclusion of a tool to help with setting the pitch is a nice item to have, and as previously mentioned, I used this to ensure that the propeller blades all extended the same length from the hub. I had no misses for this release, as the propeller blades fit without issue and did not require any special effort to cut off the attachment ends.

In conclusion, I really liked the detail set, and I would highly recommend adding one of these propellers to your Ar-196 if you want to enhance its appearance. The hub is clearly an improvement over the kit-supplied part, and the propeller blades are crisper in their detail as well. This set is recommended for use with the Heller kit, which is also boxed by Encore. Having the Encore kit in my stash, I used that version for comparing the Quickboost propeller against the kit parts.

My thanks to the folks at Aires for supplying this item for the IPMS/USA to review, to Dave Morrissette and the rest of the folks who keep the Reviewers’ Corps running for allowing me to receive this set, and to you for taking the time to read my comments.