Once again, Quickboost offers us an upgraded set of propellers for a current kit, the Hasegawa B-24 in 1/72 scale. The bag includes four sets of propeller blades and spinner and an alignment tool for assembling the props. Each set of blades and spinner includes four blades, but, of course, you only need three. If you’re like me, you’ll probably appreciate the extra parts (they don’t call me "Ol' Ten Thumbs" for nothing).

As you can see from the attached photos, the hubs provide just that little bit of extra detail over the kit parts. The tool guarantees the blades will be set at the correct angle when you assemble them to the hub.

I guess my AMS got the better of me, but I decided I wanted to find out just how far up the shaft the props should be cut from the pour block. If cut flush with the block, which is how the tool is set up, the propellers wind up with a diameter of 13’ 2”. The Liberator props were 11’ 7” in diameter, according to my references. That means approximately 1/8” needs to be removed from each shaft before assembly. Of course, that means the tool will have to be modified just slightly to open the end of the blade cutout just a bit toward the hub. That would also make the props look more correct, since very little of the shaft shows between the hub and the blade. Not a big deal to do, just a couple of minutes with a knife blade or a sanding tool of some type, and the blade of the prop will still rest at the correct angle.

A nice set, extra prop blades just in case, correct angle on the blades. The tradeoff is between having to modify the tool and measure the blades and taking the chance of damaging the kit blades while removing them from the sprues or having a blade broken in the box during shipping. By the way, the kit props measured out very close to 11’ 7”.

My thanks to Quickboost for supplying the accessory and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.