F6F-3 Hellcat Propeller with Tool
Attached to the front of the powerful Pratt & Whitney 2000 horsepower R-2800 that moved the Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat was a thirteen foot, one inch Hamilton Standard propeller. This new release from Quickboost provides a replacement for the kit-provided propeller, and is a nice upgrade for the Cyber Hobby kit. The detail set comes with a single runner with the four parts attached, as well as the tool used to set the proper pitch on the propeller blades. If you have some experience in working with resin, this will be an easy upgrade to put to use, and if you have little or no experience with resin, this could be a good item to start with.
Packaging for this set is simple with the three propeller blades and hub being attached to a single runner. Also included is the tool that is used to set the pitch angle on the propeller blades when attaching them to the hub (which doubles its usefulness in helping to set the length of the blades), along with a single sheet of paper that shows attaching the blades to the hub. The resin used by Quickboost is gray in color, and I found it easy to work with. I applied Model Master Acryl Insignia Yellow and Gloss Black directly to the parts with no issues, even when I masked the yellow with Tamiya tape. I applied Model Master Metalizer Non-buffing Aluminum to the hub over the Gloss Black.
My hits of this item are the level of detail, especially for the hub, as this is a step above the kit-supplied part from Cyber Hobby. The inclusion of a tool to help with setting the pitch is a nice item to have, and as aforementioned, I used this to determine the length at which to cut off the attachment end of the propeller blades.
My misses of this item are really just suggestions, as I would have liked to see Hamilton Standard decals included in the set; in the case of mine, I used the ones supplied in the Cyber Hobby kit. My only other suggestion would be to add a mark in the molding for the propeller blades to show where to cut them off for attachment to the hub. Certainly, these are not difficult to overcome for the modeler, but suggestions that I think would assist less experienced builders.
In conclusion, I really like the detail set, and I would highly recommend adding one of these propellers to your Hellcat if you want to enhance its appearance. The hub is clearly an improvement over the kit-supplied part, and the propeller blades are just a little crisper in their detail as well.
My thanks to the folks at Quickboost for supplying this item for the IPMS/USA to review, to Steve Collins and the rest of the folks who keep the Review Corps running for allowing me to receive this set, and to you for taking the time to read my comments.
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