Last year Eduard released a Weekend edition of their very nice La-7 kit in 1/72^nd scale. This new set from Aires/Quickboost provides a replacement for the kit propeller parts. The kit spinner is assembled from two parts, the front spinner and a back plate, the blades are individual blades that are inserted into the assembled spinner and aligned visually.

Aires’ set provides the spinner as a single casting as the back plate is molded with the front of the spinner. The blades are also provided as individual blades, but the set includes a very handy alignment tool to make sure all three blades are mounted at the same angle. The alignment tool has a hole in the center for drilling out and attaching the spinner shaft to the spinner, however, the hole does not go all the way through the alignment tool, so you will either need to saw off the pour stub off the back of the alignment tool, or do as I did and continue drilling the provided hole completely through the stub. I experimented with my mini drill bits until I found one that was the correct diameter and then I drilled the hole all the way through. The result was a nice tight fit, too tight in some cases as it made rotating the spinner around to mount the next blade difficult and I ended up having to pop the spinner off the alignment tool in order to align each blade. Next time I will go with a slightly larger drill bit for the mounting hole so that the spinner shaft will turn.

As the spinner and the blades are separate parts, painting is very simple. As both of the kit markings featured red spinners, I painted the spinner with Tamiya flat red and set it aside to dry. I painted the propeller blades Tamiya NATO Black. After removing the blades from their casting block, be sure to lightly sand the ends to ensure they are squared off and rounded so that they will fit into the holes in the spinner. Apparently I forgot to do this on one of the three blades as the first two slid right into the mounting holes without any problems, but the third was stubborn and I ended up pushing a little too hard, resulting in my snapping off the attachment end of one prop, so one of the three blades is mounted closer to the spinner than the other two (as shown in the photos.

This a very nice set from Aires/Quickboost and the inclusion of the alignment tool is very helpful in ensuring the blades are all at the same angle. I highly recommend this set.

Thank you to Aires for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.