Those propellers!
Right, well I decided that a couple of hours were needed about now to sort the propeller situation, as those supplied in the kit are completely the wrong shape! This really is inexcusable, given that many areas of this model are superbly engineered and produced.
There aren’t too many options readily available to the builder to fix the problem, but this is my suggestion. Again, it’s your call on what you want to do.
The image above shows the kit prop as supplied on the left and one of those supplied in the Revell Lancaster kit on the right.
I have the Lanc in the stash and so decided to go that option; taking the pointy prop blade set from the Lanc kit and use it here. The Paddle blades (shown on the left) are also supplied in the Lancaster kit, so this seems the best way to go to me.
What about re-shaping the kit parts as supplied?
I think there’s just too much work in this option; the base of the Halifax kit prop is much too thin and, frankly, life’s too short! It was the Lanc props for this project.
Modifying the Lancaster props for use with the Halifax spinners
This is quite a quick task. The following sequence illustrates each stage of the process.
Step 1: What’s needed here is to slightly flare out (open up) the rear of the opening, into which each prop blade will be inserted. A simple flat file achieves this in moments…
Step 2: The prop blades are pushed fully into the recess and up against the forward curved edge…
Step 3: The rear of the spinner sees the small disc supplied in the Halifax kit inserted over the pin. The hole will need opening up slightly to allow the disc to be pushed fully down into the spinner…
Step 4: Small ‘blocks’ of plasticard need to be added to the back of each blade to close the gap that is prominent but not there on the real aircraft. See the big image below showing a close-up of the propeller spinner/blade location point…
