Introduction

When Airfix released their newly tooled Lancaster in 1/72, there was little doubt that the aftermarket would release parts to improve an already excellent kit. Pavla is one such aftermarket company that has catered to the sufferers of advanced modeller’s syndrome by releasing both ‘paddle’ and ‘toothpick’ propellers blades that were fitted to the Mk.I/III Lancasters.

The Parts

Both of these sets come with 12 propeller blades (moulded in sets of thee) and 4 separate propeller hubs with recesses ready to accept the blades. All the parts are cast in a light grey resin, the castings on these samples are exceptional and very minimal clean-up is required after removing the parts from the casting block. Pavla have put a lot of thought into where to place the casting block so as to minimise any damage to parts.

U72-147

This set caters for the replacement of the paddle bladed Hamilton Standard A5/138 propellers. Comparing these to the kit offerings they are slightly wider in the chord but look closer to the photographs and plans I have in my limited reference library on the Lancaster. The blades are thinner than the kit parts which in my opinion makes the parts look more in scale.

U72-146

This set caters for the replacement of the ‘toothpick’ blade DeHavilland DH 5/40 propellers. Again comparing these to the kit parts they look almost the same as the kit parts but are thinner, so they look more in scale, the resin parts also have the added advantage of not having any visible flash or mould seams to remove from around the blade like the kit parts.

Conclusion

Although not entirely needed for the kit these propellers do provide a more scale look, and although Pavla have listed these as being for the new tool Airfix Lancaster I can’t see why they can’t also be used on the older Airfix Lancaster or even the offerings from Matchbox, Revell or Hasegawa. It would have been nice for Pavla to include a blade positioning tool as there is no positive fitting for the blades into the spinner hubs so care needs to be taken to align all of the blades correctly.

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