S u m m a r y

F i r s t   L o o k

Ultracast's replacement spinner is of accurate dimension and better detailed than the kit part. The spinner and backing plate are cast as a single unit. There is no locating hole for the propeller shaft. The simplest solution is probably to cut the shaft off and glue the backing plate direct to the nose (with or without a thin spacing ring, according to taste). The propeller blades are supplied as separate parts and are not keyed, so take care to set the pitch identically for all four blades.

I have dry-fitted the propeller blades to the spinner. The fit is very good, and alignment should not present any problems.

Although this commentary is focused on the new Hasegawa kit, the spinner/propeller combination is also applicable to the 1/48 scale ICM kits.

This propeller/spinner combination is impressively detailed and perfectly cast. It will be a serious improvement to the proportions of the Hasegawa kit, and will be of a much higher standard than the parts supplied with the ICM kit.

Highly Recommended

Ultracast's exhaust parts are well up to their usual standard. The exhausts are finer in shape and subtler in detail than the Hasegawa counterparts.

The parts are crisply cast with almost no cleanup required before use. The seam lines and raised lip on each exhaust stack are all there. Of course, the pipes are hollow as well.

Ultracast provide the choice of either flattened or tubular exhausts. These will be a very attractive and relevant accessory for the Hasegawa Spitfire.

Recommended.

As is the usual practice with Ultracast's latest releases, the tail surfaces are supplied with both the elevator and the horizontal tail. The tail part is rounded out at the hinge line to simplify the positioning of the elevator.

Detail, surface texture and casting are of typically high standards.

Highly Recommended, especially for backdating to an early Spitfire IX.

(Click the thumbnails to the right to view images full-sized)

Ultracast has released two options for a one-piece lower cowl. Each set contains one cowl - 48087 has the short, early style intake and 48088 has the long intake.

One benefit of these replacement parts is that there will be no stubborn centre-join to fill and sand on this prominent part. The undercut for the intake is somewhat more pronounced on the long-intake resin part.

The option of an early Mk. IX is also now a possibility with the use of the short-intake version.

The nature of the shape of these parts means that there will be slightly more cleanup than usual for an Ultracast release, but nothing that will take more than five minutes with a sharp knife and a sanding stick.

These parts will be very helpful if you want to show off your Spitfire cockpit as Hasegawa do not offer the option in their kit and it will be difficult to save the kit door when cutting it our of the fuselage.

Recommended

With the option for a short carburetor intake and the early, unkinked elevators, (reviewed above), it is now possible to accurately build an early Spitfire IXc using Ultracast's new large "C" style cannon blisters.

Options are replacement for the kit's narrow "C" bulges, the broad early "C" bulges, or the narrow "E" bulges. One left-side cover and one right-side cover is supplied in each set. The resin covers are a drop-fit replacement for the panels supplied in the Hasegawa kit. The panels are almost ready to install by simply snapping them off their narrow casting blocks.

I test-fitted one of the large bulges to the Hasegawa wing. The fit was close to perfect (see title photo).

Highly Recommended for early or later conversions.

(Click the thumbnails below to view images full-sized)

Conclusion