This review is for 3 different 1/48 resin props and spinners for the Me 109E from Ultracast.  The Me 109E-1 had the amazing feature of a cannon that fired through the center of the prop, which is no small feat when you consider the engine was directly behind the prop.  Unfortunately the prop cannon never worked well and was eventually discontinued on later Me 109's.  On the Me-109E-4 the hole in the center of the prop spinner was usually covered over.  All this produced 3 types of prop spinner....

1. hole in center of spinner for cannon

2. same prop spinner with hole covered over with blunt round cover. 

3. same prop spinner with hole covered over with pointed cover. 

These 3 new resin props/spinners are designed for the Tamiya kit, but they will fit the Hasegawa Me 109 just as well (I checked them with my caliper to make sure).  The Tamiya kit is the slightly better of the two kits, but both kits are quite good and each has it's better points.  For instance...the Hasegawa kit has much more realistic fabric covered areas on the wings and tail surfaces....the Tamiya kit is lacking in this area with crude overdone detail in this area.  Anyhow....on to the review.

The Tamiya prop is quite nice.....good detail on the pitch collars at the base of the prop blades where they meet the spinner hub.  The Tamiya prop blades are too narrow and lack the proper width of each blade as on the real machine.  As for the Tamiya spinner hub...this is hit and miss....the early spinner with the cannon hole lacks very good detail for the cannon barrel which is quite the noticeable feature for this early spinner hub.  The two later versions of the Tamiya Me 109E spinner are quite good in the detail department.  The Tamiya blades do have good pitch collar detail, but the Tamiya blades width and shape is noticeably poor..

The Hasegawa prop has only 2 spinner hubs...the early version with the cannon hole and the pointed type....but the Hasegawa kit doesn't come with the blunt spinner hub.  The Hasegawa spinner hubs are quite good in detail although the pointed hub is too blunt to be pointed and too pointed to be blunt.  The Hasegawa prop blades are more accurate that the Tamiya blades in width and shape, but not perfectly accurate.  The Hasegawa pitch collars lack any and all detail.....this feature is very noticeable on the Hasegawa kit and really detracts on the finished model.  

So you can't use the Tamiya props because the blades are all wrong....you can't use the Hasegawa prop because the pitch collars lack any and all detail.  So....what's a modeller to do?  Ultracast to the rescue!!!

#48128  1/48 Me-109 Propeller with standard spinner.  This prop and spinner is recommended for the Tamiya kit (although the Hasegawa kit is a perfectly good option as well).  Hasegawa prop has no pitch collar detail.  Cost is US$ 8.55 CDN$ 10.95 (plus Shipping and Handling)

Click on image below to see larger image

Click on images below to see larger images
Ultracast Prop	Ultracast Prop	Tamiya Prop	Hasegawa Prop

#48129  1/48 Me-109 Propeller with Blunt spinner.  This prop and spinner is recommended for the Tamiya kit (although the Hasegawa kit is a perfectly good option as well).  The Hasegawa kit doesn't come with this prop option.   Cost is US$ 8.55 CDN$ 10.95 (plus Shipping and Handling)

Click on image below to see larger image

This is the Ultracast blunt spinner.  The prop blades are more accurate than the Tamiya prop.  The Hasegawa kit doesn't come with this version of the spinner.  Pitch collar detail is vastly better than the Hasegawa prop.  The Tamiya prop has good pitch collar detail...but the narrow prop blades are a real detraction for the Tamiya prop.

Click on images below to see larger images Ultracast Prop

#48130  1/48 Me-109 Propeller with pointed spinner.  This prop and spinner is recommended for the Tamiya kit (although the Hasegawa kit is a perfectly good option as well).   Cost is US$ 8.55 CDN$ 10.95 (plus Shipping and Handling)

Click on image below to see larger image

This is the Hasegawa prop option.  It is neither the blunt spinner of the pointed spinner.....it is somewhere in-between.  And of course no pitch collar detail.  The Tamiya pointed spinner is pointed but still a bit blunt when compared to the very nice Ultracast pointed spinner.

Click on images below to see larger images Ultracast Prop Hasegawa Prop

The modeller will have to figure out the correct pitch to the Ultracast prop blades as there is no notch etc to guide the modeller on what the correct pitch should be.  This is no big deal....use reference photos or the Tamiya/Hasegawa kit parts to guide you.

I am quite pleased to see these parts as the Hasegawa and Tamiya props have left me quite disappointed.  No we have a option to improve upon these shortcomings in the Tamiya and Hasegawa props.

I'd like to thank Kevin at Ultracast for sending me these review sample.