The Theory of “At Handed-ness”

I have some funny ideas.

I decided not to build the really old Revell Hurricane. It was sacrificed on the altar of Research and Development.

What corporate America doesn’t do–I do. This left me with an extra propeller. The prop I had installed on the Hurricane looked like hell.

So I removed it and replaced it with the one that I had been saving for the Revell kit.

It also spins when you blow on it.

It’s a “Spitfire Type” De Havilland propeller, probably taken from some Spitfire kit. You may be wondering how I did that. It might occur to you that it would be tricky to pull off one prop and put on another one that spins, unless the props are just pushed into the hole in the front of the model–leaving them free to fall out.

Otherwise…it’s a mystery.

Well, the answer is The Theory of At-Handed-ness. At Handed-ness says that everything is at hand if you just look. Everything you need is right there, if you just look.

This idea is not widely accepted. But let’s take a look at our Hurricane model. The old propeller was just cut off. The part inside was just allowed to fall into the model. Then, the shaft on the new part is replaced with a chunk of toothpick, and a nylon sleeve for the toothpick is fabricated from a chunk of a cotton swab (you know, the part between the cotton on the ends. The shaft.) On the cotton swabs I have, the shaft is hollow, like a drinking straw. It’s a tube.

This tube from the swab is pushed onto the toothpick shaft to create a retainer sleeve that will hold the prop in place after it is inserted into the prop hole. The fact that the swab shaft is plastic means it’s soft enough to allow the assembly to be inserted into a hole that’s just a little too small, and then “spring” out to its full size after it goes in to keep the prop from falling off.

No, I don’t have pictures of this.

Anyway, it looks good and works good, and no, the prop does not fall off.

And all the materials needed to do this were at hand. At Handed-ness in action.

I now have a model that looks like a Hurricane II with a prop like a Hurricane I, with markings for a Hurricane I and a tail wheel for a Hurricane I. Hasegawa sold me a Hurricane II and called it a Hurricane I (late). Big, big lie.

If I built this kit again, I’d keep the Hurricane II tail wheel and just build it as a Hurricane II. I’d probably buy a Quickboost prop, though. Or look around on my bench for one. It’s there, if I just look.