The Grumman Tigercat was the epitome of WWII US-designed, twin-engined fighters, and was an exceedingly heavily armed aircraft for its size, either for the fighter or strike role. As a night fighter, it shared similar attributes with its Air Force cousin, the P-61 Black Widow, not the least of which was a reduction of its built-in armament as it evolved. As with the Widow, the Tigercat eventually dispensed with its four original 50 caliber machine guns, keeping its remaining four 20mm cannon (necessitated by the installation of its nose-mounted radar, thus displacing the nose-mounted 50s). The 20mm barrels are represented by these Quickboost replacements.

Quickboost recommends these replacement gun barrels for the Italeri Tigercat kit, but I suspect that the Italeri and old AMT kits are one and the same. I have the AMT kit, and the comparison photo shows just how much of an improvement these new Quickboost parts are over the original kit parts. These new resin barrels are even and smooth and have finely open ends with very thin flash dampeners at the tips. Each barrel is nearly an inch in length, which is more than long enough to fit the kit’s wing armament bay between the fuselage and the engine.

These parts are a vast improvement over what comes in the Tigercat kit, and are highly recommended.

Thanks to Aires for supplying the review sample and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.