F7F Tigercat Undercarriage Covers

Published on
October 5, 2012
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$7.60
Product / Stock #
QB 48 441
Base Kit
AMT/ERTL or Italeri 1/48 F7F-3N Tigercat
Company: Quickboost - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Quickboost - Website: Visit Site
Parts Packaging

Once in a while, I like to build one of the older kits from the stash, adding additional details and such to bring it “up to modern standards”. One of these sitting in the to-do pile is the old AMT/ERTL F7F-3N Tigercat. This kit was recently re-boxed from Italeri, and is the only 1:48 plastic kit of this aircraft anywhere. Quickboost again provides a timely release with these replacement landing gear bay doors.

In the Box

The hanging bag with paper instruction insert comes with five resin parts on three casting blocks. All the bay doors are replaced with items in this set, including both pairs of main landing gear doors and the nose gear door. Casting is flawless in the familiar dark grey resin, and the attachments to the casting block is minimal.

The Quickboost parts are a marked improvement in several areas. First, they eliminate the sink marks and knock-out pin marks that are on the original kit pieces. These are located in some old areas and filling/sanding them would mean complete destruction of the detail on the kit parts. Second, the various access panels and rivet detail has been accurately reproduced, including adding some missing detail that was not on the original kit parts.

Installation

Using these will be a piece of cake, as all that is required is removal from the casting blocks, then simply use the Quickboost items instead of the kit parts. An extra step in the process could be promptly chucking the kit parts in the waste bin.

Conclusion:

I highly recommend these. The cost is worth the saved effort of needing to clean up the kit parts, and they are so simple to use that they will be an easy upgrade to any of the 1/48 Tigercat kits.

Thanks to Aires/Quickboost for the review sample and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review them.

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