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.

When you look at any of Master Model’s brass gun barrels, you always marvel at what you see. The detail is remarkable regardless of the scale, and the price is hard to believe because it is so low. One of the things that always bothersed me in German WWI aircraft, almost as much as rigging, was annealing and rolling that stupid cooling jacket on Spandau machine guns. And when I finally get it rolled, I had to join it somehow. Soldering is supposed to be how you do it, but I have yet to be successful. So, I ended up with a very soft brass roll that was barely held together on the bottom by superglue. It was guaranteed, at some time during the build, to get dented or just plain squashed. Master Model comes to the rescue with one-piece, turned and perforated cooling jackets and exquisite muzzle and flash suppressor, plus a gun barrel that cannot be duplicated by stretched sprue or brass rod or plastic rod.

Spoiler alert – if you don’t want to know what I think, go to the next paragraph. This is THE only book you will need to own for reference on the P-39 Airacobra. Printed on high quality gloss paper, this paperback book is printed on A5 size with 160 pages chock full of information. Modelers will love the information included in this book.

The very first thing you will notice upon opening the book is four view drawings of the P-39F and Q in 1/48th scale and the P-39Q in 1/32nd scale. If you build 1/72nd scale, fear not – there are plenty of 72nd scale drawings throughout the book. OK, 1/144th scale guys, there are drawing in the book for you as well.

Let me begin this review by stating that there are four different part sets for the Hobby Boss F9F-2 Panther in 1/72 scale. I was impressed with the fine detail that Quickboost was able to put into each of these aftermarket part sets. They are cast in a tan resin with easy to remove casting blocks. The finer parts were very thin, so care must be taken when handling them. I would also recommend painting some of the parts before removing them from the casting blocks.

Wing fences QB 72-342 $4.25
Exhaust nozzle QB 72-340 $4.25
Pitot tube/antennae QB 72-339 $4.25
Undercarriage covers QB 72-343 $5.50

The instructions consist of exploded views but are very clear and complete. The undercarriage covers and exhaust nozzle do not have exploded views as they are not really necessary.

At least to me, Master Model has been putting out some of the most affordable gun barrel upgrades in the industry without sacrificing detail. This set is no exception, providing a quick upgrade to the armaments on what is already a well detailed kit. The set includes barrels for both guns, cooling jackets, ring sights and their mounts (extras included) – don’t overlook the tiny turned bead for the handheld MG either (mine almost was eaten by the carpet monster).

When compared to the kit parts, you can see the difference in refined detail and size. Both of the kit-supplied barrels look clunky in comparison. No other modifications are really required aside from replacing the barrels on the kit parts, so it couldn’t be any easier.

Recommended without reservation.

Thank you to Master Model for the review sample (I just won an AR 196 in our club raffle – so the timing was excellent!) and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this upgrade.