Starfighter Decals 1/72 F7F Tigercat Wheel Wells
By Matt Bittner
Who would have thought that after all these years we would be seeing aftermarket for kits that are quite old. Even with their age, though, most are still considered the best of their type, especially if you care about accuracy. Some of the newest kits released lately aren't too keen on being accurate.
This is definitely the case for the Monogram 1/72 F7F Tigercat. It's a very old kit, has been around quite a long time, and there has been aftermarket released for it in the past, especially from Cobra Company, which does include a cockpit. However, that set doesn't include replacement wheel wells, so this is an excellent release from Starfighter.
In the bag you receive one nose-gear well; a nose retraction strut; two main wheel well floors; left and right sides for each main gear well; a front bulkhead for each gear well; and a glycol tank that is glued to each gear well floor.
Instructions are decent and the explanation should work for most; however, my only complaint is with the size of the photos accompanying the instructions. They're just way too small to show anything and a couple of them are washed out so it's difficult to tell where things should go. Still, with the right photographs found elsewhere, and using the text provided by Starfighter, most modelers should have no problems figuring everything out. (Maybe in the future Starfighter could put larger-size photos on their site to help with construction.)
These landing gear wells will go a long way to help dress up the venerable Monogram F7F Tigercat. If that model interests you at all, you really must pick up a set.
Huge thanks to Starfighter Decals for sending these wheel wells in for review.