Reviews

Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/20
MSRP
$77.00

From the Tamiya America website:

The SF70H, the 63rd single-seater designed and built by Scuderia Ferrari, was born out of major regulation changes, with wider tires and cars, plus larger diffusers, meaning that the cars have more aerodynamic down force and greater mechanical grip. Fittingly for the hybrid machine named to commemorate Scuderia Ferrari's 70 years of racing, the SF70H showcases the team's innovation throughout its design. A lengthened nose and arrow-shaped front wing are a consequence of the regulations, as are the fin on the engine cover, and aero appendages ahead of the air intakes on the side pods.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$14.95

IPMS/USA thanks Ross and his Team at SAC for supporting the IPMS USA reviewer corps with one more of many monthly releases, with extremely useful and well-thought out landing gear additions for the modeling crowd out here in the modeling world. And thanks to IPMS leadership for sending it for review.

This review is for the SAC landing gear released for the 1/72 Valom B-45 series. (Yes Mrs Robinson, there was an aircraft named “Tornado” before the “Tornaaaahhhdo” in the European sense.) This SAC gear is extremely simple, much like the kit itself. As a note, the Valom B-45 kits are easier to build than the other 1/72 B-45s out there as well... even though it is also a short run style kit, the quality is much more refined. SAC’s set is comprised of six parts… and are quick additions.

Review Author
Chris Smith
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$26,395.00

With her Indy car win in Japan in 2008, Danica Patrick has become a house-hold name in racing and a celebrity based on her clever add campaign with Go Daddy, one of her past sponsors. In 2010 Danica moved to Nascar and although she hasn't won any races she has claimed pole position and led a number of laps. She has proven her ability as a racer and follows in the footsteps of Shirley Muldowney and the up and coming Cortney Force.

This kit represents one of Danica's 2017 cars sponsored by Aspen Dental. Running under the Ford Banner for the Stuart-Hass racing team, the car is shaped to represent the Ford Fusion. All the teams ran the Roush-Yates FR-9 engine that season. This 358 CI engine was equipped with fuel injection and were restricted by a plate on the intake manifold to 850HP.

Review Author
Keith Gervasi
Published on
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$49.99

History

The B-52 is arguably the best bomber ever made. First deployed in 1955 as a high altitude “atomic bomber” later versions of it are still in use today.

The Kit

Inside the box you will find 8 sprues of light grey and clear injected plastic. An 8-page instruction manual and a nice sheet of decals. Basically, only the fuselage halves and sprue F are new to this kit as everything else comes from, and is marked, for the B-52H kit. The one minor hitch here is that the very fine panel lines in the wings do NOT match those on the fuselage as these are more Matchbox like. The decal sheet is very nice and in register.

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$4.95

Ammo by Mig Jimenez has developed a line of oil paints that are already thinned and come in a clear bottle with a brush attached to the cap. Here is their description for these oilbrusher:

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$4.95

This is Ammo by Mig Jimenez’s 2017 product catalog (or catalogue in British English since this is translated from Spanish to this). This publication is large, 132 pages of glossy, colorful pages. It starts with a one-page introduction directly from Mig Jimenez. He writes a paragraph that I really think sums up modeling progression:

Book Author(s)
Various
Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$12.95

Faded is number 21 in the Weathering Magazine series published by Ammo by Mig Jimenez. They take one topic, in this case faded vehicles, and created nine articles to help the read improve their skill on this topic. There are 70 pages for these nine articles including many high gloss photos. The wide range of subjects should appeal to most modelers. There are three tank articles, a farm tractor, a submarine, a Star Wars A-wind fighter, a car, a railroad tanker car and a Messerschmitt BF109 airplane. One article of an Aussie M1 tank is a work in progress from the magazine before this one, the “Camouflage” issue. Most of the articles use only Ammo by Mig products, but a few use Tamiya paints too. The magazine is in the larger, A4 European style, since it is published in Spain. Since the articles appear to be written by Spanish authors and then translated into British English, some spelling is different than American English.

Book Author(s)
Various
Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$12.95

This is 20th magazine in Ammo’s weathering line. I really like how they take one topic and run about ten articles to explain how to improve your skill on this technique. The magazine is in the larger, A4 European style, since it is published in Spain. There are 75 pages of high gloss color photos broken down into 11 articles. The article’s models range from five armored fighting vehicles, a locomotive, a figure, a submarine and a Sci-Fi Maschinen figure. Each article is six to eight pages long and full of photos detailing the step by step camouflage pattern being used. There is no construction of these kits discussed, it is just all painting and weathering. I noticed that almost all the articles use only Ammo by Mig products. Makes sense since it is their magazine series.

Review Author
Mike Lamm
Published on
Company
Hauler
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$10.40

Hauler produces photo-etched and resin upgrade sets for armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and dioramas. They also produce a few resin kits. Their products are in most of the common scale sizes, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but they also produce a number of other items in common railroad hobbyist scales.

The kit for this review is a small set of photoetch designed to upgrade Revell’s 1/72 T-80 kit. The most obvious pieces of photoetch parts in this kit are designed to replace the plastic grills over the engine and exhaust, as well as the side skirts covering the lower portion of the tank’s hull. However, there are also parts to replace the stowage basket on the turret, the commander’s machine gun mount and ammo box, as well as the headlight mounts and covers. In all, there are 25 parts included on one small sheet of photo-etch and a small set of instructions in the package.

Review Author
Jarrod Booth
Published on
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
MSRP
$2.99

Minicraft recently released a second decal scheme for their Beech Bonanza F-33 kit. Along with the Bonanza model, this display stand was looking for a home and a kind word on the IPMS Review Corps list.

This stand is packaged in an industrial strength clear plastic bag with a cardboard fold-over label stapled to the bag top. There are four parts of clear plastic, attached to the sprue with somewhat discrete attachment stubs. With care the parts can be removed with minimal stub marks left. These can be polished out, or the base can be painted.

The parts fit easily together. The vertical shaft slides into the round base and fits securely without glue. This shaft can be cut down to any desired length. Make sure you insert the solid end of the shaft into the base. The top has a hole drilled for the ball joint. Remember this also if shortening the shaft. I left mine as is.