Welcome to the IPMS/USA Reviews site!

Introduction: The primary organization of the IPMS/USA Review website is by IPMS/USA National Contest Class. Within each Class there are sub-menus by kits, decals, books, etc. The Miscellaneous Class is for items that are not class specific or that cross two or more classes.

IPMS/USA Members: We encourage you to submit reviews, both here and to the Journal. To volunteer for membership in the IPMS/USA "Reviewers Corps" and submit your own reviews, please read the Guidelines For Submitting Product Reviews.

Manufacturers, publishers, and other industry members: IPMS/USA is pleased to offer your company the opportunity for product reviews. All product reviews are performed by IPMS/USA members, and are posted in the publicly-accessible section of our website. With very few exceptions, we perform full build reviews of new kit releases, aftermarket products, and supplies. If you would care to provide product samples for review, please contact John Noack, IPMS/USA 1st VP.

To learn more about IPMS/USA, please see our About Us page.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
Company
Euro Decals
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$20.15

Euro Decals has provided IPMS/USA reviewer corps with a wonderful decal set for the WWII North American P-51 Mustang Mk. III (P-51B/C variant) in service for the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Airforce. There is no specific mention of a preferred model company for this decal set.

This 1/72nd scale decal sheet covers eleven (11) schemes:

Review Author
Bradley Moreland
Published on
Company
Modelsvit
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$30.00

Unboxing

This kit is packed very nice. It has 11 sprues molded in light grey for the aircraft and armament and 1 sprue of clear for the canopy, for a total of 225 pieces. It came with 2 decal sheets. 1 is the “Tiger Stripes” for the “Luftwaffe, 1993” version, which I have been attempting to do. This kit also includes 1 sheet of photo etch parts. They are beautifully done. However, for me, these parts were too small for me to work successfully with them. The item I was most impressed with was 1 sheet of masking film, mainly for the canopy. These were extremely high quality and fit perfectly where they should go. They made painting the aircraft without messing up the canopy a dream. I have never been able to mask another canopy as well as I did this one.

The instructions were highly detailed and even in color in some steps, plus the 4 different color schemes you could do. The illustrations were just as detailed as the parts themselves.

Review Author
Michael Furry
Published on
Company
Yahu Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.00

The Mitsubishi Ki-51 Sonia is one of those aircraft that has been consistently neglected by model kit manufacturers. Nichimo produced a kit in 1975 and that was the only option available until 2019 when Wingsy surprised Japanese aircraft model enthusiasts with a new tool kit. Yahu from Poland produces photo-etch instrument panels for a large number of kits including the Ki-51. I do not own any Yahu photo-etch instrument panels so this review allowed me to get a first hand look at their products.

Book Author(s)
Author: Andrew Long, Illustrators: Pablo Patricio Albornoz (cover), George Anderson (maps), David Boquelet (color profiles), Roland Brandauer (images), Luca Canossa (color profiles), Tom Cooper (color profiles), Renato Dalmaso (illustrations)
Review Author
Andy Taylor
Published on
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

This is the fourth volume in the Cold War Berlin series. The previous three volumes previously reviewed are here (and are worth it for the reviewers personal ties to Berlin):

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$27.00

ICM has released a plethora of German medium bombers in the He-111, Ju-88s and Do-17 family. It is only natural to include bombs for them! What do you do if you don’t necessarily want the big kit? Or you want to add to your diorama? Well, ICM helps you out with sets like this one. It comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a cover bearing a nice photo of the contents.

Unusual for me is the inclusion of torpedoes. The instructions are on two separate sheets: one for the bombs and one for the torpedoes. They are printed on high-quality paper with full color painting instructions/decal placement. A sheet of decals is included. They look and work perfectly. There are six sprues of light grey plastic that is flash free. The grey is a little soft. That is a good/bad thing. Good when gluing but a bit of a challenge when cleaning up small and thin pieces.More on that later.