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
Will Kuhrt
Published on
November 6, 2020
Company
Hauler
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$10.26

This kit contains four light-gray resin sprues with a total of seven parts, which are finely cast and contain an amazing amount of detail given the small scale. The parts are very delicate. I highly recommend that you use a fine-tooth hobby saw to remove them. Any attempt to snip them with a sprue cuter will result in damage.

No instructions are provided; however, the construction is very intuitive. I began with using CA to bond the back wall and floor and used the grid lines of a cutting matt to ensure a 90-degree angle. Next, I added the left-hand side wall and after the parts were sufficiently bonded, I attached the two parts which make up the commode seat. Lastly, I added the right-hand side and then the roof and door. The door has a nice little heart shaped opening, but this needs to be cleaned up a little bit to make the heart shape recognizable.

Review Author
Dan Brown
Published on
November 6, 2020
Company
UGears
MSRP
$45.00

UGears is a Ukrainian company that opened in 2015, and UB LLC is their distributor in the US. Their kits are built from laser-cut plywood and cover a vast range of interesting topics. Everything from cars to bikes, trains and even a horse. Their kits are all given a difficulty rating that corresponds to the number of included parts and the estimated assembly time. This Grand Prix car is my first UGears kit and it listed as an advanced kit with an estimated assembly time of 6 to 7 hours.

Book Author(s)
Philip Jowett, Stephen Walsh (Ill.)
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
November 5, 2020
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$19.00

History

While the general course of World War II has been told and retold many times, some of the more obscure parts of the war have been largely ignored by historians, and this volume’s authors have made a great effort to rectify the situation. This book describes the situation in areas threatened and taken over by the Japanese at the beginning of World War II and explains how the Japanese attempted to make use of manpower in the conquered areas to assert control and defend against Allied attempts to retake these areas.

Book Author(s)
Chris McNab
Review Author
Phillip Cavender
Published on
November 5, 2020
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$22.00

“US Soldier versus German Soldier, Salerno, Anzio, and Omaha Beach, 1943-44”, published May 2020, became number 48 in Osprey’s Combat Series. Osprey’s Combat Series, first published in 2013, describe in detail history’s adversaries pitted against each other using analysis, photographs, maps, and commissioned color plates. Chris McNab, author, and editor has written numerous books for Osprey and more than a hundred books, magazines and newspapers on military history and military technology. Steve Noon has illustrated over 50 books for Osprey.

This 80-page, 7.3 x 9.8-inch, book consists of an introduction, 6 chapters, bibliography and index containing 20 color photographs, maps, and illustrations and 45 b/w images.

Review Author
Bob LaBouy
Published on
December 11, 2021
Company
AFV Club
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$79.99

History

The name ‘clouded leopard’ is taken from a beautiful medium-sized wild cat that is found throughout much of Southeastern Asia and pictured below to satisfy your animal interest for this beautiful cat.

This kit is a Taiwan Infantry Fighting Vehicle (TIFV) and appears to closely resemble the Stryker vehicles I have seen at Ft. Lewis. That’s where the apparent similarity ends, as the basic CM-32 vehicle series is new design built in Taiwan, the Republic of China.