Deck Bow

IJN Akagi Aircraft Carrier Full Hull Limited Edition and Super Detail Set

747 Cockpit

NASA Space Shuttle "Discovery" w/747-100 SCA

Left Rear

FW-190A-5 OVERTREE

Wheel well

F-35A Lightning II

Canopy Masking

Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II

resin wheel wells

Arado 234b

Cockpit from above

Sopwith Triplane

Rear left view

Captain America Monster Truck

Completed model

OKB Chelomey 16KhA Priboy Soviet Air Launched Missile

Engine Wiring Diagram

F6F-5 Hellcat, Part 2

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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.

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Box Art

Fw-190A JG 54 Grunherz Dual Combo
Review Author
John Lyons
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$95.00

Short History

In this kit, released also as a Limited Series edition, we are presented with the Focke-Wulf Fw-190A that flew combat with the well known fighter unit, JG 54 Grunherz. Jagdgeschwader 54 was formed through a very complicated process, but this only served to raise the level of significance of the unit later on. The foundation for the unit was laid in February, 1940, but its formation with three Gruppe (each with Stab and three Staffel, with each Gruppe fielding some forty aircraft) goes back to the summer of the same year. Its Kommodor (Geschwader Commanding Officer) from August 24th was Hannes Trautloft.

Detail Packaging

Spitfire Seat with Safety Belts
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$8.50

If you have a 1/32 Spitfire kit that would benefit from the addition of a well-detailed seat that comes with realistic safety belts, Quickboost has an answer. Quickboost has added exactly that to their 1/32 resin detail part line, and this seat provides a significant level of extra detail that most current other offerings don’t. As the photo below shows, in addition to believable safety belts, Quickboost’s version provides a row of flare cartridges along the front edge of the seat and a detailed seat-adjusting lever along the right side. The part is molded in Quickboost’s familiar gray resin and is packaged on a casting block. The quality of the molding is flawless, with no bubbles, pinholes or flash to remove.

Detail packaging

J1N1 Gekko Gun Barrels
Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

The fine folks at Aires/Quickboost continue to add to their line of resin detail parts. This time we have gun barrels for the 1/48 Tamiya J1N1 Gekko kit.

This detail set will work with any boxing of the 1/48 Tamiya J1N1 Gekko “Irving” kit on the market today.

Packaging is the standard plastic sleeve we see with the other Quickbooks products. As shown in the photos, this detail set has seven (7) total resin gun barrels to place in different positions around the aircraft. Depending on which variant you are building, you may not use them all. This set contains four longer and three shorter barrels.

As you can see in the photos, one of my barrels has a small air bubble at the tip, but that does not really take away from the rest of the set. As I said, you may not use all of the guns included here if you’re building a certain variant of the Gekko.

Detail packaging

J2M3 Raiden Exhaust
Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

Here is another great addition to the growing Quickboost line of detailed exhaust parts. Here we see a set for the 1/48 Hasegawa J2M3 Raiden “Jack” WWII Japanese Interceptor/Fighter.

The exhaust set comes in the typical Quickboost plastic sleeve packaging, and contains separate exhaust stacks which are an exact fit to the kit parts.

The great thing about this set is the amount of detail provided. Not only do you get hollowed-out individual exhaust stacks, but the Quickboost parts have the proper seam on each stack – something the original kit parts do not have. In fact, the kit exhaust stacks look like blobs of plastic compared to the detail of the Quickboost parts.

I high recommend this detail set to the modeler working on any boxing of the Hasegawa 1/48 J2M3 family of kits. It is the perfect replacement to add detail to your kit’s exhaust and will make for a much more realistic finish.

Thanks to Aires and Quickboost for the review sample!

Decal Packaging

JASDF F-2A Decals
Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Platz
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$31.00

The Japanese F-2A fighter is loosely based on the General Dynamics F-16, and if one did not know any better, you would think that is what you were seeing. The F-2A is the single seat fighter of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF).

This sheet is in Platz’s NBM21 Decal line – “Natural Born Modellers” and arrives in a clear plastic package slightly larger than the standard decal sheet we have come to expect.

This great set of decals shows the 50th Anniversary scheme of the F-2A from Tsuiki Airbase 8WG 6SQ in 1/72 scale. The decals were printed in Italy by Cartograf and are in perfect registration, and seemingly contain every stencil mark on the real aircraft! I am not joking here, folks – there are a ton of decals on this 6x9 inch decal sheet!