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
Charles Landrum
Published on
March 27, 2011
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$10.00

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has been releasing a large selection of metal replacement landing gear that are essentially metal copies of the kit landing gear. These are helpful when you have a lot of weight bearing down on the plastic landing gear. This set is a direct copy of the detailed landing on the Revell (ex-Monogram) Frogfoot. SAC generously provided a review sample to replace the landing gear in the Eduard Kit (KOPRO/Ex-OEZ Plastic) which is rather under-detailed.

With the SAC set you receive all of the same parts as are provided in the Revell kit and they are a direct copy. I did notice that one pair of actuating rods were not completely molded, missing the attachment point. This was a minor issue and easily fixed. You will need to clean up the mold lines with a fine needle file.

Review Author
John Ratzenberger
Published on
March 4, 2022
Company
Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$7.30

Airscale Decals is evidently new, at least within the last year, and their website shows plans for numerous waterslide decals of instrument dials and panels for various 24th and 32nd scale aircraft, Allied and Luftwaffe. I note that placards and data plates are scheduled for future release. I don't do 24th scale, but happened to have a couple Hurricanes around, well, because one can never have enough Hurricanes.

Book Author(s)
John Weal
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
March 24, 2011
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$22.95

Introduction

The author, John Weal, has written a number of books on the wartime career of the Focke Wulf FW-190 and its pilots, and this book fills a gap that needed to be filled, that of the Defense of the Reich units that operated mainly over Germany from mid-1942 until the end of the war. The book mainly covers the activities of JG 1, JG 2, JG 4, JG 26, JG 76, and JG 301, and is confined primarily to the radial engine variants, from FW-190A-4 through FW-190A-8. These units operated primarily against American 8th Air Force bomber formations, and they were highly successful until the introduction of the long range P-47’s and P-51’s, which tipped the balance in favor of the Americans.

Review Author
Roger Carrano
Published on
March 24, 2011
Company
Bombshell Decals
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.00

Not too long ago I reviewed a different set of decals from Bombshell with the same theme but for a different aircraft and they proved to be everything good I wrote about them and more. This series of decals are specifically for these particular P-47’s, which incorporate two separate sets – Part 1 and Part 2. I am reviewing Part-2, which contains more of the famous icons in the field of “Nose Art”. This set depicts “Rain-Dear” and “Phil Darling” and has a couple of beauties ready to be displayed and to enhance your scale model. Looking very close at these decals, you can see that the registry is spot on and the colors are fantastic with no bleed through and the details are sharp and crisp. As with other sets from Bombshell, the decals have minimal carrier film and are somewhat thin which allows them to conform easy but strong enough to not tare with proper handling.