Finished

Soviet Military Airfield 1980s

Finished Kit

US Army Field Kitchen

Major Assembly

Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero

Finished

Ki-21-1b 'Sally' with Pilots and Ground Personnel

Finished model

1982 Pontiac Firebird

port rear quarter view

Hurricane Mk IIb Trop

Painted Panther rear profile

Panzerwaffe Steel Cats - Panther and King Tiger Ausf B

Topless

Soviet Komintern Artillery Tractor

Canopy top

A-26B-15 Invader

Box Art

Royal Marine Officer

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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.

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.

Box Art

B-24J
Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$45.99

Loud “THANKS” to Danielle at Revell for providing IPMS/USA a chance to review this kit! We sincerely appreciate your support and look forward to even more great things from your company… Revell is a stalwart in the industry!

For those of you unaware, the Revell re-release of the venerable (Originally Monogram) B-24J kit is just that… and VERY welcome to those of us who don’t appreciate having to pay internet auction house prices for models. This kit, originally released back in 1976, has been a staple of the 1/48 WWII scene for quite a while. Re-released several times, and modified as a B-24D at one point, this kit is still sought by people like me who really enjoy the genre. Glad to see it back in the fight…

Box Art

Soviet Draisine "Krasnaja Zvezda"
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Hobby Boss
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$40.99

Hobbyboss has produced a model of an unusual subject: a Soviet armored draisine (a draisine is a light self-motorized train vehicle). I must confess that I have never heard of this vehicle before, nor it is easy to find references online.

The box comes with 41 parts in a sturdy box. All sprues are molded in light tan and bagged independently, to prevent scuffing and scratches during transportation. There is no flash on the parts and the connector gates are small.

Construction of this kit is straightforward, with good engineering and excellent fit. Something to be noted is that the bogies could be easily replaced by HO scale ones, if anyone would like to convert it and add it to their HO layout. While on the same topic, the bogies are wider than the standard gauge. They are about 5 scale feet, which is close to the Russian gauge.

Box Art

Gloster Meteor F.4
Review Author
John King
Published on
Company
HK Models Co.
Scale
1/144

The Gloster Meteor F.4 was the first post-WWII Meteor. The big differences between the Meteor F.3 and F.4 were the engines and wings. More details can be found online or in many different publications. For the 1/144th community, there are only a few Meteor options. The ones that I know of are the F-Toys F.1, Don Schmenk’s resin F.8, a Welsh Models vac-form F.8, and an Anigrand resin F.3. That would make Hong Kong Models’ F.4 the first injection molded Meteor kit in 1/144th.

Detail Package

SU-24K/UBK Frogfoot Antennas
Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$6.50

This is about as simple as a review can get. First, thanks once again to Quickboost for the review items; once again you provide something I would not have thought to manufacture, but is, to my mind, a worthwhile improvement!

This set contains Angle of Attack (AOA) vanes, two IFF antennas, and an air data probe. All are much more delicate than the kit items; the IFF blades are, in particular, much more refined than the kit items. The AOA vanes are likewise much thinner than the injected molded parts. And the air data probe, well, has the tube already hollowed out for you!

To review, I added the IFF blades to my already-completed SU-25; the kit items were shaved off, and I installed the QB items. Very nice.

A quick and easy set for your use; thanks to our friends at Quickboost for providing us these little gems and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review them! 10 of 10…

Box Art

Star Trek Adversary Set
Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
Round 2 Models
MSRP
$13.99

Introduction

Growing up building all genres of AMT/ERTL/MPC kits – cars to aircraft to space ships to monster figures – it was a sad day when ERTL reduced AMT to a shell of its former self. Being a particularly big Star Trek fan and with AMT being the only game in town for Star Trek models (before this “internet” thing became such a big deal), it was a sad time indeed.

Then, a few years ago after much finagling, along came Round2, acquiring the AMT/MPC molds, fine-tuning them, and re-releasing most of the old kits we all remember. Many are being re-released with Retro-Style packaging, while others are being issued with all-new box art and packaging. The old Star Trek kits are back, in style. Among those are the Cadet Series – the 1/2500 scale ships of the line in the Star Trek universe as well as their nemeses from all parts of the series’ timeline.