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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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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
Ben Guenther
Published on
Company
Albatros Productions, Ltd.
MSRP
$11.00

If you have a passion for WWI aircraft this is the magazine for you. In this installment Lance Krieg walks us thru scratch building wings in the Harry Woodman approach where the wing core is cut and shaped from either balsa or basswood or even plastic stock and is then covered with a plastic skin. The process is thoroughly covered in five pages with 42 photos showing wing fabrication as well as the aft flying surfaces. Variants to the Woodman approach are also considered and shown as well, very useful addition to one’s knowledge that may be of use later.

Review Author
Don Barry
Published on
Company
Moebius Models
Scale
1/13
MSRP
$27.49

Cleanly cast in pinkish-tan styrene the kit consists of 16 pieces, including 2 sets of arms and 2 sets of legs, a base textured in wood grain and cobblestone, and an ornamental bat. The fit is fairly good, and the parts snap together firmly, leaving the arms free to move if desired. I glued everything solidly together for this review.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$4.99

In going through all of my references on the Skyraider, I found pictures of at least three types of 20mm cannon barrels. I guess it’s another one of those cases where you have to have pictures of the exact aircraft you are modeling; to be sure you get it right. The castings are very well done, very sleek and very fragile. They are one-to-one replacements for the barrels on the Hasegawa kit. Just glue the wing halves together, snip off the kit barrels and drill a hole in the leading edge, and you’re ready to go. If you are depicting a step-down barrel, this is the way to go, because you just won’t find any thin walled tubing that will give you that nice of a step-down. The pitot tube is very thin and very fragile. And, of course, the quality of the casting of Quickboost detail parts is great.

My thanks to Aires for the review sample and to IPMS/USA for letting me do the review.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$37.50

Editor's note: P/N 4498 = $35.50; P/N 4503 = $37.50

The Italeri (also boxed by Tamiya) Ar-196A-3/A-4 and Ar-196A-5 are beautiful kits. They have huge canopies though and the kit cockpit while nice really just screams out for more detail. Enter Aires. What they provide is nothing short of phenomenal. Comprising resin, photoetch and film pieces this set is comprehensive to say the least. While marketed as a cockpit set this set also includes parts for other parts of the model, such as the engine, gun cowling and pontoons. It really is a kit upgrade set not just a cockpit set.

Review Author
Keenan Chittester
Published on
Company
AModel
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$36.95

First of all, thanks to Amodel and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build this kit. I received the kit from fellow IPMS Phoenix club member Brian Baker. It had been sent to him for review, but since he only builds 1/72 aircraft he offered it to me to build. The reason that he received it in the first place is that fact that the instructions state that the kit is 1/72 scale. However, the box and kit number indicate that it is indeed 1/48. Since I prefer 1/48 aircraft, I agreed to give it a go.