Completed right side

Vought F4U-1D Corsair

Tires

'78 GMC Big Game Country Pickup

starboard forward

Hurricane Mk IIb Trop

Finished

JASDF F-15J Eagle

Sprue W

Bristol Beaufort Mk. I, Bombing Raid (Part 1)

V-1 Finished 2

Fieseler Fi 103 (FZG 76) / V-1

Right side

Messerschmitt Bf-109F-4

Front Right

T-54-1 Model 1947 Soviet Medium Tank

Top Front

ERA-3B Skywarrior, Part 3

Underside Camouflage

P-400 Profipack

Previous Next

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.

Package

F3H Demon Nose
Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Pavla Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$3.53

If you are looking to improve the appearance of the nose on your 1/72 scale EMHAR F-3H Demon, I would direct your attention to this new release from Pavla Models. Recommended for the EMHAR kit released in 1991, this replacement nose is a clear advancement over the old plastic nose provided in the kit. Modelers with some experience in using resin parts should have no issues with utilizing this part.

As I stated in another recent review, from my perspective, Pavla Models continues to quietly add new items to their product lines in order to add detail to existing kits; many of these lines are intended for aircraft modelers, but there are some AFV items as well. Pavla Models provides replacement canopies that are vacuum-formed as well as cockpit sets, ejection seats, and general detail sets for aircraft.

Book cover

Before And Beyond The Niihau Zero
Book Author(s)
Syd Jones
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Signum Ops
MSRP
$19.95

If you believe you know a lot about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but don’t know about the Niihau Zero, you are in the same boat I was in before reading Syd Jones’ book about this obscure episode. During the second raid on December 7, 1941, a flight of A6M2s from the carrier Hiryu made a series of low level strafing runs on Bellows Field. After making what would be his final pass, Naval Airman1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi was forced to break away from the group and climb to distance himself from the small arms ground fire that had peppered his aircraft. The Zero seemed to be responding to the controls and he was at maximum power but the cockpit was welling up with fumes. He cracked open the canopy for fresh air and was surprised to find he was alone. There were no American defenders in the air and by now he was far from the action.

Packaging

SSW D.III Engine
Review Author
Greg Wise
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

The Product

My sample arrived in standard blister pack. Inside I found one photo-etch fret, one resin reducer, one resin carter with cylinders, one resin exhaust manifold and the instructions. https://www.eduard.com/out/media/648166.pdf

The Build

I began by easily removing the pour blocks from the resin parts. Luckily the resin parts didn’t require a lot of clean up and they fit together very well. The photo-etch parts were a bit more challenging, the push rods were the trickiest part of the construction and could have been engineered to be a little more user friendly. They kept falling off because of the delicate glueing points. When set side by side the Brassin engine is certainly more superior to the kit engine and once painted it really looks the part.

Cover

Scale Aircraft Modelling, Vol. 36, Issue 12
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Modelling
MSRP
$6.77

I get excited when the new issues of Scale Aircraft Modeling arrive. This issue had a large surprise upfront in that the editor, Jay Laverty, has moved on and they are in search of a new editor. The good news is that Neil Robinson, frequent builder and previous editor has stepped in to keep the great article coming. While the previous formats have been consistent, this interim issue is a collections of great articles an aviation in profile plus two bonus profile sets and all the expected news on new releases and current in stock materials.

To start, the Aviation in profile series has eleven pages of coverage of the North American T-2 Buckeye. There are bunches of different color schemes including the trainer colors but also camouflage version of Greek use as well as some really interesting Navy schemes.

Box art

Iron Man 3 - Iron Patriot
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/9
MSRP
$55.00

Dragon continues its Marvel figures with the Iron Patriot from Iron Man 3. Let me say right up front that this is one of the finest molded figure kits I have ever seen. Dragon uses the same slide mold technology they use on their armor on their figures. For example, the lower legs are one tubular piece. The kit is 80 flash free excellent gray parts with 2 clear parts, three vinyl parts, a metal piece and a large base. The plastic is excellent and sand beautifully which is important because he is metallic.