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
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

Quickboost has always offered quick, easy, and inexpensive ways to upgrade your kits. The latest offering is a set of hollowed-out exhausts for the Academy Spitfire Mk.XIV. Molded perfectly in light grey resin, these two banks of exhausts feature exquisitely opened ends. They are drop-in replacements for the kit parts. Removal is easy enough from the pour blocks. Since the attachments are on the inside, there is no need even to clean them up.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review parts.

Book Author(s)
Yefim Gordon & Dmitriy Komissarov
Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Hikoki Publications
MSRP
$56.95

Nowhere in the world has the clash of East vs. West hardware been more hard fought than the Middle East. Soviet arms were first supplied to Egypt in the 1950s. Since then, Soviet hardware as flourished throughout the region. This hardback, detailing such Soviet-supplied arms in the form of warplanes, is printed on high quality paper with over 375 photos, most being in color. The book is broken down into chapters by country, including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel (yes, Israel too), Jordon, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, UAE, and Yemen.

Book Author(s)
David L. Krakow
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Squadron Signal Publications
MSRP
$18.95

The German Kriegsmarine developed the Schnellboot (or S-boot) as a weapon of war to be used by elite sailors. As a testament of their skillfully trained men and excellent design, the S-boot flotillas were able to deliver offensive actions as late as April, 1945.

This book is devoted to the description of the main characteristics and features of the following classes: S-1, S-2, S-7, S-14, S-18, S-26, S-30, S-38, S-100, S-151, and the LS class, which was a “midget” S-boot used mainly from auxiliary cruisers. For each class, there are line drawings and pictures (most of them in half-page size, very clear and sharp) illustrating the characteristics of each class.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Aero Line
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$11.20

I’ve loved Plusmodel’s Aero Line 1/48th scale series of resin figures since reviewing the first one a while back. This one is no different. With the recent release of the Eduard and Great Wall Hobby MiG-29s, this figure couldn’t come at a better time.

Packaged in a plastic bubble pack, this perfectly cast resin figure is molded in light grey with no blemishes anywhere. It has a minimal amount of flash around the whole figure that literally just falls off when touching it. Clean up is quite easy. This figure is a single piece with a pilot wearing a flight helmet. He has a hand in his pocket and the other one at his side holding his oxygen mask. The carving of these figures is impressive. The face is the most important facet of any figure, and these Aero Line figures are perfect. The proportions of the whole figure look absolutely realistic. The pour block is easily removed with a razor saw. The single piece ensures that there are no gaps anywhere.

Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$8.50

Quickboost now offers a pair of resin engine cowlings for the 1/72 scale Italeri Mk.IV/V Hudson kit. The Quickboost cowlings are one-piece moldings that are designed to be drop-in replacements for the kit’s two-piece cowlings. After the engines are attached to the nacelles, the one-piece cowlings simply slide over the engines. There does not appear to be any effort on Quickboost’s part to improve upon the excellent details molded into the kit parts. Instead, the purpose of these replacement cowlings is simply to ease kit construction by avoiding the need to assemble the pieces and clean up the two seams along the centerline of each of the cowlings when the kit parts are used, thus avoiding the need to replace/rescribe details. See the comparison photo below of the Quickboost cowling (on the right) to the Italeri kit’s two-piece cowling parts (on the left).