Wings swept forward

F-14A/B Tomcat "Jolly Rogers" (2 kits) Limited Edition

Upper turret and Gunners station

B-26 C-50 Korean War "Glass Nose"

Decals

Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B King Tiger

Decals

de Havilland Comet Airliner

Aft right

M48A3 Mod.B

Signs

Normandy Street

Competed cab

Hitachi Zaxis 135US Excavator

Tail rotor

MQ-8B Fire Scout

Left-front, low, providing view of wheel bay

Bf-109G-6 Erla

Image 2

Mitsubishi Colt Galant GTO-MR

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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.

Parts Package

A-4B Skyhawk Gun Barrels
Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.00

Quickboost has added the gun barrels for the Airfix A-4B to their line of resin aircraft accessories. This latest addition is molded in a grayish resin – smooth, seamless, and bubble-free. They are easily removed from the mold block, taking only a couple swipes with a saw blade to remove.

Comparing the Quickboost gun barrels with the Airfix barrels, you can see that the Quickboost barrels are more to scale and have the ends drilled out. If you tried to drill out the Airfix barrels, you would have quite a job ahead of you and could possibly destroy one or both.

I very highly recommend this product if you want a really nice and detailed set of gun barrels. All that you need to do is cut off the molding block and drop them in place with a little CA glue. It’s a very easy upgrade to do.

I would like to thank Quickboost and IPMS USA for the chance to do this review.

Parts Package

TSR.2 Landing Gear
Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$16.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions makes various landing gear sets out of lead-free white metal. Some come with the wheels attached, if needed, while others might have the wheel bay included to help with added weight, but most only come with the new landing gear struts. This offering is for the Airfix TSR.2 and is a welcomed addition because, in 1/72, this is a large model that can get a little heavy on its plastic gear.

The detail of the metal parts is crisp and looks flawless. The advantage to these parts is their strength, so they shouldn’t warp with time under the kit’s weight. They will also hold up well while you work with it – no accidentally snapping plastic gear struts apart. To attach the new landing gear, you will need to use CA glue. On SAC’s website they recommend a thicker “gap filling” CA glue so you can position them the way you want and then use an accelerator to bond the parts instantly.

Parts Package

P-47 Thunderbolt .50 Browning M2 Barrels
Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$4.50

Master Model is a company that makes turned brass aftermarket parts, specifically pitot tubes, refueling probes, gun barrels, and antennas.

The first thing I would like to point out is how good the packaging and instruction sheet are. The packaging consists of a zip-lock type bag while the part is in a smaller bag, keeping it from moving all over and getting lost as you work. The instruction sheet is very clear and easy to understand, detailing a mere 3 steps. Cut off original part, drill a hole (0.8 mm), glue in the new metal part. Just be careful drilling the hole, especially in 1/72. The bottom of the sheet has a 1/72 scale template of the barrel spacing on the wing. I just laid the wing down over it and adjusted the distance as I glued the barrels in with CA.

Cover

Model Art Modeling Magazine, #871 – 1/700th Scale Ship Model Database 1
Review Author
Mike Van Schoonhoven
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$22.75

This is one of Model Art Modeling Magazine’s special editions. The text is mainly in Japanese with some English subtitles throughout. One benefit to these magazines is the high quality of the photographs and the models that are used.

This special issue covers 1/700th scale ships of the IJN, almost all of which are waterline versions.

The first article is about Tamiya and their Water Line Series. They use several pictures of the actual models, brochures that came in the kits, period photos, and even a nice picture of Mr. Tamiya himself.

Next is another short article that features some beautifully built models. Unfortunately, due to the text being Japanese, I cannot say for sure what the article is about.

Box Art

Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$37.00

History

The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik has the distinction of being produced in the largest numbers of any combat aircraft anywhere in the world, and its developmental history is well known to most modelers and historians. Conceived in 1938 as an armored, close support and anti-tank aircraft, its designers wanted the plane to be a two-seater with a rearward firing machine gun for defense. Politicians changed the design, however, replacing the rear gunner with an additional fuel tank and more protective armor. Although the center section of the aircraft was essentially an armored shell, the wings, rear fuselage, and tail unit were made of wood.