Painting Brown Masked

FW-190A-4

Driver Holding Reins

If.5 Machinengewehrwagen 36

Finished model

Aussie Eight - Spitfire Mk. VIII in Australian Service, Dual Combo

Decals

P-40 E Warhawk "Claws and Teeth"

Completed Cockpit

A-37A Dragonfly

Sprue C

LAV-25 Piranha

Underbody

2016 Corvette Stingray

Completed 10

M1A2 SEP Abrams TUSK II

Cockpit Painted

Cessna 152

Left top

Fairlady 240ZG Street-Custom

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.

Detail Fret

B-25 Ammunition Belts
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$35.00

Eduard has issued an upgrade set to enhance the detail on the ammunition belts in HK Models 1/32 B-25J. This set includes one fret of 15 parts which replicate the detail on the ammunition belts for the rear guns, waist guns, and, if used, the nose gun.

HK Models’ detail on the gun belts is okay but does lack for some of the detail on the outside of the tracks. To upgrade this, the photoetch parts are added to the outside of each plastic part and are bent at a 90 degree angle to cover the top and sides. This gives a much better representation of the real belts.

I started by trying to glue on a belt and then bend the PE over – not too successful. In the end, I prebent all the needed parts on my Hold and Fold and glued them on in sections, using CA glue and accelerator. It was very fiddly and time consuming but yielded a nice result in the end.

Cover

Swedish Fighter Colors 1925-1954
Book Author(s)
Mikael Forslund and Thierry Vallet
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$48.00

This book looks at all of the piston engine fighter aircraft used by Sweden from 1925 to 1946 and their paint schemes. Each aircraft is covered with many period pictures, some even in color. There is a section on the operational history, a listing of production numbers, as well as a chart detailing the individual aircraft history of all aircraft of each type that served Sweden. Each aircraft section ends with color notes spelling out the colors used for each. While not in FS numbers, these callout will still prove useful to the modeler. The book is more of a history of these aircraft in Swedish service with color information included than it is an in-depth analysis of the colors used on these aircraft.

Box Art

IJN Submarine I-20
Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
Company
Aoshima
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$59.79

The I-20 was a Type C-1 Class submarine, which was based on the Junsen-type, developed from the Type KD6. The C-1 Class was designed to carry the Ko-Hoteki midget submarine or Kaiten suicide torpedo. All 5 of the boats in this class took part in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. All of them launched midget submarines near the harbor entrance and they were never expected to return to the mother ship.

The kit was released for the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. There are examples of the midget submarines at the Naval Submarine School, Groton, Connecticut. While I was in Submarine School I was able to walk around them and take some pictures. In the end, the I-29 was finally
sunk by the USS Ellet in late August of 1943.

The kit comes with a really nice 16-page instruction booklet which leads you through the assembly process. The steps are pretty logical, and the assembly is well represented by pictures.

Box Art

SAAB RF-35 Recon Draken, Danish AF
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$53.99

The Aircraft

SAAB of Sweden built the Draken as an interceptor in the early 60s, with a recon version soon following. The Draken was used by Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Austria. All operational Drakens were retired between 1993 and 1999. There are a few flyable Drakens at the Test Pilot School at Mojave Spaceport in California.

The aircraft in this kit is a pair of Danish RF-35s, the reconnaissance version. The major differences are the nose, which contains the camera suite, and the wingtips and tail top, which are different.

THE KIT

You get the basic Hasegawa Draken fighter kit, which has been out for over 10 years. The additions are a resin camera nose, resin wingtips, and a new top for the vertical stabilizer.

ASSEMBLY

Cover

US Marine Corps F-4 Phantom II Units of the Vietnam War
Book Author(s)
Peter E. Davies
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$22.95

OK, I am not a Phantom Phreak, but I am a Phantom Phan. I have only built about 20 F-4s in the last 10 years. I also drove about 80 miles from home to Springfield, IL, to watch a couple of F-4Ds take off.

The chapters are:

  • In the Beginning
  • To Battle
  • CAS, McCutcheon and Control
  • The Toughest Years
  • Golden Hawk Eyes
  • Appendices

Also included are 30 color side view profiles of USMC combat Phantom IIs.

I found this book to be a wealth of information about the Marines’ deployments to Vietnam from 1966 to 1973. The chapters cover a unit’s deployment and a history which hits the high points of operations.