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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.

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Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$22.95

Along with several other photo etch sets made for detailing the Kinetic EA-6B and A-6E kits, Eduard offers this wing fold enhancement. Though the kit detail of the wing fold is adequate, this set definitely fine tunes the whole mechanism and lends a lot of detail. All together, there are 66 pieces of photo etch detail, all of which must be folded at least once, most twice. Removal of four tabs and four hinges on each kit wing gets the process started. These are replaced with three dimensionally-etched hinges and rib detail which, when painted and dirtied up, will give a great depiction of the real thing. Each wing also gets a very delicate manifold and plumbing piece. All of these are etched in the light gauge steel that Eduard sometimes uses, so they are a little more stiff that the normal photo etch, which is great for this application.

My thanks to Eduard for the review sample.

Book Author(s)
Neil Dunridge
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
Company
Reid Air Publications
MSRP
$39.95

The anticipation of Neil Dunridge's new book A-10 Thunderbolt II 21st Century Warthog was very high among modelers and enthusiasts alike. They certainly were not disappointed. From the eye-opening front cover to the awesome back cover, the author documents the A-10's present life at home and in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The author presents his material in chapters – each chapter a unit flying the A-10. The chapters include seven active U. S. Air Force units, three Air Force Reserve units, six Air National Guard units, and a chapter on the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center.

Review Author
Clarence Wentzel
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.00

One of my favorite aircraft to model is the MiG-21. The airplane was the most important fighter of the old Soviet Union for many years and was exported virtually around the world. The number of interesting color schemes abounds.

We have all seen a great number of reviews of impressive parts from Master Model and have purchased a few, so I jumped at the chance to review their new MiG-21 Pitot Tubes. The subject of this review is a solid, milled replacement for the plastic pitot tubes from Fishbed D and F models. These MiG-21 PF and PFM models were a part of the second generation Fishbeds and were widely exported.

The attached photo shows a comparison of the Master Models part against an old Airfix MiG-21 model. A day and night difference. The instruction sheet does a great job of showing how to modify the kit to accept the Master Model part, how to align the new part, and how to paint it.

Book Author(s)
Tony Buttler
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
Company
Hikoki Publications
MSRP
$56.95

History

We are all familiar with the success stories of British World War II aircraft. but the author of this work examines the careers of some of the types that either didn’t make it to the production line or were never intended for service use. The author has made a life study of British aviation history, having worked in the industry for many years, and he has published numerous articles and books on the subject.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$14.95

Eduard has given us several MiG-21 offerings, which allows us to build just about any MiG-21 in any country’s service. Right after their release of their MiG-21 in Czechoslovak service, they released this decal sheet that is just stencils in Czech. And there are a bunch of them. I started to count them, but gave up. There are 132 different stencils, and there are anywhere from two to eight of each of them. Markings are included for all of the pylons and external tanks, as well. Even though the markings are tiny, when you put them under magnification, they are readable. And, they are super-thin. You can barely see the carrier film.

A 5.7” x 8.2” placement chart is provided and it will cause you to go cross-eyed trying to follow the tiny lines and numbers. These are very high quality decals, and are highly recommended.

My thanks to Eduard for the review sample and IMPS/USA for the review opportunity.