Completed

Hot Rod Ford Mustang Funny Car

Finished Model - Rear View

Tommy Grove Mustang Funny Car

Paint Schemes

Kenworth W-900 Conventional

Sprue A

Pz.Kpfw.V Panther Ausf. G Late

Aft fuselage details

Vought F4U-1A Corsair

Fuselage Top

Chinese J-11B

Decals, masks, and poly cap

Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik

Clear sprue for canopy and lenses for assorted lights

CM.170 Magister

Assembled nicely detailed cockpit

"Shidenkai no Maki" Kawanishi N1K2-J Shidenkai (George)

Assembled cockpit and fuselage halves

Messerschmitt Me-410B-2/U4

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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.

Cover

Model Art Plamo Manual - Ferrari Formula 1 Cars
Review Author
Jeffrey Brown
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$22.95

This is the second book I have reviewed for IPMS that is entirely in Japanese. This time it is on the Ferrari F1 cars made by Tamiya and Fujimi.

I have several Ferrari models at home and thought this would be a nice companion guide to some of my older Ferrari books. This guide covers several Tamiya models and, from what I can tell, a Fujimi and possibly a Hasegawa F1 Ferrari. Like I said, the fact it is missing subtitles is a bit of a hindrance. It does show a bunch of neat tricks, though, that I would not have normally thought of. There are painting tips, wiring tips, and wheel tips. The pictures go into great detail, which helps. You don’t need to read Japanese if you follow the pictures.

Product Packaging

OPFOR Superpack - Resin and Decals
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Twobobs Aviation Graphics
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$50.00

Creators

From Bob Sanchez at Twobobs Decals and Mike Reeves at TwoMikes Resin comes an instant classic – the IPMS/USA 2012 Nationals OPFOR Super Pack. Why list the Nationals? This item was only offered at the Nationals and sold there. A few were sent out afterward, but as of now, this item is gone, never to be released as a package again.

Let's open the tube and see what's inside. First, there is a comprehensive 24-page color book detailing the OPFOR program of Adversary and Aggressor aircraft programs, TOPGUN, and the history of the entire program. There are also full-color diagrams and painting instructions for the remainder of the contents.

First up is four resin pods including:

Box Art

Neubau-Fahrzeug Nr.2
Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$24.99

I will start this review by stating that the new Dragon release of the German Neubau-Fahrzeug is a well-engineered, fun to build kit that goes together nicely to produce a very realistic replica of the “new construction vehicle”. My assembly time was short as there were no fit issues, and I probably spent more time researching this vehicle than anything else, but more on that later. The slide mold technology being utilized by Dragon allows for the front idler wheels and road wheels to be single-piece items, but with an impressive amount of detail for this scale.

Detail Packaging

MiG-29 Pitot Tube
Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/48 and 1/32
MSRP
$5.50

1/48 Pitot – AM 48 060, $5.50
1/32 Pitot – AM 32 048, $8.00

Thanks very much to Iwona and Piotr at Master Model for providing us these review items, and thanks also to IPMS/USA for passing them on to me for review.

Like all Master Model (MM) pitot tubes, these are “gems”. I used the 1/48 version to upgrade my Eduard MiG 29 build from earlier this year. At the time of the original build, I ground down a piece of wire for a pitot; didn’t do a great job, but it fit the bill. Now, here comes Master Model with their jewelry-quality brass version. Had to do it!

An instruction card is included as part of the packaging, containing excellent drawings and clear instructions on “how to do it”. Other companies could follow suit…

Detail Parts

MiG-21SM/M/MF Fishbed J Pitot Tube
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$10.00

From Master Model in Poland comes a well made add-on to Trumpeter’s 1/32nd MiG-21 kit (although I think it might work on the older Revell kit, too). This set is a replacement pitot tube consisting of two brass parts and a set of photoetch fins for the probe.

The two pitot tube parts are sleeved and fit into one another perfectly. There are also locating holes for the fins and even two extra fins (which I needed when I lost one). I assembled the part and attached the fins. The fins are fiddly but look great one attached and you can see how much finer the detail is than the kit part. Once assembled, the base from the kit is used and a slight bend is induced in the probe to align it.

Overall, an excellent improvement to a nice kit, and at an excellent price. Highly recommended. My thanks to Master Model for the review item and IPMS/USA for the chance to review it.