Frame and engine 5

German Military Car 170V 1937

Cockpit - 3

Fokker Dr1 Triplane

Cockpit

P-51D Mustang "Aces of the Eighth" Dual Combo

Pilots office

Avro Lancaster B.II

Interior 1

T-60 Early Series. Soviet Light Tank Interior Kit

Bride sub-assemblies

The Bride of Frankenstein

Left Front

AFT-9 Anti-Tank Missile Launcher

Finished 5

Shinmeiwa SS-2 'Rescue Seaplane'

Finished Figure 6

USAF Crew Chief with Toolbox, Tools, and Notebook

Topside Detail

Odessa NI Russian Improvised Armored Tractor

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.

Box Art

M1078 LMTV & FMTV Detail Set
Review Author
Mark Aldrich
Published on
Company
Pro Art Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$78.00

Pro Art Models released this upgrade set after the arrival of the Trumpeter LMTV (01004). With the kit’s overall sparseness in the cabin area, this is just the ticket. The box art shows the tires also but these are not included in the kit. You will need Pro Art’s 35030 (5 wheels) or 35037 (7 wheels).

This set contains approximately 67 cream-colored resin parts, 50 PE parts, and a three page instruction manual. The resin is beautifully cast and bubble-free. The photo-etched parts have nice pre-grooved parts and feels quite strong, not like some of the PE I have used recently.

Detail Parts

Panavia Tornado Speed Brakes
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$26.95

Aires continues releasing excellent resin sets for the series of 1/32nd Revell Tornadoes. The latest set is replacement wells and speed brakes and includes the actuating pistons. Molding is first rate with no flash or air bubbles.

To install the parts, cut out the kit bays and smooth the openings. Install the parts from the inside and add the speed brakes. Detail on the parts is excellent and is somewhat better than the kit. The speed brake is deeper and finer than the kit’s. This set is an improvement but with a couple of caveats – obviously, if you are going to close the speed brakes, this set is not necessary. Second, the improvement in depth and detail is there but will set you back $27 ($24 from Great Models) and this is a decision for the modeler. It is a simple improvement.

Box Art

Fw-190A JG 54 Grunherz Dual Combo
Review Author
John Lyons
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$95.00

Short History

In this kit, released also as a Limited Series edition, we are presented with the Focke-Wulf Fw-190A that flew combat with the well known fighter unit, JG 54 Grunherz. Jagdgeschwader 54 was formed through a very complicated process, but this only served to raise the level of significance of the unit later on. The foundation for the unit was laid in February, 1940, but its formation with three Gruppe (each with Stab and three Staffel, with each Gruppe fielding some forty aircraft) goes back to the summer of the same year. Its Kommodor (Geschwader Commanding Officer) from August 24th was Hannes Trautloft.

Detail Packaging

Spitfire Seat with Safety Belts
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$8.50

If you have a 1/32 Spitfire kit that would benefit from the addition of a well-detailed seat that comes with realistic safety belts, Quickboost has an answer. Quickboost has added exactly that to their 1/32 resin detail part line, and this seat provides a significant level of extra detail that most current other offerings don’t. As the photo below shows, in addition to believable safety belts, Quickboost’s version provides a row of flare cartridges along the front edge of the seat and a detailed seat-adjusting lever along the right side. The part is molded in Quickboost’s familiar gray resin and is packaged on a casting block. The quality of the molding is flawless, with no bubbles, pinholes or flash to remove.

Detail packaging

J1N1 Gekko Gun Barrels
Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

The fine folks at Aires/Quickboost continue to add to their line of resin detail parts. This time we have gun barrels for the 1/48 Tamiya J1N1 Gekko kit.

This detail set will work with any boxing of the 1/48 Tamiya J1N1 Gekko “Irving” kit on the market today.

Packaging is the standard plastic sleeve we see with the other Quickbooks products. As shown in the photos, this detail set has seven (7) total resin gun barrels to place in different positions around the aircraft. Depending on which variant you are building, you may not use them all. This set contains four longer and three shorter barrels.

As you can see in the photos, one of my barrels has a small air bubble at the tip, but that does not really take away from the rest of the set. As I said, you may not use all of the guns included here if you’re building a certain variant of the Gekko.