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.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Zactomodels
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$20.25

Thanks once again to Chris for providing IPMS USA more of his excellent products; in this case, a brace of modern snakes!

The AIM-9X program has been yet another joint effort (Navy/AF) intended to provide better weapons to our warfighters. The AIM-9 series is one of the more effective close-in weapons; it’s notoriously accurate, and usually does the job better than radar guided weapons. Of course, you are in a knife fight at this point if you must use these missiles, so effective and accurate are both pluses. The AIM-9X is the latest generation Sidewinder; it is tied in to helmet-cuing sight technology, and goes where the pilot is looking. It’s an excellent follow-on to the AIM -9L (Lima) and -9M (Mike)… both which have extremely successful history as lethal close-in air-to-air weapons.

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$62.99

The Z-39 was the fifteenth, and final ship of the Zerstorer 1936A-class (known to the Allies as the Norvik-class) built by Germany during the Second World War. The Z-39 had her keel laid in 1940; launched on August 5, 1941; commissioned on August 21, 1943, and survived the war to and taken by Great Britain. The ship was given to the United States Navy, was renamed DD-939, and was used for testing until she was given to France in 1948. The French used the ship for spare parts for other destroyers until finally scrapped in 1964. Displacing just over 3600 metric tons fully loaded, the ship had a length of 127 meters, a width of 12 meters, a draught of 4.65 meters, and she was powered by two geared turbines that allowed a maximum speed of 37 ½ knots. Armament for the Z-39 consisted of 150 mm, 37 mm, and 20 mm guns, 533 mm torpedo tubes, mines, and depth charge launchers.

Review Author
John Lyons
Published on
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$29.95

Editor's note: This kit is a re-release of the Renwal kit of the late '50's. It set a standard in its day.

Short History

Right after WWII the US Army looked hard at its experience and decided it wanted most of its artillery to be armored and provided with overhead protection for future combat.

Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
See text
MSRP
$0.00
32-052 A-4 Skyhawk Trumpeter 1/32nd MSRP $14.95
48-135 TA-152 Hobby Boss 1/48th MSRP $14.95
48-136 TBF/TBM Hobby Boss1/48th MSRP $14.95
72-031 TU-160 Blackjack Trumpeter 1/72nd MSRP $14.95
72-032 Lancaster Revell 1/72nd MSRP $16.95
72-033 Heinkel HE-111 Hasegawa 1/72nd MSRP $16.95

Our friend, Ross McMIllen, has never been one to rest on his laurels and for the month of June, 2011, he has given us 6 new offerings.

Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$4.78

The seemingly never ending list of top quality aftermarket items from this company continues to grow even larger. It has become a foregone conclusion with these folks that excellence is alive and well at this company. As always, beautifully cast in flawless grey resin and are engineered as “drop in” parts to replace the kit items. Again many thanks to the Quickboost people and IPMS/USA for the review samples. Visit their website www.quickboost.net for these and other excellent products.

Highly recommended