Front

Antonov An-2/An-2CX Colt

Right Side View

Sd.Kfz.3b with 2 cm Flak 38, Truppenluftschutzwagen

Lots of Paints

Lockheed Martin F-35 B Lightning II

Completed rear

World of Tanks Cromwell

Fuselage with Sprues Added

USMC F-4J Phantom II "VMFA-333 Fighting Shamrocks", Part 1

Tail Gear Retracted

Phantom P-51D Mustang

Sprue

Hermes A1 US Test Rocket

Ready for Paint

OKB Chelomey 16KhA Priboy

Sprue A

W.W.II British Airborne Weapon & Equipment Set

Bottom

Messerschmitt Bf-110G-2

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Welcome to IPMS/USA Reviews

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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package cover

Hs-129B-2/3 Conversion for Takom
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$24.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in providing aftermarket/replacement landing gear made of white metal. This particular set is of the recently released 1/48 Hs 129 B-2/3 from Takom.

The set includes two main landing gear struts, four sets of brackets to mount the landing gear struts to the landing gear wheel well, a two-part tail wheel (yoke and spinner) plus a foot-rest to help the pilot to climb on the wing to board the cockpit.

All parts are straight drop-in replacement parts, so no modification should be necessary. You can see from the pictures the parts are very cleanly molded and formed, with no visible molding lines.

Some parts will need to be released from their casting frames and instructions on how to work with white metal parts (detaching, handling, painting, safety, etc.) are available at https://scaleaircraftconversions.com/using-white-metal/

Product

F-35C Lightning II Wing Folds
Review Author
Will Kuhrt
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1:48
MSRP
$12.99

This particular set, contained in the familiar SAC blister packaging, is a perfect match for the SAC metal Landing Gear set 48472 for the F-35 C. See the excellent review by Rod Lees.

There are two parts — each representing the right and left-wing hinges. Upon inspection, no flash is detected, and they are cleanly cast. As with all SAC products, the pewter is pliable and can be adjusted as needed for a perfect fit. The two SAC parts are designed to replace kit parts EE39 and EE38, discussed in steps 61 and 62 within the Tamiya instructional guide.

Although I am a fan of metal landing gear for increased strength and stability, replacing these particular kit parts is negligible, in my opinion. Viewing the kit parts side-by-side with the metal parts, I found the kit's parts to be crisper. For this reason, I would be more inclined to stick with them, especially since the wing hinges are not parts which really require increased strength.

Book Cover

Midget Submarines 1939-1945
Book Author(s)
Ingo Bauernfeind
Review Author
Chris Surber
Published on
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$39.95

After reading a well-worn copy of Thomas Gallagher’s book The X-Craft Raid, I have been fascinated by mini-subs and the missions they completed or attempted during the Second World War. Three X-craft were to sink the Tirpitz at her berth in Norway, and the mission was moderately successful in that they were able to damage the German battleship in such a way she was out of action until spring of 1944. I learned that many countries produced midget submarines during the war, and Mr. Bauernfeind’s book, Midget Submarines 1939–45 covers these craft comprehensively. Molch, Biber, Seehund (Germany), Kaiten, Ha Series, Kairyu (Japan), Type Ca, Type CC (Italy), X-Craft, XE-Craft, and Welman (United Kingdom); these and more are midget submarines examined in this new Casemate publication.

Package

F-111A/E Cockpit with 3D Decals
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Reskit
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$87.99

HobbyBoss issued a new and more modern F-111 kit a while back (2010 I think) replacing the aging Academy kits. It had a lot of features and for styrene, a decent but simplified cockpit. It was missing seat belts, detail on the instrument panel and other parts. Reskit for Kyiv, Ukraine to the rescue with a magnificent, highly detailed multimedia cockpit. Opening the box, there are 42 3D printed parts, 4 injection molded parts (the canopy and windscreen), a masking set and a fret with dozens on photoetched parts. Preparation starts by removing the supports on the 3D parts. I warmed mine a little with a hair dryer and used a hobby knife and sprue nipper and the part were free quickly. I used a sanding stick to remove any nubs and we were good. One note here, there are instructions to assemble and build the seats and add photoetch belts. In the kit, I found two perfectly printed seats but no mention of them. I used them as the seat belts looked better than the photoetched.

Package

UH-1B Metal Replacement Landing Gear
Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$22.95

Once again IPMS USA provides our thanks to Ross at SAC for providing us one of his gear sets to use and review! In this case, it is a skid set for the New(er) Trumpeter UH-1B

This new Huey from Trumpeter kit is a mixed bag; Glad to have it but it needs work. The eagle-eyed among us will note the underside of my first one is being heavily redacted/sanded. That’s because the company appears to have researched the kit using a combat veteran complete with a bunch of battle-damage repair patches. They all need to go for a new bird.

I mentioned this a while back online and someone obviously within the company pretty strongly gave a “nuh-uh” answer and pointed to their photo references, a Huey from a museum, (I’ll bet somewhere in Vietnam) who made the assertion the panels were always there.