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
Walt Fink
Published on
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$23.00

Monogram’s re-released their 2002 Camaro kit as a two-in-one offering in the “Motor-City Muscle” series, with decals and extra parts for a stock SS or Z28, or optionally, the 35th Anniversary SS Edition. It’s molded in white plastic, and for the most part is a pretty easy build, though scraping mold lines from parts as well as cleaning up edges and mating surfaces will go a long way to help things fit better.

Planning the build: on my sample, dry-fitting things at the beginning of construction revealed that both the front clip and rear bumper were a little too wide for the body shell, so rather than waiting to attach them until final assembly as the instructions specified, I glued the front to the body shell first and faired it in so the parts matched. I reasoned that I could still assemble all the interior stuff later….turned out I was almost correct (read on).

Review Author
Tom Pope
Published on
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$21.00

Introduction

When Monogram released the T’rantula in 1968, I was interested - another Tom Daniel design of a cool but hot rod. Problem was, I would have had to mow an extra lawn or two for the money (probably a whopping $3 or $4 back then) since my budget was quickly spent on Vietnam era aircraft and armor kits that I could watch on the news. I was pleased to see Revell re-release this kit in December 2010 so I could finally satisfy my curiosity.

My thanks go out to Revell for re-releasing and providing this kit for review and to IPMS USA for letting me do the review.

Book Author(s)
Chris Goss
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
Company
Crecy Publishing, Ltd.
MSRP
$36.95

This is the latest book from Chris Goss published by Crecy Publishing covering the air war between England and Germany. Gross has written several books on this subject some of which include: The Luftwaffe Bombers’ Battle of Britain, The Luftwaffe Fighters’ Battle of Britain, and Brothers in Arms.

The Luftwaffe’s Blitzis a hardback book measuring 6-1/4” X 9-1/2” and contains 264 pages. It comes in a high quality, semi-gloss paper cover. The book contains many never before published black and white periodphotographs. Each photograph is accompanied by a block of text explaining the action or activity seen.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Ultracast
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$5.95

Editor's note: This review is for four related products: Spoked Wheels 700 x 175 Smooth Tires, Stock #- 48228; Spoked Wheels 700 x 175 Smooth Tires, Stock #- 48228; Spoked Wheels 700 x 175 Smooth Tires, Stock #- 48228; Late Style Wheels 700 x 175 Treaded Tires, Stock #- 48231. Price is in Canadian Dollars which at current writing is almost par with U.S. Dollar.

The Focke Wulf 190 has been kitted by every major kit manufacturer. Often times the kit wheels leave a bit to be desired, whether they were anemic or lack detail on either the hub, tread or brake side. Ultracast has provided an answer for both early and late model FW-190s. Molded in light cream colored resin the wheels are perfectly molded with no blemishes or imperfections. This is the typical quality that I’ve come to expect from Ultracast.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Ultracast
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$12.95

With the new Dragon Tiger tanks on the market, more people than ever are building tanks. I’m one of them. Armor, more so than aircraft, lends itself to figures. Enter Ultracast with their line of resin figures.

Molded in light cream bubble free resin, this figure features two heads, one with a headset and one without. The headset head has a nice action pose of the commander yelling. The neck is nicely rounded so you can articulate the head as you want, up, down, and left or right, excellent flexibility.

You also get two left and three right arms so you can pick and choose how you want your figure to look. The arms are keyed with square pegs so you can alter the look of the parts easily. Amazingly the thumbs are not grouped with the others and articulated and perfectly molded.