Properller

SBD-5 Dauntless Limited Edition

Left Front

WWII German Mortar (s.Gr.W.34)

Engine 2

1978 Corvette Indy 500 Pace Car

Bike and figure

Price of War: European Civilian 1944-1945

Left front

Spitfire Mk. VII/VIII

Underside 1

F-4B Phantom

Cockpit assembly

Do335 A-0 Pfeil - First Look and Cockpit Build, Part 1

Wall sections

Normandy Crossroads Diorama

Aft View Front Cockpit

F-14D Tomcat, Part 1 - Kit Review, Cockpit, and Fuselage

Misc Image 4

Leyland Retriever General Service

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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

Lavochkin La-5, Vol. I
Book Author(s)
Dariusz Paduch
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Kagero Publishing
MSRP
$33.95

Based in Central Europe Kagero Publishing House is the biggest publisher and exporter of English-written publications about military history, release nearly 60 titles every year. Kagero was founded in 1995, and began by delivering military titles in Polish. Their success led Kagero to start releasing books in English in 1998. Authors from Poland, Canada, USA, Australia and Great Britain, who were invited to cooperation, gave a beginning to a new range of products, which have put them on a position of one of the most recognized publishers on the market. Kagero has released more than 550 publications. Kagero is managed by Damian Majsak and his wife Joanna.

Cover

Hungarian Armored Forces of the Second World War (Les Forces Blindées Hongrises Durant La Seconde Guerre Mondiale )
Book Author(s)
Eduardo M. Gil Martinez
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
Editions Heimdal
MSRP
$37.18

Like many avid modelers of WW2 armor, I have to admit that until recently I had a major blind spot regarding Hungary’s contribution to the Axis cause. Amazingly for such a relatively small economy, Hungary possessed even then a robust arms industry. They did purchase armor from other sources, the most notable being Germany and Italy, but even so their home-grown products were comparable to some of the best equipment in the world at the time. I really have no idea how they’ve slipped under the modeling radar until recently.

Mr. Martinez’s book is absolutely stuffed with never-before-seen pictures of Hungarian armor, both indigenous and otherwise, and although printed completely in French, it still provides an excellent overview of this poorly documented subject. I spent some time translating the chapter and subchapter headings, which gives you some idea of the contents:

Cover

Fighting Ships of the U.S. Navy 1883-2019, Aircraft Carriers, Escort Carriers, Volume One Part Two
Book Author(s)
Venner F. Milewski, Jr.
Review Author
Luke R. Bucci, PhD
Published on
Company
Stratus
MSRP
$52.00

Venner Milewski, Jr., a longtime naval sailor and shipbuilder, decided to catalog all the ships used by the US Navy since 1883. This ambitious program has borne fruit in his first Volume of aircraft carriers. This review looks into the 2nd Part of Volume One – Escort Carriers. If you ever wanted a comprehensive who’s who of US Escort Carriers, with loads of photographs and camouflage patterns, this encyclopedic reference is it!

Product

AGM-45 Shrike Missiles
Review Author
Rob Booth
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$20.00

Brengun Models is a scale model and detailing parts manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. Their lines include limited production run multi-media kits and exquisitely detailed photo-etched, turned brass and white metal replacement parts for aircraft in the most commonly produced scales.

Brengun has produced a resin set of eight 1/48 scale AGM-45 Shrike missiles and two launchers for use with any 1/48 aircraft kit equipped for that ordinance. The set is packaged in a sealed-fold clear plastic card sleeve. The set includes six gray resin blocks of missile parts, along with a decal sheet and a fret of photoetch fins included.

Book Cover

Wargames Terrain and Buildings: WWI Trench Systems

Book Author(s)
Douglas Hardy
Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$29.95

Wargames Terrain and Buildings: WWI Trench Systems is one of Casemate Publishers latest offerings. Douglas Hardy, an avid war gamer, has delivered a wonderful soft cover tome on all things related to WWI trenches. After a brief introduction Mister Hardy discusses the trench system employed by Britain, France, and Germany during the Great War.

After some introduction the author goes on to discuss, in some detail, the ins and outs of designing and building your own table top trench warfare gaming area. The focus of this volume is on war gaming but the techniques he discusses are just as applicable to any diorama or vignette builder. [Fun Fact: British philosophy toward trench warfare was to use them as an offense starting point whereas the German focus viewed trenches from a defensive perspective.]

The book is divided into six chapters that focus on the specifics of those areas germane to fashioning a tabletop wargaming landscape. Those chapters are: