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
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.98

The Tamiya Mosquito is a beautiful kit but it does have one drawback, it can’t be built into a two-stage version. The Airfix kit is the only way to get a two-stage Mosquito out of the box, but they are hard to find and not as easy to build as the Tamiya kit. A few other conversions have been done but they are long out of production. So if you want the build one of the high altitude variants, such as the FB Mk. IX, Mk. XVI, NF XV, or PR Mk.34 or any of the later variants you’ll need this resin set.

Packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with eight resin pieces, two upper engine nacelles, two lower nacelles and four exhaust stacks. Also included is a fret of photo etch to make the intake screens. The parts are protected in a resealable bag. The resin is light grey and absolutely flawless. Test fitting the resin upper and lower cowling proved that the fit was perfect. And that is without even removing the pour blocks.

Book Author(s)
Gabriele Esposito
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$19.00

Osprey is renowned for their concise histories of the rarer conflicts around the globe. This edition covering “Armies of the Great northern War:1700-1720) is just such an edition, covering the Great Northern War which was fought in the Baltic region and ranged all the way from Norway to southern Ukraine. In the end, it led to the destruction of the Swedish Empire acquisitions in the war of 1618-48 as well as transformation of Russia under Peter the Great. The book is 48 pages in the standard Osprey size and is illustrated with color plates, maps and text describing all the combatants and battles.

Chapters included are:

Review Author
Will Kuhrt
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$16.95

Thank you to Phil and Bill for all that you do managing and providing review opportunities!

Recommended kit: Any 1/35 Academy AH-1Z

Reviewer’s Comments

This landing skid set from SAC is a direct replacement for the kit parts. The white metal casting is superb as is usual for SAC. The kit consists of five parts: two main skids, one tail skid, and two skid braces.

Instructions are not provided, but they are not required since the parts are intended to be direct replacements for the kit parts. The parts are very nicely detailed, and clean. There are no mold seams visible, and no sanding or filing was required.

Prior to painting it is recommended to wash the parts with a mild detergent solution to remove any remaining mold release. I would recommend using a gel-type of CA adhesive to bond the parts together.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Kitty Hawk
MSRP
$25.00

QMEN is part of the Kitty Hawk Panda family and specializes in egg planes - planes shaped like an egg. These have been around from many manufacturers and are simplified versions of the real plane. In this case the plane is 19 parts and the pilot is an additional 13 plus a resin head. And the pilot is a kitty cat! There is even a tail and ears sticking out of a nice rendition of the F-35’s special helmet. The kit is meant to be snap fit and the tolerances are pretty tight so it all works. More on that later. The parts are well molded with no flash. Great color instructions and painting guide come with it and there is a sheet of water slide decals.

Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$20.00

SMS Seydlitz was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), built in Hamburg. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Seydlitz represented the culmination of the first generation of German battlecruisers, which had started with the Von der Tann in 1906 and continued with the pair of Moltke-class battlecruisers ordered in 1907 and 1908. Seydlitz featured several incremental improvements over the preceding designs, including a redesigned propulsion system and an improved armor layout. As with the rest of the German battlecruisers that survived the war, the ship was interned in Scapa Flow in 1918. The ship, along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet, was scuttled in June 1919, to prevent her seizure by the British Royal Navy.