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
David Horn
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$6.42

Brengun produces a wide range of unique resin and photo-etch accessories in 1/32, 1/48, 1/72 as well as 1/144. This wheel set is cast with zero flash with prominent pour blocks up half the wheels. The finish is slightly textured but realistic and raised lettering is not visible however in this scale, reading the lettering should not be an issue to most modelers. The tread is not that deep but visible and realistic to 1/144 scale.

These wheels are for the “legacy” hornets which differ from the “Super Hornets”. Each tire has a slight expanded section for weight on wheels. Depending on your kit, the hub may need to be opened up or drilling the hub deeper to attach to your landing gear. Brake calipers are clearly visible on the main wheels however the outboard features, holes and rim fasteners are a little blended and not that crisp compared to larger scales.

Book Author(s)
Chris McNab; Illustrator: Alan Gilliland, Johnny Shumate
Review Author
Mike Lamm
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$22.00

Osprey’s Duel series is a well-established line of books providing an overview of machine-on-machine combat action from design and development through combat. The books include a thorough analysis of the elements which affected the overall outcome of specific battles.

This volume focuses on some lessor known armor actions of the Vietnam war. When we think of the battles in Vietnam, we generally don’t think about armored warfare, we tend to focus on guerilla warfare, aerial bombardment, and helicopter assaults. However, near the end of the war there were few battles featuring rather extensive use of armor by the North (PAVN) and South (ARVN) Vietnamese armies. The ARVN’s main armor component was the M-41 Bulldog light tank, which by the early 70s had been long since retired by the U.S. Army. The PAVN had supplies of Soviet T-54s, and Chinese produced versions of the T-54.

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
David Doyle Books
MSRP
$19.99

Sherman Tank, Vol. 2, is the second book in David Doyle’s Legends of Warfare series on the Sherman Tank. The first volume of the series covered the Sherman M4A1 Tank in several variations. This Volume 2 covers the Sherman M4 medium tank, which is a welded hull, radial engine-equipped tank. The M4 was the predominant US tank in WWII until late summer 1944 when it was replaced by the M4A3.

The M4 was used by both the US and British forces in Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. The M4 went through three major hull designs, multiple turret designs, and was armed with 75mm or 105mm guns.

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Panda Hobby
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$69.99

Description

The HMEE-1 is an armored backhoe loader designed for high speeds in order to self-deploy with military convoys, and capable of towing heavy loads with good off-road mobility. It is based on technology from the JCB Fastrac tractors. The maximum speed of the HMEE is 60 mph on improved roads and 25 mph on secondary roads. Wikipedia

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Masterpiece Models
Scale
1/48 & EZ-Read

Master Piece Models has an impressive collection of tools for scratch building all kind of projects. Among those tools they have rulers and scale rulers (a ruler that reads you the dimension of the model, ‘scaled’ to the real object).

In this review I’ll cover two of such rules: The 48th scale ruler and the EZ-Read ruler.

Both rulers are clear (that is great for whenever you are looking at drawings) and about 1/16th inch thick. They are slightly flexible, but I wouldn’t try to bend them much. They are laser engraved and very easy to read, given the contrast of the engraved number and the clarity of the material.

The MMR-48 scale ruler is 6 inches long and has scaled readings in both meters and feet. The EZ-Read ruler is 12 inches long (only imperial units) and has all the intermediate measurements in 1/8 of an inch increments in one side and 1/16 on the other side (no more guessing if 11/16 is smaller than ¾!)