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
Doug Cole
Published on
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$54.00

The new Ford GT is a stunning supercar that competes favorably with the best of the breed at a price that the competition hasn’t seen in in a decade. Tamiya, not wishing to be left out of the fray has produced a similarly gorgeous replica of the car in scale for the advanced builder.

There are a lot of things to love about the kit and some things that could be improved, but in the end; if you want a great looking model of this superb car this the best example on the market.

Construction begins with the rear and forward body panels and you’ll quickly discover that you can’t use tube glue or the parts will not fit together. Thin liquid cement or thin superglue are needed due to the tight tolerances of the pieces and miniscule glue points. Reminiscent of the over-engineered 60’s kit that saw us trying to keep the front end together with a one-millimeter dot on the end of a tie rod, these joins require concentration and sparing use of adhesives.

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
MSRP
$33.00

Steam Traction on the Road is a historical description of the development of steam power and the engineers and manufacturers that created steam vehicles. The book includes a nice description of the people that designed steam vehicles in addition to the steam engines themselves. The book’s focus is on steam engines in England, but also includes some mentions of steam vehicles in America and other countries.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$16.95

When Eduard released its MiG-21MF kit last summer it also released an overtree set of just the sprues from the MiG-21MF kit. This set depicts the MiG-21MF (NATO reporting name - “Fishbed J”) aircraft that were built at the Gorky factory.

As this is an overtrees set, the box only includes the four sprues (3 medium gray and one clear). There are no decals, photo-etch, masks, or instructions. The circular clear sprue contains the canopies, lights and instrument panels. Two of the gray sprues are for the airframe and the third one provides the pylons, weapons and external tanks. The molding on all of the parts is superb, but some of them suffer from a slight molding seam. This is easily removed by scraping it with a hobby knife or using a sanding stick, but beware of it as the tolerances in the kit are so tight, sometimes the molding seam gets in the way.

Book Author(s)
Kyösti Partonen
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$62.00

One of the latest in Mushroom Model Publications’ White Series, Finnish Jet Colours follows up three earlier volumes in Finnish camouflage and markings (2014’s Finnish Fighter Colours 1939-1945 Volume 1, 2015’s Finnish Fighter Colours 1939-1945 Volume 2, and 2018’s Finnish Bomber Colours 1939-1945). MMP is calling this book part of their "Rainbow Series." I'm guessing that refers to their large format camouflage and markings set of books in their "White" series that have addressed Bulgaria, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Sweden. This series seems to share a commonality of discussing the specific topic of the evolution of a countries' evolution in markings. To that end, this book utilizes many previously un-published pictures and focuses in on individual aircraft to supplement with superb color illustrations.

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Veteran Models
Scale
1/200
MSRP
$34.94

Background

(from The Battleship Bismarck, By Stefan Draminski

German battleships and heavy cruisers were equipped with seven searchlights for illumination at night or in poor visibility conditions. They were produced by Siemens-Schuckertwerke and had a diameter of 1500 mm. Three signal lamps were also provided: one on either side of the admiral’s bridge, and one on a platform at the base of the mainmast.

Veteran Models Searchlight Set provides seven 1540 mm searchlights and three signal lamps, both with transparent plastic lenses. The kit includes extremely finely cast resin parts with amazing detail, and a small photoetch fret, also with amazing detail. The resin pieces are exquisitely cast with virtually no imperfections. There is some minor flash on the parts, but no bubbles or voids. Some of the resin and photoetch pieces are extremely small and delicate.