Bf 109G Front view

48 Reichsverteidigung Profipack Dual Combo

Wing fold installed

F-4B Phantom, Part 1 - Wow!

10

1970 Plymouth Duster Funny Car

Front

Russian Pilot WWII

Left

U.S. Scooter - Airborne

Aft engine detail

Do335 A-0 Pfeil - Fuselage and Wing Build, Part 2

Finished model front view

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley MK V

Left Front

Pz. Kpfw. V Panther Ausf. G "Last Production"

Rear View

M2A4 Light Tank

Assembled kit

Churchill Mk.IV AVRE

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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.

Package

BAC Lightning Vacu Canopy
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Brengun
MSRP
$4.50

This is a replacement canopy for Revell’s 1/144 EE Lightning jet fighter.

Everyone has that moment when they realize that the canopy for their model is missing, damaged, or unusable for some reason. As far as unusable, I’ve had canopies for some kits which were so thick and murky that there wasn’t any reason to put detail in the cockpit.

This one was just an exercise in doing a vacuform canopy. The Revell canopy for their EE Lightning F.6 was usable, but this item had been sitting on the list for a while, and I thought we owed Brengun a review.

I built the Revell Lightning pretty much out of the box, except for the markings which I borrowed from aftermarket sheets, modified from the kit decals, and made my own serials and aircraft numbers.

Book Cover

Operation Linebacker II 1972
Book Author(s)
Marshall L. Michel III
Review Author
Bob LaBouy
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$20.00

In his organization of this book, Mr. Michel provides a logical approach to this ‘air campaign.’ The Table of Contents provides for the basic outline:

  • Introduction
  • Chronology
  • Attackers’ Capabilities
  • Defenders’ Capabilities
  • Campaign Objectives
  • The Campaign
  • Aftermath and Analysis
  • Select Bibliography
  • Index

During his introduction, I was surprised to read the author’s comments about an earlier book I had read and prior to this point considered to be the basic groundwork for this air war over Vietnam; Linebacker II: A View From the Rock. He calls this early recounting of the Linebacker II operations “an inaccurate and self-aggrandizing memoir.”

In this book, the author clearly lays out the 11 nights of the Linebacker II, and often ill-conceived organization, planning, and operations of these strategic and tactical missions. He does so in a very convincing manner.

Packaging

IJN 14cm Barrels Without or With Blast Bags Sets
Review Author
Luke R. Bucci, PhD
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/700
MSRP
$6.00

What You Get

A 2 ¾ by 5 1/8 inch 2-piece cardboard card wrapped in clear plastic containing a small Ziploc bag with Instructions and another card with a small plastic bag holding 20 barrels taped to the card (Figure 1). For no blast bag mounts (-058), each barrel is 7mm long with a 1mm tab at the end. For mounts with blast bags, each barrel is 4.5mm long with a 1mm tab at the end (Figure 2). The tip has a fine hole that is difficult to see, but it’s there.

Kit Box

Shinmeiwa SS-2 'Rescue Seaplane'
Review Author
Damon Blair
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$69.99

The Shinmeiwa SS-2 Rescue Seaplane is a development of the Shinmeiwa PS-1 anti-submarine aircraft. The aircraft was used in a Search-And-Rescue (SAR) role, acting as an “Emergency Ambulance” for residents of Japan’s isolated islands.

Hasegawa’s kit of the SS-2 is an older kit that has been updated to represent the SAR version of this aircraft. Overall, the fit of the kit is fair, and there are some problem areas with parts fitting together. The detail on the flight deck is sparse for a kit of this size with a lot of windows to look in. It is a tail sitter, and you will need to add weight into the nose.

Product Picture

Hurricane Canopy
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$5.00

This is a replacement canopy for Sweet’s 1/144 Hurricanes. The Sweet kit is a really great Hurricane, very nice to build, with great fit. The kit canopy is molded as a solid piece, very thick. Well, for a 1/144 kit it’s very thick. There’s no hollow part inside the canopy, it’s just a chunk of nicely molded clear plastic. But that’s not why I really, really appreciated this review item. When I got the canopies in the mail, I got out a kit I bought at a local swap meet. The kit comes with two complete aircraft. Except this box only had ONE CANOPY!! That’s when I really knew I owed Phil Peterson and John Noack a big thank you for this one.