Finished Hurricane model

Hurricane Mk. I Tropical

Finished Top Left Front

English Electric Lightning F.2A

Port

Type 214 Class Submarine

Manned capsule parts

Mercury Redstone

Exhaust

Tornado GR. 4

Lancaster Left Side

Lancaster B Mk.1 'No.617 Squadron Special Mission'

Finished 5

SE.5a Hispano Suiza

Assembly - 3

Fokker Dr1 Triplane

Engine subassembly

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop"

Front

T-28C Trojan

Previous Next

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.

Product Picture

Beechcraft 18s Decals
Review Author
Rob Booth
Published on
Company
Iliad Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$12.00

Iliad Design is an Ottawa, Canada based firm that offers decals and color chart references for scale modelers.

The subjects of this set are post-WWII era Beechcraft Model 18s in military markings. Markings are included for three aircraft as follows:

  • SNB-2H Hospital Aircraft based at NAS Jacksonville
  • UC-45J based at NAS Atsugi, mid-1960s
  • AT-7C of an unknown unit, buzz #TB-482, 1946

The sheet is printed in perfect register with very little carrier film border. Colors are bold, and the ink is solidly dense, reducing or eliminating opaque tendencies of the lighter colors. The letter-sized instruction sheet calls out paint colors and particulars for each aircraft. Also noted are the nacelle and leading edge modifications necessary to model the Atsugi bird, and references the Belcher Bits resin parts to complete it.

Box Art

Finnish Army K9FIN "Moukari"
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$46.00

I didn’t know this when I started working on this review model, but the K9 is NOT an indigenous design from Finland, but is a South Korean design intended to replace their aging M109 self-propelled howitzers. Finland has a long history of buying military equipment from abroad and making it their own, and this is a good example. First operational in South Korea in 1999, it was picked up by Finland shortly thereafter. Capable of hurling a 155mm shell some 50+ miles, it certainly has proven to be an upgrade from Finland’s older SP artillery types.

Box art

Israel IAI Kfir C2/C7
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Avantgarde Model Kits
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$70.50

A little history on this kit. When AMK first issued this kit, Kfir aficionados noticed that the coke bottle shape of the fuselage was not quite looking right. IPMS/USA reviewed the kit last year.

You can see the shape is flat. SO, AMK fixed it and with this new release, the subtle shape is there. Fantastic!

Inside the box, you get 11 sprues of well done grey parts, a clear sprue and 20 weapons all molded as one price and stacked. More on that later. You get a superb decal sheet with marking for six planes:

Package

USN MK83/BLU-110 Bombs
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Videoaviation
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$10.00

Videoaviation continues their excellent 1/32nd scale ordnance releases with a set of 4 USN MK83/BLU-110 bombs with light ablative fire-retardant coating used by the US Navy. The set consists of 34 cream colored resin parts perfectly cast: four main bodies, four tail fins, four fuses, four caps, and 18 attachment lugs along with decals. The main bodies are especially impressive. They have a very finely detailed molded on ablative coating. I have not seen this done often but have seen it replicated by modelers using putty or primer and a stiff brush. Ablative coatings are used to protect the explosives from cooking off as quickly if heated and look like rough sandpaper texture. Some great pictures are on the Videoaviation site listed above.

Kit parts

SAC Kfir C2/C7 Landing Gear
Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) is well known for making replacement white metal landing gear for many, many subjects. This set replaces the main and nose landing gear for the AMK 1/48th scale Kfir C2/C7 kit from AMK. The set consists of seven well-made white metal parts; four are the main gear and three make up the nose gear. The main gear replaces kits parts C54/57 and E19. The nose gear replaces parts C17, 21, and 68.

To prepare the parts, I sand off a few small seam lines and the parts are ready. For the main gear, the assembly adds the two white metal parts together and then you complete the assembly with the plastic oleo from the kit.