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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.

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Review Author
Steve Jahnke
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$28.95

Overview

As an exotic model car builder, I went bonkers when this kit became available as an IPMS review candidate. The Porsche 918 kit was initially introduced on the European model market by Revell of Germany, luckily Revell USA soon picked it up and re-boxed it for the United States market, the only difference was the boxing configuration. Your hobby shop may have both the Revell USA or Revell Germany versions, the only difference is boxing and pricing. Specifically, the 918 is an exotic hybrid vehicle; main power is generated by a 4.6 litre gasoline engine and is supplemented by two electric motors on both the front and rear axles. It has astonishing performance; 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds and 0-100 MPH in 4.9 seconds. Initial pricing of this car was a cool $845,000 less an electric federal income tax credit of $3,667 (like you and I need that for our income tax filing).

Book Author(s)
Andy Evans, with Andy Renshaw
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
SAM Publications
MSRP
$25.95

SAM Publications series of Modelers Datafiles cover a lot of ground in a single book. This one is on the Vought A-7 Corsair II, and it gives plenty of information in a single book that most modelers need when researching and building a model.

The A-7 was the replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Even a casual observer can see that what Vought did was take their successful F-8 Crusader and shorten it. They also put a non-afterburning turbofan engine in there, improving range and fuel economy. And with the advances in electronics and weapons in the 1960s, the A-7 was a very accurate bomb-dropper, and it could carry a pretty good load of various weapons.

The book consists of the following sections

Review Author
Haylee Perdue
Published on
Company
Round 2 Models
Scale
1/16
MSRP
$48.95

The 1982 Firebird, with its sibling, the Chevy Camaro, introduced GM’s third generation of F Body sports coupes. For 1982, the Firebird was downsized from previous models, and featured new styling with an added emphasis on aerodynamics, and was offered in three trim options, with the V8 powered Trans Am being the top end performance version.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Italeri
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$119.99

Hobbico and Italeri USA once again earn appreciation from IPMS USA for providing a sample of a long-awaited product, the Italeri 1/32 F-35 Lightning II. Of course, the usual bow and thanks go to IPMS USA leadership for sending me this kit!

This kit is a medium sized box containing Italeri’s standard medium gray plastic, yellow-tinted clear canopy and other parts, a photoetch fret for some details, a small sheet of masking for only some/part of the Low-observable (LO) panels, and an excellenft Cartograf decal sheet with markings for US, Israeli, British, Australian, and Netherlands users.

Initial impression is good; the weapons bay will be the hard part, and this was proven out in construction. The detail is there and if you are not in a hurry will reward you with an excellent focus point for your efforts.

Review Author
Max Welliver
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$42.99

The next Cyber-Hobby Orange Box offering is a Red Army M4A2(76) tank. A total of 4,102 M4A2 medium tanks were sent to the U.S.S.R. under Lend-Lease during WWII. To make the kit more valuable, the kit includes a fine 1/35 scale Maxim machine gun as well!

Opening the Box

This thin, side-opening Dragon box is filled with a nice amount of parts. The sprues are molded in light grey plastic and have some really detailed cast textures and weld seams.

The kit includes:

  • Seven sprues
  • One clear sprue
  • One small cable
  • Two small sheets of PE
  • Two lengths of DS track
  • One gun mantlet cover made of the same DS material
  • One small decal sheet

They provide decals for two tanks: