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
Jack Wade
Published on
July 23, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.65

This is a simple replacement part that is substantially more detailed than the kit part. It is molded perfectly with no flash or bubbles to be seen. The pull handle is provided as a separate part on a common casting block with the seat. The parts must be separated from the casting block with a saw and the pull handles glued in the appropriate location for which a diagram is provided.

Pictured here with the Quickboost example are the kit seat and an example from the now out of production Cutting Edge offering for comparison. Obviously the difference is with the details including additional “plumbing” and safety belts. The Quickboost example is considerably more “strappy” than the older Cutting Edge product and any preference for one or the other may well be a matter of personal taste as both seem to be accurate depending on how the belts fall when left to rest. The busy look of the Quickboost seat dresses up the cockpit nicely with little fuss for the modeler.

Review Author
Jack Wade
Published on
July 23, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$4.88
  • QB 72 269 (flaps) $4.88
  • QB 72 270 (slats) $3.70

These two sets allow the Academy F-8 kit to be displayed with the flaps and slats dropped. The Academy Crusader is a very nifty kit - one of their best. The kit offers the option of having the variable incidence wing in the raised position, but the flaps are fixed in the up position and the slats, although separate parts, are not designed to be positioned downward either. Unless you don’t mind bending the accuracy rules, you can not pose the wing in the up position because the flaps and slats automatically dropped when the wing was in the raised position on the real thing. To maintain accuracy, the modeler wishing to display the wing in the raised position needs to resort to modifying the kit parts. These sets from Quickboost are designed for the task.

Review Author
Andrew Birkbeck
Published on
July 22, 2011
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$29.00

The Panzerkampfwagen II, or Pzkfw. II for short, was a light tank produced as a stop gap measure by the German armaments industry for the German Armed Forces prior to and during the early stages of WW2. What the German High Command really wanted was the more powerfully armed Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, but German industry found producing the more complex heavier tanks in any meaningful numbers beyond their capacity, at least initially. That said the Pzkfw. II series of light tanks went on to serve with distinction during the initial phases of the War, especially in the Polish and French Campaigns of 1939 and 1940, with nearly 1,900 vehicles of all marks eventually seeing production.

Book Author(s)
Andy Evans
Review Author
Jack Wade
Published on
July 22, 2011
Company
SAM Publications
MSRP
$32.94

This is another fine publication in this now well established series. This reviewer has collected several volumes in the series and this issue is indeed an improvement over earlier volumes in the series and is simply superb. Whereas earlier titles devoted a number of pages to obscure sometimes one-off experimental variants of the subject aircraft type, the more recent volumes have skipped the pedantic overview of the type’s development in favor of more thorough coverage of standard in-service variants including detailed walk around photos and operational history. Another welcome improvement is that this volume is printed in full color.

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
July 22, 2011
Company
Platz
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$39.98

The General Atomics MQ-1B (L) Predator is an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV that is used mostly by the United States Air Force, but units have also been purchased by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Italian Air Force, and the Royal Air Force. Conceived in the early 1990’s as part of the General Atomics GNAT project, the first MQ-1 flew in 1994, and the aircraft have been in service since 1995. The Predators have been deployed to several locations (mostly classified) in the middle-east as well as Bosnia, Serbia, and some African nations. The aircraft has also been used by civilian organizations for border patrols and scientific studies.