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.

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Review Author
James Woody
Published on
Company
Fine Molds
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$230.00

What can I say about this new model kit except WOW. The box is a whopping 17.75" x 27.75" x 4". Inside the box there is 16 part trees, a poly bag of screws and poly caps, decals, and a 24 page instruction booklet. The instruction booklet has 34 steps with options to build the Falcon from either Episode 4 or 5, because you get figures of Han, Chewie, Luke, Leia, C3P0, and Obi-Wan seated (for display in flight on the display stand) or of Leia, Luke, Han, and Sandtroopers standing with weapons. You get a paint and decal placement chart that is the size of the box, and a second sheet that has color photos of the filming prop.

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
The Small Shop
MSRP
$39.99

Photo-etch bending could sound intimidating but it shouldn't, particularly if you have the right tools for it. The Small Shop has designed "The Bug" to be the one-stop photo-etch bending tool. The tool is very well designed; compact, versatile, easy to use and made of aircraft grade aluminum.

The rotating head has a 2-inch straight edge for long bending lines, a "swiss comb" side with 6 "teeth" for boxes, and a variety of fixtures to fold parts of different sizes and material strengths, or for scratch built handles. All of these in a compact 2x2.5 inch base. It should be mentioned that some of hold-down fingers are reinforced for bending thicker brass, while others designed for thinner, more delicate parts. It is a nice touch from the Small Shop to include a razor blade (used for folding) with the tool.

Review Author
Rob Benson
Published on
Company
The Small Shop
MSRP
$9.50

What You Get in the Bag

The Photo Etch Part Cut-Out Kit is packaged in a simple poly bag containing 3 black 3/32 inch-thick Plexiglas square tiles just shy of 4 inches on each edge, 1 clear 3/8 inch diameter Plexiglas rod 1 inch long, and 1 clear 3/32 inch thick Plexiglas tile measuring 1 by 1.5 inches. The rod has a slight chamfer (a 45 degree cut that softens the edge) on one end, and one long edge of the small clear tile is also chamfered. A one page instruction and description sheet is included. All of the parts were loose in the bag, but the black tile had protective paper to protect the finish.

Review Author
Andy Renshaw
Published on
Company
The Small Shop
MSRP
$27.95

The Small Shop, the makers of the "Hold-n-Fold" photo-etch workstation, have added a new tool to their lineup, the "Standard Rolling Set".

This set comes with a milled aluminum base and a total of twelve rollers in metal and wood.

  • Wood - 3/4", 5/8", 1/2", 7/16", 3/8", 5/16", 1/4" & 3/16"
  • Steel - 0.125", .09375", .078" & .0625"

The milled base has a series of rounded cutouts that many of the smaller rollers will fit into. The base is not needed for the larger diameter rollers.

Review Author
Charles Landrum
Published on
Company
The Small Shop
MSRP
$70.00

I would like to thank Julie Lockwood for this review sample.

I would consider myself to be very experienced working with photo etched parts, having added them to armor, aircraft and ship models. In fact I love the challenge of working with the media. Up until now, however, I have roughed it, being content working the metal with a few pairs of pliers, scrap dowel, a steel rule, a no. 11 knife blade and a scrap piece of acrylic. In fact, I have turned up my nose at the fancy PE folding tools on the market. So Julie Lockwood of Kalama Precision Machine may not have realized that she was throwing down a challenge when she asked me to review some of their latest PE working tools. Suddenly, I was in the lion's den … alone.