FinishedFinished

1955 Ford Panel Truck

Return wheels installed

British Nuffield Assault Tank A.T.3

Figures Installed

Soviet Ball Tank "Sharotank"

Bride sub-assemblies

The Bride of Frankenstein

Wing Root

P5M-2G Marlin "Coast Guard"

Right front high

StuG.III Ausf.G Late December 1944

Sprue D

The Super Wing Series He-219 Uhu, First Impressions

Wing/Fuselage Fit

B-52G Stratofortress "Gulf War" 25th Anniversary

Pontoon parts and pilot figures

H-19 Rescue Helicopter

Completed kit

Japanese Refueling Cart

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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.

Kitset packaging

Ferrari F60 Detail-up Set

Review Author
Michael Scott
Published on
June 23, 2011
Company
Hobby Design
Scale
1/20
MSRP
$29.95

This detail set if for Tamiya's new F1 F60 car kit. It incorporates three frets of etched metal parts. The fret for the wing and aerodynamic body parts is relatively heavy, which should make these parts more resistant to breakage and warping as well as being more in scale. The other detail parts on the two remaining frets are of lighter material, not brass, but seem to be a light steel or perhaps aluminum alloy. As a nice touch, a Bridgestone tire painting template is included which would be useful for many other kits that do not include pre-painted Bridgestone tires.

Past edition and current edition covers

An Aeronautical Engineer's View….The Vought F4U Corsair and its Contemporaries
Book Author(s)
Thomas Brinkman
Review Author
Michael Novosad
Published on
June 23, 2011
Company
Thomas Brinkman
MSRP
$24.95

Editor: This review updated 24 July 2011 with book author's e-mail address corrected

This is the 6th edition of this publication, published in 2010 and printed in May 2011. I reviewed the 5th Edition, published in January 2009. For those of you who may have missed the previous review I will include some of the original comments in this updated review.

When the previous An Aeronautical Engineer’s View….The Vought F4U Corsair and its Contemporaries first arrived for my review I scanned through the pages and the only picture I found was that of the author. I need reference pictures, lots of pictures, of the Corsair, wheel wells, the cockpit, details, markings and so on. I thrive on line drawings. Nonetheless I had an obligation to review the publication, and the only way to do that was to read it.

Kitset contents

P-38 propeller and Spinner (with jig)

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
June 23, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$12.00

Thanks once again to Quickboost, and Aires Hobby Models for providing IPMS USA review items; more cool stuff for us!

This is a “well-then” item for me. I wondered why, and learned soon. Enclosed in the upgrade are propellers, spinners, and a jig to make sure the props are properly aligned. This is a cool set, and here’s why: in the side-by side pictures, you will note the kit items have a split spinner, with front and back parts. The props are ok, but could use a bit of “tweaking”. These are ok if you don’t mind a seam through where the props attach. I’ve built a few of these kits, and always had a bit of filler required to finish the spinner.

Front cover

Imperial Japanese Navy Cruiser Mogami
Review Author
Michael Scott
Published on
June 23, 2011
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$42.95

Although this large format publication on fine, heavy paper is almost entirely written in Japanese, it does feature an extensive set of line drawings detailing every bit of the surface features found on the various versions of IJN Mogami. Like 140 pages of them. Fortunately for English reading modelers, each page features explanatory text in both Japanese and English.

Kitset contents and packaging

AIM-26B Missiles
Review Author
Ken McDevitt
Published on
June 23, 2011
Company
True Details
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$9.99

Description

Includes 2 resin AIM-26B missiles with separate exhaust nozzles. Designed for the Revell/Monogram kits (Note: these missiles are also included in the resin detail parts of the Encore F-102A kit).

History

The AIM-26 Falcon was a larger, more powerful version of the AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile built by Hughes. The AIM-26A, with the nuclear warhead, entered service in 1961 with the Air Defense Command F-102 Delta Dagger interceptors. It used a radar proximity fuse and a radar guidance system. To date, it is the only guided U.S. air-to-air weapon ever to carry a nuclear warhead. Considering the issues with using nuclear weapons over the US homeland and friendly territories, the missile was eventually converted to a conventional high explosive warhead and designated the AIM-26B. These were carried by the F-102s, F-106s, and the J35 Draken (designated as RB27).