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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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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.

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Package contents

Panavia Tornado Exhausts
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$38.99

The Revell 1/32 Panavia Tornado is a nice kit, but now approaching 20 years old, it is somewhat lacking in detail. Various resin and PE detail sets have been created for it, but until now, no-one has tackled the complex exhaust area – Aires have come to the rescue with this new set.

The exhaust detail in the kit is not bad, but the jet pipes are a bit short and the detail overall is a bit soft. The Aires set solves both these issues and then some! Each exhaust comes in three parts – the burners, the jet pipe and the can and externals. Detail is excellent, even deep down in the internals of the afterburners. The jet pipes are at least half as long again, and the external detail is excellent.

Packaging

Nakajima Ki 44 Exhausts
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$6.50

Quickboost now offers 1/32 scale builders a set of resin exhaust pipes for Hasegtawa’s Ki 44 Tojo kits. They are accurately sized, cast in Quickboost’s typical gray resin and feature remarkably thin sidewalls that capture the appearance of the Prototype’s exhausts quite nicely.

Unlike the kit parts that require modelers to glue together two halves to end up with a single hollow pipe, the Quickboost exhausts are already hollow and ready to use without any assembly. They are cast so they may be painted while still on the casting block. After removing them from the casting block, they will fit in place with absolutely no modification required. Just remember, because they are resin, they will need to be attached with super glue or an epoxy adhesive.

This set is recommended. My thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Book cover

Home is the Halifax
Book Author(s)
Ian Robinson, MBE
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
Company
Grub Street
MSRP
$39.95

The Handley-Page Halifax was one of Britain’s best 4-engined bombers but, like the Hurricane to the Spitfire, was overshadowed by the Avro Lancaster as a media darling. It didn’t help that no original Halifax airframes existed in the world, outside of a sorry example pulled from a Norwegian fjord in the early 70’s and displayed in an un-restored state at the RAF Museum in London – a pitiful state of affairs.

Box Art

17 pdr. SP M10 "Achilles"
Review Author
Mark Aldrich
Published on
Company
Italeri
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$53.00

This is the Academy “Achilles” kit put into an Italeri box and marketed. The sprues all say Academy and the only difference is the decals and instruction sheet. The Academy kit is a gorgeous representation of the British version of the American M10 “Wolverine”. There are a few interior issues with stowage and rounds but it builds into a great model just the way it is.

What you get is the ten Academy sprues done in beautiful tan plastic, two vinyl T-62 riveted tracks, a 16-page instruction booklet, length of twine (for tow cable), and decal sheet to mark four vehicles. The vehicles are two Polish Division machines and two British vehicles. One of the British vehicles has a neat looking black and green camouflage pattern. The only first look issues are the interior turret plates. These are littered with ejector pin sink marks that are going to need to be cleaned up. The worst part is that these are mostly oblong instead of round ejector pits.

Box Art

Jagdtiger
Review Author
Andrew Birkbeck
Published on
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$33.00

Back in the mid 1970’s, the 1/48th armor scene was dominated by Bandai Corp., who released a series of WW2 Allied and German military vehicle kits, together with a number of figure and accessory sets. Included among these kits was a late war German Jagdtiger, a true monster of a “tank”. Despite their “state of the art” nature at the time of release, the Bandai range is now showing its age. Also, Bandai stopped manufacturing these military vehicle kits in the mid-1970’s!

To remedy the “need” for a Bandai replacement, Tamiya has come to the modeler’s rescue with a lovely rendition of the Jagdtiger in their own 1/48 Military Vehicle range. As per usual with Tamiya’s German military vehicle kits, the model is produced in a tan plastic, which has been the norm over the past year or so in this range, Tamiya has chosen to move away from the relatively poorly detailed metal lower hull unit, and have moved to much better detailed injection plastic lower hull parts.