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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
David Hochheimer
Published on
Company
ICM
MSRP
$43.49

ICM Holding has put out a new model of their Type 320 (W142). This rendition is a Cabriolet B, a pre-war period German passenger car.

The box art for the kit is first-rate and lends itself well to the actual kit. The box is compact and will fit well in any stash until you decide to build it. Although the box is small, no damage was noted when breaking out the materials from the box.

An overview of the sprues once removed from their respective plastic covers reveals crisp moldings with no short shots, and minor mold lines on the smaller parts such as the door handles and window hand cranks. Some of the sprue connecting points are at points where caution is needed when removing the part so as to not damage the part or result in clean-up issues. Although the box art depicts the car with chrome bumpers and other small parts, be aware that none of the sprues are chrome plated.

Review Author
Rick Reinert
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$44.99

BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front

It has been a while since I built a helicopter. The last time was an aborted attempt in 2014 give or take. That did not end well. I feel that going outside your lane (mine is aircraft) improves your skills a bit. And that certainly happened with building the Cobra. The kit itself builds up to a very nice replica of a Vietnam era Cobra. The build is straightforward. The only thing I would do differently is attach the landing skids after the kit is built, painted, decals applied, and any weathering is done. Otherwise, you run the risk of damaging the skids as you handle, or mishandle, the kit as you accomplish those tasks. I must have broken the skids about 5 times. The last step, of course, is to attach the rotor blades.When the kit arrived, I inspected the box and its contents, and immediately noticed that a sprue bag had been ripped and noticed a number of loose parts floating around.

Book Author(s)
Bert Kinzey; Art by Rock Roszak
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Detail & Scale, Inc.
MSRP
$21.99

Detail & Scale published its first book on Republic’s P-47 Thunderbolt in 1998. Twenty-five years later, this new publication, P-47 Thunderbolt in Detail & Scale, significantly revises and expands our original coverage of the big, radial-engine fighter that endeared itself to many pilots as the rugged and survivable aircraft that would bring them home.

Book Author(s)
Ian Baxter
Review Author
James Kelley
Published on
Company
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
MSRP
$14.87

The “Images of War” book series that Pen & Sword offers has fast become a favorite of mine. Each volume has many wartime photos of the subject at hand, and always includes rare photos that the reader has probably never seen before. This issue is no exception. Covering the Germans’ motorcycle corps during WWII, the book is rife with 200 B&W period photos of the bikes in action. Most of the photos are crisp and clear, although a few are a little blurry.

Almost every photo has a caption written by the author describing the scene. In studying the photos, the reader can detect a myriad of details, which are invaluable to the modeler, or even to the motorcycle enthusiast. Seeing the details conveys a sense of what the Kradschützen Truppen put up with on a day-to-day basis. These bikes were used heavily as a reconnaissance platform, but also as up-gunned combat vehicles, and even stretcher-bearers to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield.