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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
Fred Bachofner
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$30.00

The Mercedes-Benz 770, also known as the "Großer Mercedes" (big Mercedes) was a luxury car built by Mercedes-Benz from 1930 to 1943. It is probably best known from archive footage of high-ranking Nazi officials before and during World War II, including Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring but also Six and a Quarter as was the nickname of The Reichskommissar of the Netherlands Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

The 770 was extensively revised in 1938, resulting in the new internal designation W150. The all-new chassis was made with oval tubes and was suspended from coil springs all around, with independent suspension at the front and a de Dion axle at the rear.

The engine had the same basic architecture as that of the W07, but was tuned to produce 155 braking power (116 kW) at 3000 rpm without supercharger and 230 rempk (170 kW) at 3200 rpm with. The transmission now had five forward gear ratios with a direct fourth gear and an overdrive fifth.

Review Author
Fred Bachofner
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$22.15

This is another colourful book (in a larger series) by the well-known aviation artist Richard J Caruana, who was born and lives in Malta. The well-known author/illustrator has a 15-volume history of the Italian Air Force to his name, numerous books on model making and ospreys (among others), and has designed 89 stamps for the country of Malta. You will also find many of his drawings and profiles in many other publications dedicated to aviation. At Stratus Publishers (-MMP-Books) he created two series. The first, titled "Fighting Colours of Richard J. Caruana," dealt with fighter planes, and each volume was devoted to a specific period or theater of war.

The second series is titled "Flying Colours of Richard J. Caruana" and offers a selection of interesting aviation topics that the author would like to share with us as readers.

Review Author
Fred Bachofner
Published on
Company
Revell Germany
Scale
1/87
MSRP
$30.00

The 130 km/h fast Class 02 was built from 1925 onwards as the first standard express train steam locomotive in Germany in a series of only 10 examples. This was due to the fact that the much better-known parallel design, the 01 series, was soon preferred. Unlike the four-cylinder BR 02, it had only two cylinders. Although the BR 02 was more powerful than its sister development, it was also more maintenance intensive. Gradually, therefore, all 02s were converted to the 01 standard by removing the two additional cylinders (seen on the kit box directly at the front under the boiler).

The steam locomotive was in service with Deutsche Reichsbahn, during the Second World War the railway network of Hitler.

The model includes:

Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$11.45

The Stencel SEU-3/A ejection seat was used in the US Marine Corps’ AV-8A, later -S, as a cheaper and less capable replacement for the standard Martin-Baker MB.9 seat used by everyone else who operated first-generation Harriers.

This new product by Aires of the Czech Republic, will replace the IM seat from the Kinetic or Monogram AV-8A kits, or for anyone wishing to convert their Airfix Harrier GR.3 into an AV-8A (good luck with that). The product has 6 parts moulded in mid-grey resin, two in soft black resin, a small PE fret for belt buckles and other greeblies, plus a short length of very fine copper wire. The PE fret is tiny, but has 16 parts, some of which are barely over 1mm square! Be sure to get your maximum-strength optical visors out!

Detail on the parts is excellent and this is a light year ahead of the Kinetic kit parts and galaxies away from the comfy armchairs of earlier kits.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
Company
AOA Decals
Scale
1:35
MSRP
$25.00

AOA Decals has provided IPMS/USA reviewer corps with a wonderful decal set for low-viz options (Part 3) for the US Navy H-60 Seahawk family that covers MH-60R squadrons, including two additional Romeos from the Royal Australian Navy.

This 1/35th scale decal sheet of Low-Viz Seahawk Family, Part 3, covers the following squadrons: