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.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$39.95

Ammo isa company founded by Mig Jimenez and based out of Spain. It provides products for the modeling community by way of paints, weathering effects, tools, and various modeling merchandise. Ammo has provided IPMS-USA a twelve (12) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains twelve (12) 20 ml bottles with nontoxic and odorless water based acrylic paints.Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. These paints are presented in a new clear container featuring a new cap that can be opened and closed with one hand. The following colors are provided:

Book Author(s)
Ravi Rikhye
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Human beings sure like to squabble, and the more history they share, the more enmity they seem to feel. America is little over 200 years old, and has had only one internal conflict during that time, and yet it still impacts the country to this day.Imagine, then, a region occupied for millenia2, and the potential only increases.

India and Pakistan have been at each other’s throats since the day of partition, and the author Ravi Rikhye, does a good job of explaining the incredible complexities of the hostility for the average reader.Suffice it to say that my head was buzzing after reading the introduction. It’s very hard for someone not born in that part of the world to really understand what the grievances are. The author himself states flatly that writing history is a subjective experience, and that there are no “bad guys” or “good guys” in this struggle. After reading the entire book I have to agree.

Book Author(s)
Tom Cooper, Dave Watson and Dimitris Vassilopoulos
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

I’ve read a number of books about 20th century so-called brush wars, and it becomes fairly obvious over time that these small, relatively isolated conflicts often serve as relief valves for larger nations who dare not directly confront each other. In the nuclear age, such aggressiveness would almost certainly be fatal.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
February 4, 2024
Company
Special Hobby
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$74.98

It has been an honor to review Special Hobby’s new AH-1G kit, and hereby express extreme thanks to them for providing IPMS USA with this new release. We continue to be fortunate with their ongoing support of the reviewer corps!

Special Hobby continues to provide subjects avoided by others… as a business model, this ensures they continue to exist and thrive on the concept of “do what others can’t or won’t”.

(Note: the Air Force Reserve unit here in Oklahoma has always had “SH” as their Fighter unit tail marking, meaning what everyone should know it does. In the case of this review as a transplant Okie I shall use SH as an abbreviation for Special Hobby, intending it to mean “S-Hot” in their case for untouchable ability and a quality product)

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
February 4, 2024
Company
ICM
MSRP
$12.99

ICM is a hobby company based out of Ukraine. They have provided IPMS-USA a six (6) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains six (6) 12ml bottles with nontoxic water based acrylic paints. The following colors are provided:

  • Camouflage Green (1071)
  • White (1001)
  • Olive Green (1068)
  • Aluminum (1023)
  • Black (1002)
  • Varnish Satin (2002)

Straight out of the bottle, the paint’s viscosity is thick and purposely prepared for brush painting. The instructions do recommend thinning 40-60% with water or thinner for airbrushing. All surfaces are recommended to have primer applied prior to painting. Volume wise, the paint takes up about 70% of the bottle and has “room” to add thinner if so desired.

Note, the bottles are not the usual dropper style (think Vallejo) but a twist off cap and a large opening to allow brushes to enter the bottle.