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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.

To learn more about IPMS/USA, please see our About Us page.

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
June 8, 2011
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$62.99

The Z-39 was the fifteenth, and final ship of the Zerstorer 1936A-class (known to the Allies as the Norvik-class) built by Germany during the Second World War. The Z-39 had her keel laid in 1940; launched on August 5, 1941; commissioned on August 21, 1943, and survived the war to and taken by Great Britain. The ship was given to the United States Navy, was renamed DD-939, and was used for testing until she was given to France in 1948. The French used the ship for spare parts for other destroyers until finally scrapped in 1964. Displacing just over 3600 metric tons fully loaded, the ship had a length of 127 meters, a width of 12 meters, a draught of 4.65 meters, and she was powered by two geared turbines that allowed a maximum speed of 37 ½ knots. Armament for the Z-39 consisted of 150 mm, 37 mm, and 20 mm guns, 533 mm torpedo tubes, mines, and depth charge launchers.

Review Author
John Lyons
Published on
June 8, 2011
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$29.95

Editor's note: This kit is a re-release of the Renwal kit of the late '50's. It set a standard in its day.

Short History

Right after WWII the US Army looked hard at its experience and decided it wanted most of its artillery to be armored and provided with overhead protection for future combat.

Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
June 6, 2011
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
See text
MSRP
$0.00
32-052 A-4 Skyhawk Trumpeter 1/32nd MSRP $14.95
48-135 TA-152 Hobby Boss 1/48th MSRP $14.95
48-136 TBF/TBM Hobby Boss1/48th MSRP $14.95
72-031 TU-160 Blackjack Trumpeter 1/72nd MSRP $14.95
72-032 Lancaster Revell 1/72nd MSRP $16.95
72-033 Heinkel HE-111 Hasegawa 1/72nd MSRP $16.95

Our friend, Ross McMIllen, has never been one to rest on his laurels and for the month of June, 2011, he has given us 6 new offerings.

Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
June 6, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$4.78

The seemingly never ending list of top quality aftermarket items from this company continues to grow even larger. It has become a foregone conclusion with these folks that excellence is alive and well at this company. As always, beautifully cast in flawless grey resin and are engineered as “drop in” parts to replace the kit items. Again many thanks to the Quickboost people and IPMS/USA for the review samples. Visit their website www.quickboost.net for these and other excellent products.

Highly recommended

Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
June 6, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.95

Here is another aircraft upgrade set from Quickboost. The latest addition is for the Academy P-40 Warhawk. It is up to their usual standards; molded in a grayish resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block because of a nice perforation. It only took me a couple of light passes with my saw blade to make them fall away instead of launching into the air becoming snacks for the carpet monster.

I must admit that I was a little confused with this set because it comes with every antenna that a P-40 Warhawk ever had on it, so you can replace the existing one in the kit or make any other variation including the “football“ housed loop that some warbirds used. I looked through my reference library and found some great walk around photos of these antennas. My reference was from The Aero Series 3, Curtis P-40, Aero Publishers, Inc 1965.