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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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Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
November 30, 2016
Company
Videoaviation
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$10.62

Most people around modern airplane models are aware of the cluster bomb dispensers that have been used for a while now. They are basically carriers of many smaller sub munitions that open and spread the smaller bombs over a wider area. In this case, the WCMD (Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser) is a tail kit for cluster bombs (CBU-87, 89 & 97) which convert the normal cluster bombs by adding a different tail unit to allow corrections to trajectory based on wind changes allowing for more accurate dispersal. They were first dropped from a B-52 in Afghanistan in 2002. They are currently use on F-16C and F-15E.

Videoaviation.com has issued a set of these munitions. The set comes with front and back parts for four bo0mbs and two sprues of lugs for the attachment points. Also included are decals to cover the bombs and also red remove before flight tags.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
November 30, 2016
Company
Res-Im
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$3.50

Building 1/144 can be great fun, but sometimes older kits need a little boost to bring them up to the standards we’ve come to expect from newer (but more expensive) kits. A case in point is the LS 1/144 F-15, which has a couple of things which could use improvement.

The wheels on the LS kit are correctly sized in diameter, but they look like ATV tires. They’re too wide, and the sidewalls are rounded. So the Res-Im tires are a pretty good improvement. There’s a comparison photo below.

I started out to do this review on the Minicraft F-15, but the tires are molded onto the landing gear legs. Too difficult for me, especially in this small scale. See the picture below to see the Minicraft LG.

Once I had the F-15 almost complete, painted, decals installed, I was ready to do the landing gear. I usually save the gear until late in the build to prevent damage to the parts when I handle the plane for decals.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
November 29, 2016
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.99

Hasegawa’s 1/48th scale Sea King is a wonderful kit and there have been a few releases of aftermarket for it but nothing lately. Quickboost and Aires surprised us with one of their latest releases, a pair of pilot seats in the Quickboost line as replacement for the kits seats.

The set comes with two casting blocks which contains the seats and two side rails each. There are instructions included also. Assembly is maybe 10 minutes worth. Cut the seat from the casting blocks and sand the bottom even with the bottom of the seat. Carefully cut the two side rails loose and glue in place.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
November 29, 2016
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$2.30

This set provides a replacement pitot tube for the Airfix BAe Systems Hawk 100 kit. As with all of Master Model’s replacement parts, this pitot tube is exquisitely made and show in the photos it is a big improvement over the kit pitot. It will be a welcome addition to your Hawk.

This will be the easiest add-on you ever make, as even though the instructions tell you to drill a hole for the replacement part, when I test fitted it to the kit, it just dropped into place without having to do anything to the mounting hole. All you need is some superglue gel and a few seconds to make sure the pitot tube is correctly oriented, and you are done, but watch your fingers as the pitot tube is very pointy.

Highly recommended! Thank you to Master Model for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
November 29, 2016
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$4.00

This set provides replacements for the wingtip pitot tubes and the refueling probe tip for the Handley Page Victor. As with all of Master Model’s replacement parts, these are exquisitely made and will be a welcome addition to your Victor. I have the old Matchbox Victor kit, so I compared the replacement parts with the kit parts, and as the photos show, Master Model’s parts are head and shoulders above the kit parts.