IPMS/USA Reviews Website

KAB-500S 500kg Satellite Guided Bomb

Review Author

Floyd S. Werner Jr.

Published on

September 4, 2016

Company

Advanced Modeling

Scale

1/72

MSRP

$12.75

Underwing armament such as bombs are always nice to add to your model. With the plethora of new Russian aircraft models, the abilities to bomb them up has never been better. The GPS guided bombs are quite well known in the West but the Russian equivalents are not as well known. Advanced Modeling has stepped up to plate with their impressive 3D CAD developed products.

The packaging is a self-sealing bag that contains the parts for two KAB-500S Satellite Bombs . There is a small decal sheet for the bombs. Also included are two end caps in photo etch.

The instructions are beautifully printed and attached to card stock packaging. They are written in Russian and English. The drawings are simply beautiful and extremely accurate. The one sheet shows where the decals go.

All the resin parts are in light grey resin with no blemishes or bubbles anywhere. The bomb bodies are separate from the warheads. The instructions show where to cut off the resin pour stubs.

Combat Scooters I - USN/USMC A-4E/A-4F Skyhawks in the Vietnam War

Review Author

Dave Morrissette

Published on

September 4, 2016

Company

AOA Decals

Scale

1/32

MSRP

$22.50

Trumpeter’s 1/32 A-4E/F Skyhawk has been out since 2012 and while some aftermarket companies have addressed the cockpit and intakes, there have been almost no decals issued to a very familiar kit with lots of marking potential. Enter AOA Decals and Part 1 of their multi-part coverage of the Scooter in USN/USMC markings. The decals are printed by Cartograf. Included in the package are two large full color sheets covering the colorful markings and one gigantic sheet covering the black and white markings. Printing is superb as Cartograf is a leading manufacturer of decals. The instructions are full color and have side profiles in color for all 10 schemes as well as detailed information on each scheme. A full set of stencil instructions are also included.

The marking choices are:

Thick Mud Weathering Effects

Review Author

Eric Christianson

Published on

February 3, 2020

Company

Acrylicos Vallejo

MSRP

$3.75

We live in a Golden Age of modeling, we do. It seems that not a day goes by before some new product is offered to plastic modelers. This time around is a new set of excellent diorama weathering effects offered by Vallejo called ‘Thick Mud’. As the name suggests, each of six varieties offered contains a different shaded sludge mixture that looks, acts, and cleans up like mud.

This is the stuff that we have all tried to perfect: using water, paint, pigments, real dirt, fine sand and some kind of fixing agent. Vallejo has simply taken the guesswork out of it for you, but they’ve smartly rendered the concoction in an easy-to-use-and-clean-up acrylic medium.

The set includes the following shades:

Seatbelts Luftwaffe WWII Fighters - Steel

Review Author

Dave Morrissette

Published on

September 1, 2016

Company

Eduard

Scale

1/32

MSRP

$19.95

Eduard has produced many different sets of seat belts over the years for many sizes and types of aircraft. Hey also have several different style with the fabric belts and straight photoetch belts. This set is 1/32^nd scale photoetch steel with pre-printed color on one side. The printing is top notch and even includes the required stitching on the belts. There are enough lap and shoulder belts for four separate seats. The detailed instructions show attachment to Bf-190 and FW-190 variants. I had a spare seat for the Trumpeter Me-262 and used that for this demonstration (after painting it).

The shoulder belts are simple in that there are no attachments necessary so you can cut them loose and attach them. I bent them to shape and glued them in place. Please take note that they are “handed” in respect that there is a left and right.

F-4 Armament

Review Author

Paul R. Brown

Published on

September 1, 2016

Company

Eduard

Scale

1/72

MSRP

$29.95

Earlier this year Eduard released an F-4 Phantom weapons set to complement Academy’s new F-4J kit. The set actually consists of five Eduard Brassin sets: 672030 AIM-7E Sparrow missiles (4); 672036 Aim-9B Sidewinder missiles (4); and three sets of 672087 Mk. 82 bombs (6 in each). As each of these sets has been previously been reviewed, I don’t want to repeat earlier reviews, but I want to mention a few things I encountered in my build.