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
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.99

One thing that 1/48th scale helicopter modelers have been without for so long is the lack of armament. Hueys and Loach crewmembers normally carried the M-60 machine gun as protection for the aircraft and crew. Up until now there has been no available machine gun to hang in the door.

Packaged with a card stock backing, this set features four air M-60Ds. The guns feature the front mounted bipod mount molded on. Everything is there except the front gun sight, which in this scale would be almost unnoticeable. The detail on the machine guns is impressive. You may want to add the front sights, but depending on your configuration the guns may not have it. Along with the M-60s you get two small belts of ammunition. They will be fragile in this scale but they are a nice touch. I would have liked more ammo, but I am a gunship pilot and more ammo is always good.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$4.75

If you want to mount your Frogfoot’s boarding ladder in the down position you will have a hard time doing that with the kit parts and you’ll still have to scratchbuild the area and the ladder. That is until now.

Quickboost provides you with this simple upgrade. Packaged in the typical Quickboost resealable envelope with card stock backing to prevent damage. This set contains four light grey resin pieces. The instructions tell you what you have to remove to add this set. It is relatively easy to do. Removal of the parts from the pour block is easy. It just takes paint to bring out the detail.

This will look great when added to the model. The boarding ladder, when lowered. adds life to your Frogfoot. This is the easiest way to add that little bit of detail at an inexpensive price with minimal effort. I like fast and easy.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy.

Review Author
Dan Brown
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$82.00

I am not going to spend a lot of time going into the history of the King Tiger. This vehicle has long been an extremely popular tank in the armor modeling community. It was the one of the most famous vehicles fielded by the German army in the late days of WWII. It weighed in at an impressive 70 tonnes and was armed with the venerable long barreled 8.8 cm KwK 43 L/71 anti-tank cannon. This particular new boxing from Dragon represents a late model King Tiger with the Henschel Turret and Zimmerit.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Hypersonic Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$10.00

The Academy F-4 series of models are impressive models but they could benefit from a little bit of resin, especially in the cockpit. The F-4 cockpit, like most jets, is dominated by one item, the ejection seat. If you are going to add anything to your kit the ejection seat is that one item.

The parts are in a small Ziploc bag. Within that bag Hypersonic provides two seats. There are two seats and one gang pour block of the ejection handles. The ejection seat handles are safeguarded inside another baggie. A section of wire is included for the side of the seat. The casting of these seats in light grey resin is perfect. The detail is exquisite. The baggie is stapled to the instruction sheet which is folded into quarters. The instructions are on a single sheet of high quality paper. It is broken down into Navy and Air Force versions and has a painting guide for both types.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Hypersonic Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$7.50

The F-4 Phantom is an iconic aircraft. The new Academy kits do the aircraft justice, but if you have the Hasegawa kits these stabilators will work there as well. There are some things that can always be improved by the application of resin and photoetch.

There are three ways to use this set. You must decide which way you want to add these parts. The first way is to just replace the kit parts with the new resin ones. That is the least amount of work. The second option is to replace the kit stabilators and replace the molded-on cover plates with the PE parts from the set. And finally the third way is to use the resin and PE and set your angle of choice. You’ll have to decide which way to go. I recommend that you read through the instructions thoroughly and make sure you are using the Academy instructions when using the set on that model and vise versa.