Rod Lees
Reviews By Author
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Gotha IVPublished:
First comment: Thanks to Richard at Wingnut wings for sending IPMS USA a review copy of this magnificent kit. Did I say it was “Magnificent”? You better believe it! Crammed into a sturdy double-corrugated lower, full-color wraparound upper box is undoubtedly one of the most complex, yet simple-to-build, WWI kits I have ever encountered. Box art is excellent, showing two aircraft flying through flak and dropping bombs… Given the reputation of this still-young company, you don’t have to worry. There has been a bit of engineering involved here (duh) to provide excellent fit and, as our British friends say, “Value for Money”. I started with the full color instructions; they were essential in making sure everything is constructed in proper order. Included is an abbreviated… more |
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F-22 NozzlesPublished:
A huge “thanks!” to our friends at Aires; they continue to provide IPMS USA with plenty of review opportunities for upgrades to our favorite aircraft…! This is a simple conversion to the Hasegawa kit parts. Included are augmenter burner cans, turbine faces with integral mounting pegs to fit the Hasegawa kit, flameholders in photoetch, and the nozzles themselves. Instructions are clear and clean on the standard blue folded sheet, showing exactly what is needed to install the parts. The nozzles, a major feature of the F-22, are intended to be shown in this case in the “open” position. This allows one to look directly down the exhaust and view the excellent detail provided by this set. As you can see in the composite kit provided parts photo the kit turbines are… more |
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IJN "Tone", Heavy Cruiser with "Jake" SeaplanesPublished:
Thanks once again to Stevens International for providing IPMS with yet another review kit. Without your support (and our purchasing the items) companies like Tamiya could not continue to provide us with new, interesting kits to build! The Tamiya “Tone” arrived in a very long box. It was the same size box as a battleship kit would be; think 1980’s “Bismark”. I dove in and was not disappointed with a lack of “things to assemble and paint”. Tamiya makes excellent presentation of their art; lower hull, molded in red, in a separate card holder, separated from the rest of the parts. Gray sprue-trees full of little bits; anchor chains, decals, stand, metal shafts for the props, and a sheet of photoetch with details for the upper masts, props for the aircraft (Jakes), and… more |
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Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot APublished:
First commentThanks to Stevens once again for providing yet another superlative Trumpeter kit for IPMS to review. The best we can do for appreciation is to buy kits they offer; and this one is worth every dime! I’ll go on record as saying this was the best Trumpeter kit I’ve built. On the porch“Hey, that’s a big box”. It’s also a heavy box. Postman is rolling around on the lawn in pain kind of heavy. I go out and do a clean-and-jerk lift…. And it’s off to the workbench! First impressionOpen the top-opening box and revel in the plastic manufacturer’s art at its finest. The fuselage halves are separately packed and fit almost in a “click together “manner. Bags and bags full of parts await the next level; airframe, landing gear, and… more |
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Metal Landing Gear for E-2C HawkeyePublished:
I have heard some ask “Why pay for landing gear that’s already in a kit?” The simple reason to use SAC gear comes down to basic physics: Metal gear makes for a robust structure that doesn’t fail under the weight of a model. Resin models are where metal gear is required (but sometimes not provided); on large plastic models, this requirement is particularly noticeable on aircraft with offset main gear such as the Hawkeye, weight distribution is outside of the gear centerline, and the wheel/tire assemblies tend to splay out over time, or outright break off. In 1/48 scale, the Hawkeye, with its aft-of-Center-of-Gravity rotodome, long tail moment arm, and four fins on the stabilizer, you have a perfect situation for a tail-sitter. Add rearward folding wings (which is how the Kinetic… more |
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Me 163S "Habich" Two-seat Trainer GliderPublished:
First, thanks to Pavla for first producing and then providing this kit to IPMS/USA for review; your excellent products continue to amaze me! This is an extremely simple kit; yet it has complexity in the fact that it is a limited production item and therefore has ejection pin towers for cleanup. Fortunately these are all on the inside of the kit parts… it also has extremely small photoetch; be forewarned if you are an old guy like me. The overall presentation is excellent; I had little or no issues with getting things in place. The instructions are basic diagrams, showing where everything is supposed to go. I caused a minor problem in that the rear cockpit needed to be installed a bit higher than I installed it, as there are no locating pins or rails. The kit contains a runner… more |
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F-102 Cockpit and Landing Gear WellsPublished:
Continuing the build of F-102’s: Having just built the Encore F-102A, I had offered my services to build one of my stash Revell/Monogram F-102A kits around these Aires items. They are simple upgrades, with major appearance improvements. Aires continues to set an almost unbeatable standard for detail. Their fit has improved greatly over the years, and once complete, you have a work of art at reasonable cost. First, the wheel wells. The main gear well requires you to remove part of the existing interior hump from the upper wing surface, locating pins for the kit wheel well bulkheads, and sand down the back of the beautifully-done one-piece main wheel well supplied by Aires. This done, the well slipped into place and was glued down without problems. The wing halves were then glued… more |
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F-5E Alconbury GomersPublished:
Once again, aircraft from “My era”, the early 1980’s, are starting to appear on decal sheets. RAF Alconbury was a busy place; Not only for the RF-4C’s that were stationed there, but the U-2R (TR-1 at the time) was a common sight. And in between all that activity, the dart-shaped F-5E’s of the 527th Aggressor squadron claimed AR as home. They were frequently deployed to other locations such as Deccimommano, Italy, and USAFE bases in Germany and Spain to practice their trade on our local USAFE fighter pilots. These sheets from Twobobs are excellent historical references. If you are independently wealthy enough to own several of the new F-5’s from AFV, you could easily make an entire squadron of Warsaw-pact look-alikes. I’m certain these decals will work with the… more |
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BMP-3 MICV Early VersionPublished:
Thanks first to Stevens International for providing this kit. Once again, we are blessed with excellent review opportunities through their gracious provision! I am an occasional armor modeler. Having built BMP 1 and 2 versions from DML many years ago, I was interested in what Trumpeter have provided. Let's move on to the build and see… When you open the box you are greeted by 13 parts trees (sprues to some), 12 in tan and one clear for the lights and laser sighting windows. Everything is packed in separate bags… no lost parts or broken bits! One photo-etch fret for details, including a grill to go over the kit engine intake, and bags of track parts. We’re talking BAGS. Three bag sets of pad/growser bar assemblies, and 2 trees of “U” shaped parts for the wheel alignment… more |
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F-16I Sufa Cockpit SetPublished:
This upgrade provides excellent cast cockpit tubs, instrument coamings, and ACES II ejection seats. Included are side controllers; the control sticks are molded into the side panels. Score high there; no disappearing act on the joystick or those throttle levers while trying to attach them to the panels. Detail is unmatched on the resin. The photoetch fret contains all the myriad little bits designed to disappear or be invisible except to specialized cameras or those with 20/05 vision. Where this upgrade falls behind is the instrument panels; they require you to sandwich film with a photo-etch instrument panel, and paint the back of the films white to simulate instruments. In my case, this was not so good; the white does not show up well, and the level of detail is not up to par… more |