all 2014

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$14.95

Back in 2008 I built a Dragon Su-24, with the Zvezda nose to review Olimp’s Fencer decal sheet. In the ensuing years, the landing gear was broken on the kit. The Fencer was otherwise OK, but the nose gear was trashed. So when they offered Scale Aircraft Conversions’ new Su-24 metal landing gear for review, I jumped at the chance.

What you get is a new nose gear leg, and two main landing gear legs. They’re nicely cast in white metal, and very easy to work with. I include a comparison photo of the Zvezda gear and the SAC gear. They’re identical, except the SAC gear will last a LOT longer.

Review Author
Chris Gibson
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/12
MSRP
$69.95

Overview

The ’69 Camaro was the second design change in the first generation series of Camaros; the ’67 and ’68 were basically the same except for cosmetic differences. The Z/28 was the top-of-the-line version with a vast amount of options, including the dual 4-barrel 302 with the Cross-Ram intake. Chevrolet designed and built the Camaro to compete against the very popular Mustang and did very well selling over 872,000 of the first generation models. The Z/28 Camaro also raced against the Mustang in the Trans Am race circuit.

Review Author
Robert Head
Published on
Company
Iliad Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$12.00

This 1/48 scale decal set, available from Iliad Design, provides markings options for six different Spitfires flown during WWII in the China Burma Indian theater. Markings are included for one natural metal, one dark green, and four camouflaged aircraft flown by British Indian pilots. The Iliad set includes multiple national insignias and roundels for each aircraft, along with the red lightning bolts for British Indian fighter pilot and instructor Frank Carey.

The six options are:

Review Author
Robert Head
Published on
Company
Furball Aero-Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.99

Furball Aero-Design has been producing some awesome decals since being founded in 2012. With this latest release they addresses a somewhat new and popular kit, the HobbyBoss 1/48 scale A-6 Intruder. A little about the aircraft, the Grumman A-6 Intruder was an American mid-wing, all-weather attack aircraft powered by twin jet engines and built by Grumman Aerospace. In service with the US Navy and US Marine Corps between 1963 and 1997, the Intruder was designed to replace the piston-engined Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Furball has given you the option to build two complete USMC examples from a selection of 13 marking schemes.

Review Author
Matthew Cottrell
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$99.89

The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) fleet consisted of two modified Boeing 747s. The iconic N905NA, a retired American Airlines 747-100, conducted the Approach and Landing Tests with the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the late 70s, still sporting its natural metal finish with an American Airlines red, white, and blue cheatline. N905NA had a long second career with NASA, finishing its service in fall of 2012 after ferrying Discovery, Enterprise, and Endeavor to their final display locations, and ultimately arriving in Houston, TX, to start a third career as a museum display, eternally ferrying the Space Shuttle replica Independence.

Review Author
John Noack
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$22.95

Fans of 60's and 70's custom show cars will recall that prolific period when it seemed that every week a new car – prototype and/or model – rolled out on display. Many of these vehicles were designed to augment a popular TV show (The Munsters Coach and Dragula, the Monkeemobile, Batmobile, etc); others hit the show circuit, and still others landed on the shelves of our friendly hobby shop where hordes of kids (like me) spent our allowances. Tom Daniel's Cherry Bomb falls into that category. I'd never built it the first time around so I jumped on the opportunity to do so this time.

The kit actually contains three vehicles – the gas turbine-powered car, a surfboard-derived trailer, and a chopper style motorcycle whose gas tank replicates the explosive device in question, which launched many a boys' room toilet seat when lit and flushed. (Or so I hear).

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Master Box Ltd
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$21.00

Thanks very much to Masterbox (MB) and Dragon USA for providing IPMS USA this review kit and to the IPMS Review corps leadership for sending this item my direction!

OK, I’m not a figure guru. I tend to just build aircraft, but every once in a while, I get the urge to try my hand. Some day I may improve, sez I…

This set is intended as a small vignette to show two allied Armor operators passing out Snickers ® candy bars to local kids, under the ever watchful eye of their mother. Hence the name of the kit… Depending on your experience if you have deployed overseas, this is either fanciful (Most of the time we were told to avoid any dealings with Middle Eastern families) or reality, depending on where you were sent.

With that in mind, I take this build at face value; kids are kids worldwide, and the opportunity for free candy is never turned down… read on.

Review Author
Timothy Funnell
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$49.99

Quick summary, this is not Dragon’s first Panzer III kit released but it might be one of their finest. Upon opening the box, you will find the following items, all 650 parts (about 70 of which are not used):

  • 24 sprues of gray plastic
  • 2 bags of Magic Tracks
  • 1 decals sheet with 5 sets of markings for gray panzer schemes
  • 1 clear sprue of periscopes

There are a few variations to decide upon for he build. After looking over the instructions a few times, I decided to start building a vehicle from 2nd Panzer Division, Russia 1941. The kit has different cupolas to choose from and the 2nd Panzer Division had late model cupolas which I prefer over the early cupolas used by the 16th Panzer Division.

Review Author
Mike Van Schoonhoven
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$20.71

Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty-six years. They also release many special releases during the year, as is the case of this issue.

This issue covers IJN Heavy Cruisers that were produced from 1922 - 1945. During this time period there were eighteen heavy cruisers built and these fell into six different classes. The classes being the Furutaka, Aoba, Myoko, Takao, Mogami and Tone.

The magazine is broken down into nine sections. Section one covers all eighteen of these cruisers. There are thirty-six pages devoted to them with black and white period photos and line drawings showing the updates and changes that took place through the cruisers life.

Review Author
Mike Van Schoonhoven
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$10.95

Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty eight years.

The September issue starts off with several small articles which include the IJA/N Airplane Illustrated and a build article on the Trumpeter 1/35 Soviet JS-7 Heavy Tank which includes a walk around on a actual vehicle in a museum and the history of Russian and American heavy tanks.

The main article this month features tools. What modeler doesn't like tools? The article consists of thirty three pages of pictures of tools and a brief description of what it does and price. The tools in the article range from colored pencils, files, trimmers, drills, solvents, lights, sandpaper, saws, tweezers and punches.