IPMS/USA Reviews

Eduard has recently come out with a new product which will enhance the realism of some dioramas through photoetch. Eduard has come up with a small wired sheet with what looks like tiny pieces of confetti colored brown, red-brown, and tan for their autumn sheet. It is approximately 5 1/2 by 9 inches which is attached to a border around the perimeter. This must be cut off and then the sheet can be folded, rolled, crushed, torn, twisted, poked, bent, and cut to any size with a scissor or modeling knife. It does conform to the shape of the object but still not as well as a piece of cloth. Reshaping and bending too much can cause the color to peel but I would guess that touching it up wouldn't be a great task. The colors do need to be toned down a bit as they are kind of shiny but again no great task. When I first reviewed the Woodland Camo Sheets, I was afraid to handle them because of their fine netting but I come to find out that these, as well as the other camo products, can be handled quite rough.

Even though a piece of cloth would probably contour better, the coloring and realism has made my decision to recommend this to the beginner and seasoned modeler alike.

These come beautifully cast without flaws and are designed to be "drop-in" replacements for the kit parts. A slight amount of minor surgery is required in fitting them in place, but nothing an average modeler couldn't accomplish. Many thanks to Aires for the review sample.

Visit them at their website https://www.aires.cz/en/ for these and other products.

Highly recommended

Spiderman, Spiderman- does whatever a spider can..... Can't get the song out of my head. When this offering came up for review from Round 2, I really wanted it being a huge fan of the Marvel comics. We are in the great age of styrene for modelers of figures with lots of companies reissuing old kits and many new ones coming out!

This kit is not just Spiderman; there is a second figure, Kraven the Hunter, a full diorama base and a backdrop for it. All for $24 - a great price. The kit itself is molded in red plastic and is only 24 parts. The biggest problem was how to do the webbing on the spider suit- more on that later.

The Ship

They say Necessity is the mother of Invention. Such was the case with the Independence class of light aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy's pressing need for fleet carrier decks during the early stages of the Pacific War brought these vessels into being. The nine Independence class carriers were converted from Cleveland class light cruisers already under construction. Having already built a 1/700 U.S.S. Independence, I chose to build this model as one of her sisters. U.S.S. Belleau Wood was converted from U.S.S. New Haven, and commissioned as CVL-24 in March 1943, joining the U.S. Pacific Fleet four months later. She participated in numerous actions, including the invasions of the Gilbert Islands (Tarawa), Marshall Islands (Kwajalein), Hollandia, and the Truk raid. During Operation Forager (Marianas invasion) and the ensuing Philippine Sea battle, her air group sank the Japanese carrier Hiyo. In October, 1944, she was damaged by a kamikaze but returned to action within months to support the invasion of Iwo Jima and TF58/TF38's final raids on Japan.

Squadron Products/MMD have partnered with Cartograf in providing us with four more new F-102 Decal sheets to go with their previously released Encore F-102 Case XX wing release of the (1992) Monogram F-102 kit. (In case you don't know, the earlier Case X wing had squared-off ailerons and a "kink" to the wing... The Case XX wing has the curved leading edge which goes out to the extreme edge of the wing, and a diagonal extension of the ailerons. The previously released Monogram/Revell kits had the Case X wing, and the Encore and Promodeller releases had the Case XX wings...) Hats off to MMD for providing us these decal sheets!