Previous experience with other "Eastern Bloc" kits has shown me that the plastic often contains a heavy mold release agent that needs to be scrubbed off with warm soapy water. This kit was no exception in that it was covered in a tacky, greasy substance and it was off to the kitchen sink for a nice bath. Unfortunately, the bath only made the situation worse in that the plastic seemed to ooze this substance in the warm water ("bad karma"!). Off to Plan "B" which was a nice rub down with Pollys Plastic Prep which helped remove it, but several pieces continued to ooze this substance so I had to clean the parts again (and again, more "bad karma") just prior to painting! I painted the interior with Humbrol Camouflage Grey (#28) as recommended in the instructions but I feel this shade is much too light ("bad karma"). Painting of all the remaining pieces was also done according to the directions.

Assembly of the fuselage interior was done using super thin superglue with the following words of caution, dry fit before gluing since the mounting locations are somewhat vague and there are fit problems that require minor filing/sanding. Be especially careful with the location of the side consoles and the seat so they do not interfere when you close up the fuselage. Also, be aware that the instrument panel decal is printed black on a clear backing (not white) so if you paint the panel black (like I did) you won’t see any of the dials on the decal ("bad karma")! I then stripped off the decal and hand painted the instrument panel (as it would turn out later, a useless exercise!). Fit of the instrument panel was "fiddly" and required deepening of the indentations so they would fit within the cockpit framing and also narrowing of the sides to fit within the fuselage. The last step was to install some plastic strip to blank off the interior exhaust openings since I like to install the exhaust stacks last, after painting.

The fuselage was glued together without any major gaps or seams requiring putty (finally, "good karma"). Careful dry fitting and filing of the forward top panel will also allow a gapless installation. I also drilled out the gun troughs to accept hypo tubing as gun barrels to be installed later. The wings and tail feathers were glued on next, and surprisingly the fit was good with only a little putty required along the chin intake and bottom aft wing join. Separate ailerons and rudder are provided which is a nice touch and allows the modeler to pose these surfaces without cutting them off. In addition, I opened up the wing root intakes with a motor tool and needle files.

I then sanded all the seams and joins smooth and applied Mr. Surfacer to all the seams (I always use Mr. Surfacer to completely hide the joins/seams on every model). While sanding off the Mr. Surfacer, disaster struck in that the instrument panel broke off and fell out of the cockpit opening. I saw the panel hit the carpet and then it promptly disappeared! How a black panel on tan carpeting could disappear is beyond me ("bad karma")! I briefly thought of scratch building a new instrument panel (after my mandatory 24 hour "hope it will turn up" wait), but gave up all hope since I had already used up my allocation of "bad karma" and getting it inside the fuselage framing would have only led to more "bad karma". I them mounted the gun sight (again a challenge since there are no locating holes/pins) being careful not to interfere with the windscreen. After masking off the canopy and windscreen with masking tape they were installed with watch cement.

The radiator and its exhaust panel were then glued on (again being careful since there are no mounting pins/tabs) and the various openings were painted flat black (since there is no detail such as grills/screens present). After drying, the wheel wells and openings were stuffed with wet tissue and the model was given a final rub down with Pollys Plastic Prep before hitting the paint shop.

There are many controversies regarding the colors of VVS aircraft with most every one having their own opinion. The instructions call for a black over green camouflage with a blue underside, which was very common in early VVS aircraft. Alternately, some believe that the black should be a very dark black-green (much like RLM70). I don’t know which is correct but I went with black-green over dark green since black doesn’t photograph very well. I used Polly Scale USSR Underside Blue, Aeromaster Acrylic Japan Mitsubishi Interior Green, and Polly Scale RLM70 Black-Green. All paints were airbrushed using paper masks enlarged to the correct scale on my scanner and attached with Tombo Mono Multi liquid glue. This glue is perfect for temporary masking, as it is low tack when dry, but has enough tack to allow paper masks to be attached around circular objects (like the fuselage).