The Avia kit is an interesting one. Whoever mastered it clearly liked the subject and went to a lot of trouble on some small details, yet it borders on appearing very rough in places. This is largely due to the varying tone of white, grey and brownish plastic that it is moulded in, with swirls of colour running through some parts. I was left with the distinct impression that it was made from recycled plastic!  However, closer inspection of parts shows that they can be cleaned up quite easily. The biggest job I had was filling in some exaggerated sagging fabric effect between the wing ribs. I have read that these were in fact plywood covered, so I left no rib effect at all on mine.

Where the kit shines is the number of decal options it provides. I have lost my instructions since building mine, but I seem to recall 16 choices, but it was certainly around a dozen at least. The instructions provided copies of several wartime photos illustrating some of the subjects covered by the decal sheet, but these suffered from appearing to be a poor photocopy of a copy, of a copy, and so on… This combined with a very flimsy cheap cardboard box strongly suggest that this kit was developed fairly early in the Eastern European kit renaissance. But please don’t be put of by these observations, fundamentally the kit is very good, needing only a bit of easy filling, and some trimming and tidying up. The decals are excellent in all respects. I have seen the kit offered by Maquette, eastern Express and no doubt some other companies have offered it too. It’s cheap and well worth buying.