Reviews : ICM U-2/Po-2VS Soviet Bomber

This 1/48 scale kit is from a Ukrainian model company called ICM. The pros of this kit are the following: You have four versions you could make and the one I've chosen is the Po-2VS of the 46th Tamansky GvNBAP, Spring 1945 aka ''Night Witches.'' The other three versions are the U-2VS of the 213th NBAD (Night Bomber Air Division), Summer 1943, Po-2VS of the 23rd GvNBAP, Spring 1945, and the Po-2VS of the 2nd Polish NBAP Krakow Lublin area, Summer 1944. The building of the aircraft is about 98% good. I was really excited about this model as it is a really interesting plane with a great deal of history behind it. The cons of this kit are: Not enough views for every version you want to do I had to go online to various blogs for the version I wanted to work on. The decals are the worst thing on this kit One false move and your decal could fold over rip apart. It happened to me when I was trying to do one of the instrument panels; I had to actually paint the instruments white to correct this problem. They're so fragile that it's a bit maddening. I tried to apply the decals to the sides, tail, and wings and it was difficult. The paper that the decals are adhered to is not as good as Revell's or Airfix's decal papers. Their decals are relatively easy to remove from the paper. Fortunately none of the national insignias were ruined However some of the writing and numbers of one side of the aircraft were slightly ruined; so I had to touch them up with some white paint. Overall I give this kit a rating of 4.5 out 5. ICM needs to improve their decal paper to be as user friendly as Revell and Airfix.