Hi AaCee.
for me, the flat inside of the turret is hard to accept. I would grind and rebuild at least this part. The exhaust pipes in one piece with the cowling are hard to accept too. Other things are nice. The landing gear legs don't seem bad at a first glance.
Hi Massimo,
I just a closer look of the kit. I completely agree with you. I'm also thinking that the exhausts might be located a bit too low. I think that relocating them would be possible and also get them looking better. Also the carburetor intakes on both side of engine nacelles are missing.
On the minus side also the rear gunner position is closed from below as well as his upper hatch is closed. This makes conversion to a Pe-3 easier
Despite this I still think that this is a good base for an excellent model but needing either cross-kitting or resin/etched stuff to polish it. Basically this is an engraved Zvezda with less details. It is based on everyone own decision to go with raised detail Zvezda or this one with help from either Zvezda or preferable either UM or Zlinek.
UM seems to have really narrow wing tips, quite rough engraving and at least the long glasshouse canopy top is flat in sideview and section what it shouldn't be. Zlinek is too small but with excellent details.
Anyway, this well be my choice and in all probability in first case for a Pe-3 conversion.
Cheers,
AaCee