One of the first production fighters to feature a retractable undercarriage, and perhaps the first biplane fighter so equipped, about 200 DI-6s were built from 1935 onwards, and the type saw action over Manchuria and early in WW2. Mind you, Iím sure most readers will never have heard of the type, or seen pictures of it! Itís only recently featured in English-language books on Soviet aircraft, and details are still rather sketchy. Photos seem to be VERY rare, and Iíve yet to see one of an aircraft in service.
No matter, we now have a kit of the type. This is a typical A Model product, rather crude and with plenty of flash, but with all the basics to make a perfectly decent model. Surface detail is surprisingly refined, wing and tailplane trailing edges are commendably thin, and for a biplane it looks easy to build. That's fortunate, as the instructions are basic (just a couple of exploded diagrams). The weakest part of the kit is the canopy over the gunnerís position. It's thick, crude and opaque, so is perhaps best used as a mould for a home-made replacement.
Decals are supplied for three aircraft, differing only in the style of red star and the tail numbers - all are in green/blue camouflage. The prototype would make an interesting alternative, finished in overall light grey with extensive red trim. The kit comes complete with the twin-gun underwing pods applied later in the DI-6's service career, when its limitations as a fighter led to it being reassigned to ground-attack units. The instructions show all three a/c with these pods, but Iíve no idea if that is correct. Likewise it is hard to comment on its accuracy, as I have very little hard data to judge it by, and certainly nothing approaching a scale drawing. (The photo comes from the highly-recommended 'Russian Aircraft Museum' on the Web -
http://hep2.physics.arizona.edu/~savin/ram/)
If you are in to obscure Soviet aircraft, or '30s biplanes, or just like interesting kits, then give this one a try. A Model are producing a fine range of interesting (to me, anyway!) Soviet aircraft kits, and like this one most of the new arrivals are at the better end of the A Model quality scale.

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