The An-2 'Colt' has to rank right up there with the most ungainly airplanes ever built, but at least it isn't pretty to look at. All kidding aside, the An-2 is a throwback to a bygone era, with it being the only biplane I can think of in current military service, at least as of 1995. This brutish biplane has been the hack plane for many countries of the former Eastern bloc, and these days you can even find them in the United States being used for various purposes.

It has been a long time waiting for a manufacturer to come out with a kit of this plane, but finally Bilek has come to the rescue with this wonderful kit. Molded in a dark gray plastic, this kit features crisp molding and recessed panel lines, with only a small amount of flash. The decal sheet features decals for no less than five variants, with a Polish, an East German, a Russian, and two Czechoslovakian options.

The detailing of the interior is a relief to see after the scores of decal interiors (a'la Hasegawa). The instrument panel is in two pieces and has the instruments detailed out with recessed lines. The bulkhead and cockpit floor are also very well done. The seats, however, look somewhat basic, but since I lack sources on this plane, I'll reserve judgement on the accuracy of those. They do suffer from some rather serious ejector pin marks, though, and those will be tough to remove. The stabilizers also have some very pronounced ejector pin marks, with part of the mark running over the elevator hinge line, and fixing those will most likely result in the obliteration of the very fine fabric and rib detail present on the rest of the part.

The radial engine is adequately detailed, but could probably benefit from being replaced with a resin one. The exhaust stubs are very nice, though, and will look really good painted up. One interesting feature is the complete lack of mounting pegs and holes for all the various aerials. Instead, measurements are given from the front of the fuselage (minus the cowling) back, in millimeters. It's a different way that will take some getting used to, but at least this way you don't have a bunch of oversized holes to fill in. Using the same idea, all of the rigging is given in measured out values, which should make rigging fairly easy, unless you glued the kit together slightly off. At any rate, there is very little rigging to do, so whatever your favorite method is, it will go quickly.

In looking at this kit overall, it is a very nicely done job.
The shortcomings are really nothing that a little modeling won't overcome, and when you are finished, you will have a neat kit to stick next to your Hobbycraft Otter (it even looks like an Otter, sort of....)