I bought this one because both the model and the subject are a little out of the ordinary. The aircraft depicted is the Cessna 172 flown by the young West German pilot Mathias Rust, who in May 1987 — on Soviet Border Guards Day, of all days — landed on a bridge near Red Square in Moscow after an unauthorised solo flight from Helsinki. The incident caused significant embarrassment to the Soviet military and led to a major shake-up of the air defence command.

The kit was originally released by ESCI in 1981 and later reboxed by Italeri with the Rust-specific markings, and its age shows. Detail is limited and getting a decent result out of it takes some effort. I'll also admit that I think I've improved as a modeller since this one was built.