Regarding the MTS 1/48 VEF I-16, I just received my order from Tomas Strakos, without any particular difficulties. He tries to be accommodating, such as in accepting payment by personal check from an American, because he is not able to accept credit cards. The cost was exactly as he said it would be, not like with some other foreign orders which I've made where the buyer ends up owing more by the time the order arrives.

The model comes in a box, not a bag, which I liked. The artwork on the box is black & white, (he includes a full-sheet color picture of the aircraft in its Luftwaffe markings, I suppose for painting info even though the basic colors are explained on the instruction sheet; I'm not sure whether the picture is a computer scanned printout or a photocopy, but it is certainly of sufficiently good quality).

The model is resin, not injection molded. Realistically, I should have known this from the price. At $32USD it would have been a very expensive injection molded model, but strikes me as being normally priced for a resin 1/48th scale model of such a rare aircraft. I didn't find the material mentioned on his website http://www.mts-modely.cz 

The fuselage halves and other major parts are sufficiently crisp in detail and without flash. The clear cockpit canopy seems clear enough. The small parts are good enough. Tiny parts such as the instrument panel, belts, etc., are all in one etched brass sheet. Decals are included for the I-16 only in its very short-lived Luftwaffe appearance, after it was taken over by the Germans from the Soviets who had just taken it over from the Latvians a year earlier (it is unknown whether it ever wore Soviet markings; its Latvian markings are shown in Karlis Irbitis' [the designer] book OF STRUGGLE AND FLIGHT). The Luftwaffe markings of course will probably appeal to the greatest number of model purchasers; also MTS may not have had access to the Irbitis photos of the I-16 in its original Latvian colors. The instruction sheet is adequate, and a very short history of the aircraft is also included.