Hey Aaron, good to see you take the plunge - and that's a good inexpensive old mule of a kit to practice some techniques on.
That Smer kit is a re-pressing of the old Merit (J&L Randall) Albatros kit dating from the 1950s -which was itself a copy of the Aurora kit of similar vintage. Back then these kits had raised embossed lines in the plastic representing markings, over which you were supposed to stick the decals. When the moulds were acquired variously by Artiplast, Monogram and Smer most of the raised markings were removed - but obviously the tail serials are still on yours and should be sanded off.
Given its vintage the kit isn't bad but very inaccurate in outline and lacking detail - but I reckon that makes it a good testbed for learning on. Once you've cut your teeth on this one, you might have a look at an Eduard Albatros (also fairly inexpensive, but miles better).
Most of us started off with kits exactly like this, so you're following the 'classic' route into the hobby!
I hope you get lots of enjoyment and there are lots of friendly people here if you need advice, encouragement, assistance, etc.
Good modelling
Sandy
