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PZL P.24F & P.24G

 

Mirage Hobby, 1/48

S u m m a r y

Catalogue Number: 48108
Scale: 1/48
Contents and Media: Injected styrene, resin, photo-etch & acetate film
Price: USD$24.97 from Squadron.com
Review Type: First Look and Comparison to the Mirage Hobby PZL P.11c
Advantages: Dimensionally accurate, well detailed, excellent surface details, resin and photo-etched parts included; 5 interesting versions used by many small air forces, no serious fit problems evident, very nice markings options, high quality decals
Disadvantages: Some flash
Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 

Reviewed by Mike Dobrzelecki


Mirage Hobby's 1/48 scale PZL P.24G is available online from Squadron.com
 

Background

 

Even before the PZL P.11c fighter entered squadron service in 1933, the Polish Air Force was already looking into its replacement. In the five to six years that followed several more-modern fighter designs were proposed, but only one was completed in prototype form, the low cantilever wing retracting gear-equipped Seversky-like PZL P.50 Jazstrab ( Hawk), and none entered into series production. Internal Polish politics and Poland's limited military budget certainly played major roles in this sad story, but the restrictions that Bristol put on sales of airframes, which were powered by their license-built engines, also tied PZL's, (Panstowe Zaklady Lotnicze - or National Aviation Works) hands. PZL, to their credit, got around the restriction by designing an improved gull-winged fighter that would be capable of handling a variety of radial engines, either already available, or soon to be available. Export sales would not only keep the company afloat, but bankroll the next generation of fighters for the Polish Air Force; at least that was the plan. During the 1930's the Polish government was somewhat succesful in upgrading their armor force using a similar, but slightly modified scheme. They sold their ancient French Renault FT-17 tanks to Spain for much more than they were worth and funded the purchase of the excellent ( for its time) 7TP tank, which was based on the British Vickers 6 ton design. If you see an FT-17 in service during the Spanish Civil War ( either side ), it's a good chance that it was an Ex-Polish machine.

After PZL's chief designer, Zygmunt Pulawski was killed in an air crash in 1933, Wsiewolod Jan Jakimiuk took over the task and shortly thereafter came up with the P.24 improved design, which first flew in May 1933. The P.24 was among the first fighters to mount 20mm cannons. Other improvements included an enclosed glass-canopied cockpit ( the early prototypes still had the P.11 style open cockpit ) and more powerful engines, such as the Gnome Rhone 14N 14 cylinder radial engine. The second prototype, the P.24/II, flown by Boselaw Orlinski, set a world speed record for radial-engined fighters at 414 kph on June 28 1934. Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania all purchased P.24's, which came in a choice of armament - two 20mm cannon and two 7.9mm mg's or four 7.9mm mg's. Unlike the P.11c, all armament on the production models was wing-mounted - only some of the prototypes had fuselage guns, mounted on top of the fuselage with the butts protruding into the cockpit under the windscreen, not in the sides, as on a P11.c. The P.24 still featured fixed gear, but that was not seen as much of a drawback to foreign customers in the mid-1930's. The wings, tail group and much of the fuselage was the same as on the P.11c.

As the 1930's unfolded Polish pilots watched with some envy as their government exported improved P.24's to foreign customers, while they soldiered on with their less capable P.11c's, which were getting worn-out, as well as, obsolete by the end of that decade. P.24's were produced and sold in the following variants:

  • P.24A - 14 sold to Turkey with another batch produced under license. Turkish P.24's had Gnome Rhone 14kfs radials and carried and armament of 2 x 7.92mm Browning mg's and 2 x 20mm Oerlikon FF cannon and 4 x 12.5kg bombs

  • P.24B - 12 sold to Bulgaria equipped with the Gnome Rhone 14kfs radials and 4 x 7.92mm browning mg's and 4 x 12.5 kg bombs

  • P.24C - 26 sold to Turkey bombs were limited to 2 x 12.5 kg.

  • P.24E - 6 sold to Romania with another batch built under license with the Gnome Rhone 886hp or 926hp KIIIc36 radial and 4 x 7.92mm Browning mg's and 2 or 4 x 12.5 kg bombs and, unlike the other P.24 variants, was equipped with a two-bladed prop, rather than a three-bladed prop

  • P.24F - 7 sold to Greece equipped with a 938hp Gnome Rhone 14N-07 radial complete with spinner and 2 x 20mm Oerlikon FF cannon and 2 x 7.92mm mg's and either 4 x 12.5 kg bombs or 2 x 50kg bombs

  • P.24G - 24 sold to Greece equipped with a 938hp Gnome Rhone 14N-07 radial complete with spinner and 2 x 20mm Oerlikon cannon and 2 x 7.92mm mg's and either 4 x 12.5 kg bombs or 2 x 50kg bombs

As events grew more ominous in Europe and the P.50 ran into development delays, desperate measures were taken by the Poles to fill the void with a stop-gap program, from which was born the P.11g "Kobuz". Although designated as part of the P.11 series, the "Kobuz" was really more a P.24 upgraded with the very powerful twin-row Mercury VIII radial engine from the P.50. Reports differ on its fit, but it most likely featured an enclosed cockpit, cowl from the P.50, 4 x 7.92mm mg's ( some say all 4 mg's were in the wings, others, two in the wings and two in the fuselage sides, as in a P.11c) and, possibly, spatted wheels. There are reports that the Kobuz prototype was flown in combat and obtained two kills over He-111's. There are also reports from Luftwaffe pilots encountering P.24's in combat in September 1939, but they were most likely misidentified P.11c's. Even the Luftwaffe could not believe that the Poles would sell more modern fighters to other countries leaving the lesser capable ones for their own air force - sad, but true.

See the Feature article on the PZL P.24 by Lukasz Kedzierski here on Hyperscale for additional information on Greek P.24's.

 

FirstLook



P.24 Kit Versions

The first two P.24s released are both Royal Hellenic Air Force examples:

  1. Kit No. 48-107 - PZL P.24F with 2 x 20mm Oerlikon FF cannon and 2 x 7.92mm mg's, with two Greek Air Force markings choices : The first is "Black D106" ( The Letter 'D' is rendered as a triangle for the Greek alphabet 'D', as in, 'D' for 'Delta'), from 22 Mira Dioxe ( Fighting Squadron), Great Mikra Airfield, Thessalonika, September 1940, camouflaged in green and brown upper surfaces and light blue lower surfaces and fitted with spats. The second is "Black D129" from the same squadron, but with the spats removed.

  2. Kit No. 48-108 - PZL P.24G with 4 x 7.92mm mg's, with four Greek Air Force markings choices; the first two, both natural metal finish P.24's as first received from Poland in 1937 at Eleusis Airfield, Athens Greece with a choice of 'Black D115' or 'Black D116' numbers, fitted with spats. The third is a brown, green and light blue camouflaged 'White D112' and the last, arguably the best known Greek P.24, a brown, green and light blue camouflaged 'Black D102' with the spiffy red spider on the portside fuselage below the windscreen, reportedly flown by G.Laskaris. This aircraft was later captured by the Germans at Argos Airfiled in April 1941. The camouflaged versions properly show no spats fitted.

Three other versions are planned:

  1. Kit No.48-104 - PZL P.24B Bulgarian Air Force 'White 11' on the fuselage and 'White 2 on the fin, with a striking sporty scheme of dark green upper surfaces with dark red cowl and tapering band on the fuselage and dark red flashes on the spats and light blue under surfaces.

  2. Kit No.48-105 - PZL P.24A/C Turkish Air Force in a natural metal scheme with spats and the white outlined red squares of the Turkish Air Force and red rudder complete with a small white crescent and and star.

  3. Kit No. 48-106 - PZL P.24E Romanian (or 'Rumanian' as spelled on the box) 'White 6', camouflaged in green and brown upper surfaces and light blue lower surfaces with yellow cowl, fuselage band and wing tips. No spats are fitted.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:


The question that may be raised by some modelers is, "Why did Mirage release two Greek versions at once, rather than mix up the versions up a bit ?" One can only speculate that Mirage Hobby's marketing research indicated that they would be the versions with the highest potential sales, given the colorful combat career of the Royal Hellenic Air Forces P.24's.

Regarding Kit Nos. 48-105, 106 and 107, I can only indicate the color schemes and markings on the box tops advertised and do not know what, if any, alternate markings will be included with the other three kits. Knowing Mirage Hobby, I'm sure they'll be some choices in the boxes. I eagerly await the PZL P.24B, not only for its colorful Bulgarian markings, but also, because with minor modifications, could be finished in a my favorite Polish prototype scheme for the "B' model, sometimes refered to as the P.24/IV, with its olive green upper surfaces and light blue lower surfaces and the racy light blue tapering 'flash' along the fuselage and the spats, similar to the Bulgarian paint scheme - just a different color combo. The Romanian paint scheme is also very colorful and ranks as my second favorite.



Contents and Accuracy

By my rough count, including PE parts that have multiples, the P.24F kit includes 63 injected plastic parts, 2 Clear parts, 4 resin ( 2 radiators and 2 manifolded exhuasts) and 36 Photo-etched parts - proving once again what a bargain Mirage Hobby kits are in comparison to other manufacturers - all this for US $24.97 retail. In the P.24G kit the styrene parts are mounted on three sprues of gray styrene ( only 57 parts) and a fourth is included with the P.24F kit covering the 20mm Oerlikon FF cannon pods and their accompanying shorter wing support struts ( the struts go right through the pod casings). The 20mm's were one of the selling points of the PZL export sales brochures, but, in both protoype testing and service, the cannons proved troublesome. During the test phase one prototype's cannon pod exploded, which unfortunately was witnessed by some export customers. Not skipping a beat, the PZL sales force pointed out how strong the Pulawski wing was to withstand such an explosion without any damage from a "Swedish" ( read - non-Polish gun) ! Nice spin there, Pezetel. In service, most of the P.24F's had their 20mm's removed and they were rearmed with 4 x 7.92mm mg's - another note to be careful about when building the F model. "Black D129' was one exception to this rule, retaining its 20mm's into 1941.

 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:


The overall finish is the same as on the Mirage P.11c kit. The corrugated wing, tail and fin surfaces are finely executed. The panel lines are almost all engraved with some raised detail such as the step kickplates, which are best sanded off and replaced with the photo-etched parts. The fuselage skin is slightly grainy. The kit does have a bit of flash on some of the injected parts. The P.24's share a problem with the P.11c kit, namely the cooling vents in the fuselage and top of wing not being well defined. They should be crisper and deeper. I made a comment in my in-box review of the P.11c that the ribs on the under surfaces of the wing were a bit to pronounced for my tastes at the time. I found that, after painting, they are less prominent than feared - the same corrected comment applies to the P.24's.

In measuring the kit parts the wings spans out to a scale 35 feet, 1 1/2 inches. The dimensions in the old Profile publication lists it as 35 feet 3/4 inches. The drawings in Andrzej Glass's monograph on the P.24 measures out to 35 feet 1 inch. The Marek Ryk drawings in the Ace publication on the P.24 scale out to exactly 36 feet by my 'Murphy's Ruler'. Although it's not really possible to comment on the kit's length against the drawings, since I have not yet built the model, in matching the kit fuselage profile to the drawings in the Glass reference, the diameter of the front fuselage around the back row of cooling vents the kit appears to be smaller by about 1-2mm in diameter.The leading edge of the back cockpit opening is short by about 1-2 mm. I mention these findings merely as an academic exercise to illustrate a point that modelers often reference drawings noting minute discrepancies with kits, but often they never consider the question as to whether the drawings are accurate. Indeed, the drawings in the two sources I referenced don't agree. In the final analysis, the Mirage kit's major dimensions are more than close enough for me.



Engineering and Comparison to Mirage P.11c

Mirage continued the wise policy from their P.11c of molding the top wing in one piece for the P.24. It also has the triangular nub on the bottom front of the centerline of the top wing to facilitate mating it to the fuselage. To have some fun I placed the main parts of the P.11c and P.24 kits side-by-side. I was curious to see what new revelations in the evolution of the Pulawski design would come to light in the process.

 

 

The wings are virtually the same, except for the center section and the navigation lights on the P.24 kit, which, appropriately, are not on the P.11c kit. Mirage cheated just a tiny bit ( and saved a ton of money) by using the same sprue that comes in the P.11c kit that contains the lower wings, tail planes, wheels, gear struts and miscellaneous interior and exterior parts for both kits.That also explains the 4 shell ejection fairings that were included in the P.11c kit. In turn, the top wing of the P.24 has the nav lights on the leading edge of the wing tips, but modelers will have to flesh them out on the bottom wings. The center section of the P.24 top wing mold is modified to accept the new windscreen and enclosed canopy. Separating the wing tips from the sprues may result in some repairs in that area - caution is recommended here. The locations of the wing struts, shell ejection fairings and bomb racks on the underside of thw wings are clearly marked as smooth areas on the corrugated surface.

 



I continued the evolution comparison exercise in taping one fuselage half from each kit together - portside P.11c and starboard side P.24. I reasoned that, since the tail surfaces changed the least, using the presumed match in that area for the hypothesis of the equation would be most logical. As evident in the photos, even the panel lines start departing on the two kits pretty quickly forward of the vertical fin.

 

 

Viewed from the bottom the P.24 fuselage is slightly longer and the location of the jettisonable fuel tank is more forward than on a P.11c, as are the strut and gear locating holes. The top match-up view reveals the changes from the open cockpit P.11c to the enclosed cockpit P.24, the different wing locations and disimilar cooling vent configurations. Although the harsh shadows in the photo obscure the length difference, the side profile match-up reveals the fuller depth of the spine fairing for the enclosed canopy of the P.24 and, once again, the different shape of the cockpit openings. The wing strut fairings on the fuselage are very different on the P.24 than the P.11c. They were missing completely from the P.11c kit.

 

 

My 'Frankenstein modeling' exercise completed, I dry-fitted the two P.24 fuselage halves together and they appeared to be a good fit, unlike the P.11c kit where I had to cut off locating pins. The jettisonable fuel tank oval outline must be rescribed, as there is a noticeable gap on the 'Real McCoy'. One or two mismatched panel lines on the bottom of the forward P.24 fuselage will have to be rescribed. In rereading my own review here on Hyperscale for the Mirage Hobby P.11c kit, I realised that the instruction sheet on the P.24 did not have the note on leaving the gap between the horizontal tail plane and the fuselage. That's because the horizontal tail plane was a flush tight fit on the P.24 with no gap whatsoever - just one more subtle aerodynamic refinement in the evolution of the P.11 to P.24. This was clear in photos of production P.24's and the kit faithfully replicates this feature - so fill any minor gaps that occurs and watch out that you do not obliterate the corrugations in the process of smoothing out the joints. The cooling vents on the P.24 kit forward fuselage sing out in perfect harmony with those on the P.11c kit for drilling out and deepening.

Dry-fitting the top wing/bottom wing assembly to the taped-together fuselage halves reveals no particular problem, although it's not a lock-tight fit. This is not such a drawback, as it allows wiggle-room for adjusting the incidence and trueness in plan view. The join between the trailing edge of the center of the wing top and the top of the fuselage trough it fits into will require filling and sanding, especially on the top of the fuselage ahead of the windscreen. Some minor filling of the bottom wing to the fuselage sides may be required, but nothing out of the ordinary from normal modeling. A deft hand with filler or Mr.Surfacer and you may not even need sand paper. Happily, the fit of the windscreen and canopy to the fuselage is as tight as a virgin - no spreader bar required here. The clear parts are thin and just have a tiny bit of distortion on the bottom quarter panels of the windscreen.

The cowling is molded to scale and very thin. Care should be taken in assembling it by joining either the top or bottom first, letting it set, then joining the other surface. The Gnome Rhone twin row 14 cylinder radial is rather 'soft' in appearance and I will be looking for a resin replacement, although, truth be told, not much will be visible after installing the conical engine fairing. The cooling slots in the conical fairing are not very defined and would benefit from opening them up. There is flash on the prop and spinner halves that needs attention before they can be joined together. The whole assembly should be sanded to blend it into a smooth conical shape. The fact that the parts mentioned in this paragraph up this point are on a separate sprue reveals Mirage's plan for molding the other kits, which have different shapes for the P.24A,B,C and E models. Mirage Hobby includes the cowl reinforcing struts, both fore and aft, but they are very heavy and should be replaced with thinner wire stock in my opinion.

I have not dry-fitted the wing struts on either kit and thus cannot comment on their accuracy and length for either the P.24F with the 20mm pods or the P.24G sans 20mm pods. The carburator intake, part number 6 has a knock-out pin mark in the intake, which will have to reamed out anyway and could be improved with installation of an inatke screen of some sort. The other smaller parts are generally nice right of the box with some showing just a bit of of flash. It will be up to the individual modeler how far he wants to go to improve the kit parts.



Interior, Photoetched and Resin Parts

As with the P.11c kit, Mirage provides enough plastic, photoetch and instrument panel film to produce a very nicely detailed cockpit right out of the box. The same annoying nub on the dished section of the injected cockpit floor is carried over from the P.11c. One noticebale difference on the P.24 kit is the absence of the sections of interior box structure that came with the P.11c kit. In checking my references, it appears that yet another refinement of the Pulawski design occurred in opening up the interior to provide a more roomy cockpit for the pilot. A photo on page 48 of the Andrzej Glass Monograph on the P.24 appears showing how the box structure of the forward fuselage was truncated for this new design. The P.24 kit fuselage has some shallow interior structure - formers and stringers - molded onto it. Added in the P.24 kit is an photoetch trim wheel to be mounted on an injected rod with bumpers on it, the whole of which is installed below the seat.

 



The photoetch provided in the kit is mostly for the interior, with the rest of the items allowing for very detailed bomb racks for the wings, circular fuselage inspection panels, the strap holding the jettisonable fuel tank, airleron hinges, two different gun sights, and other miscellaneous parts. The photoetch for the gear strut spring rods may have to be replaced, as they did not last long while handling my P.11c model.
The photoetch instrumnet panel and acetate film instruments really look great. I hope they fit easily into the interior. It's a safe bet that PART will be releasing their own version of a photoetch sheet for the Mirage Hobby P.24 family of kits. I definitely want a set of photoetch radiators

The manifolded exhaust pipes will require major clean up of the resin molds. They are very delicate, so be careful when handling and working them. The opening of the exhaust ports are nicely rendered. The other resin parts cover the radiators, which are better replaced with photoetch radiators when they become available. Noticeably absent are any resin bombs in either kit. That's a pity, since the Mirage Hobby 12.5 kg bombs in the kit number 48-102 issue of the P.11c kit are exquisite. Some models of the P.24 were capable of carrying heavier 50kg bombs and I would have liked to see them included. I wonder what the bombs looked like that the Greeks used, if any.



Instructions

As with their P.11c kits, Mirage Hobby once again has provided an instruction sheet that is a cut above most companies in terms of research, historical information and specific instructions as to the armament and fit of each aircraft depicted on the decal sheet. The language choices appropriately enough include Greek in addition to the expected Polish and English text. I hate to repeat myself, but modelers are well advised to study the instruction sheet thoroughly before embarking on cutting parts off the trees and plunging ahead with either a dry fit, or build.

For both kits, notes appear warning the modeler to gently remove the raised plastic in the area where the photo-etch bomb racks are mounted. They also suggest leaving off the pitot tube until after decal application. Missing is a similar warning on the photo-etch bomb racks - a bitter lesson Ilearned on the P.11c kit, but which would only apply, if there are decals in the area of the racks. The manifolded exhausts are to be installed somewhat assymetrically from left to right side lining up with the appropriate Gnome Rhone cylinders, I suppose. There's a note on the P.24F instructions refering you to the "Suggested Reading" bibliography to acquaint the modeler on the details of the assymetrical configuration of the exhausts - something I'll have to study, myself. This list is missing from the P.24G instructions for some reason. The bibliography is listed at the end of this review with a couple of additions of my own.

Another cautionary note covers application of decals over corrugated surfaces. That goes double for the ribs on the wings' undersurfaces.

On the P.24F kit, mention is made that, although the spats are shown in the side profile on 'Black D106', they were removed during service. Curiously, on the P.24G kit details of the camouflage and markings are only provided for two out of the four schemes on the instruction sheet the modeler being left to deduce that 'Black D115' can be finished in natural metal like 'Black D116'. Luckily, the box art for 'Black D102' on the backside of the kit box provides information needed for that scheme. The instruction sheet also mentions that "White D112" probably carried a three tone scheme. Although the instruction sheet shows only two upper surface colors, I take the note to mean that some sources indicate 3 upper surface colors, as shown in the English Profile No.170 on the P.24 by J.Cynk.

Paint colors are called out in Polish and English and references are made to both Humbrol and Vallejo paints, the latter inclusion showing the inroads this acrylic paint company has made in the hobby during the past few years. For natural metal P.24's the front face of the prop blades are natural metal also, with the backsides painted in black to reduce glare. For camouflaged birds paint both sides black with the tips picked out in the usual yellow.

Credit is given where due to A.Glass, Verras Stauros, Papadimitriou George and Costas Kalfakis, the latter 3 from IPMS Greece (that's IPMS, not IMPS !) and the former, the all-around noted Polish aviation historian.


 

Decals

The Mirage Hobby P.24 kit decals are prodcued by Techmod and are well-printed, in register and the colors are very vibrant. The Techmod decals in the P.11c kit I built were thin, yet opaque. Of course, they were installed on the monotone surfaces of the P.11c and I can not comment how opaque they will appear on a two-tone upper surface camouflage scheme of the P.24. I had to float the P.11c decals on with alot of Microset, since they tended to stay where first located. They responded nicely to Micro Sol setting solution and snuggled down perfectly. I expect that the P.24 decals will act the same. The markings choices were covered earlier in this review, but mention should be made about the Greek roundels, which the instruction sheet for the P.24G kit indicates that, on camouflaged machines in the beginning, the large diameter roundels were present on the upper and lower wings, close to the tips and outside of the wing strut locations. During later service, especially in wartime, the roundels were overpainted in green or dark earth on the upper surfaces and light blue on the lower surfaces. In some cases the lower wing roundels were overpainted with broad blue bands which also served as a ready identification guide for Greek anti-aircraft units - the kit example being 'White D112'.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:


Small bonuses on both decal sheets include logos for the prop blades. The P.24G kit sheet also has a weight data stencil, the PZL factory symbol and P.24 type designator for the fin. These are not present on the P.24F sheet. Once again - a reminder is necesary to install any decals in the location of the bomb racks first BEFORE installation of the photoetch bomb racks, themselves. I suppose that there is still room for after-market decal sheets, although it appears that Mirage Hobby pretty much has most of the field covered with the five kit issues they have planned.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Mirage Hobby's series of P.24 kits will provide quarter scale modelers with many hours of enjoyment, especially considering the colorful markings choices. I would venture a guess to say that Royal Hellenic Air Force fans, especially in Greece, are chomping at the bit to get this kit and build it. It is vastly superior to the cottage industry Warrior kit of the P.24 which was based on the LTD P.11c. I could also see conversion possibilities of kit-bashing an early open cockpit P.24 prototype using parts from the Broplan P.11a.

Critics and hobby pundits needing affirmation in their lives will point out that Mirage's P.24's, like their P.11c brethren, are not Tamigawa shake 'n bake kits. My rebuttal to that is; In a sea of Tamiya P-51's and P-47's on a contest table, contestants and convention visitors alike will be drawn to a well-built Mirage Hobby P.24 kit. It only requires the usual modeling skills to turn it into a masterpiece. My P.11c has managed to beat out competition in the form of Tamigawa models at several IPMS shows and that's just out-of-the box and I humbly submit that I am far from being the best modeler around, so it must be the basis from which I started - the Mirage kit, itself, that deserves a good share of the honors. Other modeler's builds of the Mirage Hobby P.11c have appeared on the internet far surpassing the job I did on my 121 Eskadra bird, so I am not alone in that opinion. I'm sure that built-up P.24's will begin popping up on the internet shortly.

Last year I visited my ancestral homeland for the first time to take part in the 85th Anniversary celebration of the Polish Air Force. I was honored with an invitation from the Polish Air Force Veterans Association in America to these festivities in gratitude for the various museum exhibits I have supervised over the 15 years in homage to Polish vets for institutions, such as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in Manhattan and the Museum of Polish Military Heritage, also located in the Big Apple. For me it was a trip of a lifetime - VIP tours to museums, seeing the Polish Air Force vets from WWII that I have not seen since the last worldwide PAFVA reunion I attended in 1994 when it was held in New Jersey, meeting Polish aviation historians for the first time, including Jerzy Cynk, that I have corresponded with for years, concerts and banquets complete with great food and lots and lots of alcoholic beverages.

During the week long celebration, I managed squeeze in a tour to Mirage Hobby's offices in Warsaw. Wojciech Bulhak graciously showed me around the facility and gave me a peek at the box art for the P.24 kits, as well as the CAD drawings for the PZL P.23 Karas kit parts due out in several months from now. The Karas kits are going to be really something from what I have seen on the PC screen.

After the reunion was over, I took a train down to Krakow, from which my grandfather on my mother's side emigrated. In addition to the 14th century delights of Krakow's architecture, I made my Mecca to the Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego (Polish Aviation Museum, which is only 10-15 minutes outside of the city center. The museum is located on the former pre-war Krakow-Rakowice airbase of the 2nd Air Regiment, home to 121 Eskadra - the Winged Arrows - Wladek Gnys's old base. I spent a few hours in the morning going over a selection of aviation photos and original documents I have collected over the years with the museum staff and presented them with a copy of those items for their archives. They, in turn, let me have access to the aircraft not normally granted to aviation historians, let alone the casual museum visitor. Attached to this review are a couple of bonus shots, including a very happy Mike D sitting in the cockpit of the sole remaining PZL P.11c.

 

Suggested References

 

  • PZL P.24 Monograph, by Andrzej Glass, Wydawnictwo Militaria, 1994 ( same format as a Squadron Publications In Action book )

  • PZL P.24, Series 'Pod Lupa' No.15, Ace Publications 2002

  • Profile Publications No. 170, The PZL P.24 , by Jerzy Cynk, 1967

  • Samoloty Wojskowe W Polsce 1924-1939, by Andrzej Morgala, Bellona 2003

  • Dragon Hobby 4/199 - "PZL P.24 w Turcji", by Andrzej Glass, Mirage Hobby 1999

  • Hellenic Wings Vol.1 1908-1944

  • Bullletin IPMS Elliados 1/1999

There is also a new Kagero Publication just recently released


Review and Images Copyright © 2004 by Mike Dobrzelecki
Page Created 21 April, 2004
Last updated 12 August, 2004

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