The P24 is an export version of the Polish gull wing fighters, using the
French Gnome-Rhone engine, (rather than a British, like the P11).





Further changes to the predecessor included some minor changes in the fuselage
layout, different armament, wheel fairings and (mostly) a closed cockpit.





Just prior to WWII Poland exported or licensed this plane to a number of
countries, namely Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, making this
probably the most famous aircraft of the whole family.




The model depicts one of the the first batch of five airplanes built by
PZL in Poland for the Turkish Air Force in 1936.

The Kit:

Polish Mirage-Hobby 1/48th injection plastic kit, one of their series of P24s.
Three sprues, some resin and a small photo-etched fret. The photo-etched cockpit
produced nice results, and the corrugated metal skin comes out quote well, too.
The decals are rather thick, and took a lot of MicroSol, but finally they set
more or less satisfactorily. Due to the corrugation this is of obvious significance.
Unfortunately, the adherence to Alclad was poor, so I stripped a decal by accidently
touching with adhesive tape. Decided to paint all markings, afterwards.





The kit is built practically out of the box, with some tiny scratch-built bits added
here and there. Biggest hassle was the fit of the resin exhaus manifold, which had
to be practically re-built. Also the canopy had some slight fit problems, also, it
was not provided in the half-open version, as required for the model, so some
modification was necessary. Kindly, the canopy masks are provided. The whole kit got
a treatment with Mr. Surfacer, Alclad black gloss primer and finally, Alclad II Lacquer.




Why this airplane: I very much like the shapes of the golden age of flight,and
Pulawski's gull-wing fighters were one of the last avatars of the age of romantic
flying. The plane just captivated me, and I think a P11 will also follow one day.

- And what bit me to finish this model in the plain Turkish silver, with all the fancy Bulgarian paintings available around? Well, I just like the smell of Alclad in the morning ;-) Again - I adore the shape and I just believe, that it comes out best in natural metal. Also, I think it goes nicely with the intensive red of the tail and markings.
In the progress of building I came up with a good method of producing semi-spherical position lights. I took some scraps of colored clear styrene, put them on a piece of aluminum foil, and carefuly heated over a candle. The cohesion of the liquid plastic vs. gravity produced a nice half-bead. It takes a few tries to get the proper size, but it's just a matter of few seconds to create one.
	As the plane was brand new, the manifold was painted in annealing colors of fresh hot metal, rather rust.

All pictures copyright Jaroslaw Kierat. No commercial use without author's permission.