Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
PZL P.24
Modelland

 
Kit # Unknown
SCALE 1/72
PARTS 39 vacuformed, one small piece of clear sheet
DECALS three option
REVIEW BY Kristjan Runarsson




Contents
I traded this kit for a copy of a German aviation magazine and I must say I made a good trade. It is probably the best vacform I have ever seen. The kit comes in a bag and consists of:
  • A color printed cardboard profile.
  • A neatly printed instruction leaflet.
  • A single sheet of plastic card with all components molded on it and a vacformed cockpit canopy
  • A small decal sheet.
  • There are no resin or white metal parts and the struts and some items will have to be scratch built since the vacformed items can only be used as guides.
There are no resin or white metal parts and the struts and some items will have to be scratch built since the vacformed items can only be used as guides.

The kit is extremely well done. Surface detail is engraved and is neatly done, the parts them selves are also very crisp and the plastic is not too thin or too brittle and all corners and edges are very sharp and not rounded like on so many other vacforms. The only criticism is that some of the engraved lines have little "bubbles" in them and these bubbles will need to be cleaned out with a scribing tool. The vacform canopy is also a bit hazy but a touch of Future should fix that. Once this kit has been assembled, the engravings scribed clean and the canopy has been dunked in Future a couple of times the result will beat any PZL P.24 or P.11 injection moulded kit I have ever seen. Come to think of it if one lavishes enough work on it this kit could easily outshine a Hasegawa or Fujimi model especially in so far as surface detail is concerned even if one keeps most of the original surface detail. The only real headache is that if one wants to build a cannon armed P.24 one has to vacform the cannon bulges from scratch.


Colors and markings

The decal sheet includes only three choices; all of them for Greek airforce PZL P.24G aircraft.

  1. A newly delivered PZL P.24G serial "Δ116" in natural metal the Greek roundels included with the kit are correct for this aircraft and the serial code looks about right.
  2. The second decal option is P.24G (It was a P.24G despite what it says in the instructions, I have a photo of it and the cannon bulges are missing) "Δ102" which was camouflaged. The serial code and the crab badge are correct but the blue of the roundels should be a darker blue (Tamiya X4 + Light Grey)
  3. This aircraft is P.24G "Δ112" a well known aircraft captured along with "Δ102" and photographed from every angle by Axis forces at Argos airbase in April 1941. Once again the serials and logos are correct but the roundels are far too light.
The wrong colored roundels are easy to fix since Greek roundels are not that hard to find on the aftermarket scene. I would not trust the coloring instructions. According to my Greek friends the Greek AF camouflaged its entire fleet in uniform colors in October 1940 and changed the color of the roundels using a darker blue. Like all other Greek AF aircraft other than the MB.151 and the Potez 633 the Greek P.24's probably painted in the same colors as RAF aircraft of the time, dark green, light earth and light blue. In other words they would not have looked out of place in a lineup with RAF Glassier Gladiators and Hurricanes.

Check out my website for more information. I will upload some profiles and color info on Greek PZL P.24 fighters soon.