The PZL P.24 was a progressive evolution of the Polish PZL P.11 developed as a private venture. Although the Polish Air Force weren't interested - it wasn't significantly better in performance than the serving P.11s - it sold well in the Balkans, being bought by the armed forces of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. This is a Turkish example which served as a frontline fighter from its purchase in 1937 to its replacement by the Fw-190 in 1943, by which time it was thoroughly obsolete.
The excellent kit by IBG of Poland captures the sleek art deco lines of this handsome fighter, especially the trademark Pulaski wing characteristic of PZL fighters. It went together nicely needing almost no filler and although a bit fiddly as a result of the engineering of the real world aircraft, went together well. I have a few more IBG kits in my stash to work on, and if this is an example of their quality of work I'm looking forward to them.
The kit was somewhat let down by the decals, produced by another Polish form, Techmod. They are very rigid, taking a long time to respond to setting solution, and don't conform that well to the complex topography of the PZL. If I do another, I might resort to aftermarket decals or stencils instead. Another equally iffy Polish product was the Montex precut masks which suffered a lot of bleed-under of paint during the spraying process, giving the disappointing result you see here. That's the second time that has happened with a Montex mask, by the way.
So, there we are, a handsome THK fighter of the early war period. It served alongside Curtiss Hawk II biplanes - am I brave enough to add a biplane to the lineup?
