PZL P.24B
Fighter in Bulgarian Service

IBG, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

IBG has long been associated with lovely 1/72 scale AFVs and softskin military vehicles which contained great detail and fine levels of moulding quality. Most of these and more have been released in 1/35 as well to provide modellers with a cornucopia of choices. In the last couple of years they have branched out into aircraft in the ‘one true scale’, their catalogue is filling up with a range of aircraft, principally of Central European origin. This kit is one of these and had its origins in the PZL.11 series. 

The PZL P.24 was developed from this aircraft and in fact uses the wings and tail empennage from the earlier design. The newer, more powerful engine for the export versions of the P.24 meant that armament had to be placed in the wings rather than the fuselage. It was used by Rumania, Turkey and Greece as well as in this kit’s version, Bulgaria. Its use extended until 1944 despite its antiquated appearance and performance. Bulgaria had twelve of them, named ‘Yastreb’ or ‘Hawk’.

The kit is the fourth version available and comes in IBG’s strong top-opening box with a nice illustration of number ‘5’ from rear three-quarters. Inside are eleven mid-grey sprues of various sizes, one transparent sprue, a pair of PE frets, a decal sheet, a piece of pre-marked clear film and a twelve-page A4 instruction booklet containing a parts map, paint table, 13 construction steps and 4-view colour drawings of the three decal choices.

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Thumbnail panels:

The large number of sprues presumably allows for the different variants covered by the four kits on offer.

The parts themselves are crisply moulded with no flash and minimal seams to be cleaned up. Sprue gates are small, although care will be needed removing struts and then cleaning them up.

Surface detail is fine and seemingly in scale with some interior structure on the insides of the fuselage halves.

The PE fret provides for a lot of interior details such as belts, levers, as well as wiring loom and some rigging for the engine and undercarriage.

One complicated area will be the cockpit windscreen which consists of a complex PE frame into which five pieces of cut out film needs to be attached!

Easier would be to use part 3 off the clear sprue.

Painting information occurs at each step and six brands are listed on the colour table, being Vallejo, Hataka, Life Color, Mr Hobby , AK Interactive and Mission Models - all acrylics. We enamel users are left to our own devices.

Markings

Decals are for three aircraft:

1. ’11/2' of No. 1 Army Squadron, 1937-39, in green over silver scheme with red cowling and fuselage stripe and the rather decorative pre-war identification roundels,

2. ‘1’ of the same unit in June 1937 in celebration markings superimposed on the above scheme, and 

3. ‘5’ of 1/6 squadron in 1941 in green over pale blue with yellow cowling, fuselage and rudder and the later X on a white square markings.

Decals are nicely printed with good colour density and register and provide the fuselage  and rudder striping as well as a small set of stencils and instrument panel.

If this is your area of interest then I would commend this highly to you as it provides all that is required to make a fine replica of this significant Central European aircraft from the 1930s and 40s. One still exists in a museum in Turkey.

Thanks to IBG for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2024 by Graham Carter
Review Images Copyright © 2024 by Brett Green
Page Created 19 March, 2024
Last updated 19 March, 2024

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