The P.11c was quite a successful aircraft, but there was room in the airframe for more power, so the single row radial engine was replaced by the twin row Gnome-Rhone radial of 900-1100 hp. An enclosed canopy and wheel spats were added to increase the streamlining of the airframe. The armament was also removed from the fuselage as the new powerplant prevented the old installation from being effective. All four 7.92mm guns were then carried in the wing. The aircraft was then taken on tours of several central and southern European nations where the aircraft's good flying qualities and even better price won it sales with several nations. Oddly, even though the P.24 offered improved performance over the P.11c, it was never purchased by the Polish air force.

THE KIT

Mirage must have done well with its PZL P.11c kits as this is one of five P.24 variants/boxings to be done. This particular kit is called 'Greek campaign 1940/41 and is dedicated to the P.24G version. Now looking at the sprues, it is quite possible that all the P.24 versions are on there somewhere. Thanks to the rather rough handling somewhere between Poland, Squadron or FedEx, my kit came rather crunched and a prop blade was broken. Now if you compare these sprues with the one for the P.11c, you'll note that there are some similarities. Thankfully, Mirage knows enough about the two aircraft to realize that there are major differences between the two so hasn't just pushed a warmed over P.11 on us, but an honest to gosh P.24.

This one has a two piece canopy so you can display the canopy open, should you wish. The clear plastic is a bit thick and the small sprue attachments may require some repolishing once they are removed, but they should work well. There are four resin parts included and they are in the yellow rectangle in the image above. You get two radiator pieces and two exhaust collectors. The resin is fair and will need trimming and cleaning up before use. The resin fret is nicely done and includes all the bits that were with the P.11c kit and a few that are specific to the P.24. If you have built the P.11c, this one will be pretty much the same. In terms of options, about the only one I could spot was whether to include the wheel spats or not.

The instructions are well done and include a  number of detailed construction steps. Colors are provided as Humbrol, Vallejo and generic names, which is quite helpful. There are markings provided for four Greek aircraft. Two of them are in a disruptive pattern of Light Brown and Green over Light Blue. A third adds Dark Green to the upper color mix. These three are all without wheel spats. The fourth has to be a very early scheme of overall natural metal with the wheel spats installed. This last option has no fuselage roundel, but does have large rudder stripes. All of the disruptive camo schemes are different, so that is a nice touch. The decals themselves are well printed by Techmod and are quite glossy as well.

CONCLUSIONS

It is good that Mirage has released the P.24 as it offers an option over the very nice, but very pricey Warrior resin kit that was featured in a build review a while back. It promises to be a good build and at a very reasonable price. It is one that is headed for the workbench!

You can find this kit and many others at