Mirage PZL P-11C

Kit #48103                            MSRP $37.98
Images and text Copyright © 2008 by Matt Swan

Developmental Background
        Zygmunt Pulawski designed an all metal monoplane in 1929 that was to lead to one of the most advanced fighter aircraft of the early 1930s. The initial design the P.1 grew into the P.11 which first flew in August 1931. By 1934 the type was in production and 175 aircraft rolled off the assembly line. The production numbers were so low because the Polish military aviation command was still considering other concepts in fighters and bombers. This combined with limited production facilities and the untimely death of Pulawski in a flying accident resulted in a very unstable future for the aircraft.
        While things were developing in Poland the Rumanians took note of the P.11 and purchased 50 P.11b aircraft. Shortly thereafter the Rumanians purchased a license to build the P.11 at the IAR factory. This production run received an improved engine with 630 horsepower. From here the Rumanians developed the P.24 from the P.11 and produced it for export. Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey all purchased the P.24 fighter. This was a period in history where aircraft were developing in leaps and bounds and by 1939 this aircraft type was obsolete having been replaced by cantilever wing designs and aircraft with retractable landing gear. When the war broke out in 1939 the P.11 was used in the defense of Poland and performed well even though it was outclassed by the German’s Bf-109. It is estimated that the P.11 tallied at least 110 aerial victories before Poland succumbed to the invasion. Most of the aircraft were destroyed and about three dozen were flown to Rumania. Today there is only one example of the P.11 surviving and it is on display in the Polish Aviation Museum in Cracow.

The Kit
        This is probably the most recent kit issued from Mirage and most likely the best. This kit has been issued in three slightly different variations those being kit #48101 as a fighter version with markings for three aircraft, 48102 as a fighter-bomber that includes four small resin bombs not found in the other two issues and 48103 which includes the Rumanian marking and is the subject of this review. The Mirage kit deals with a couple of issues that previous kits of the P.11 suffered from like the one part upper wing which takes care of the infamous ‘flapping wing’ problems found in the two part upper wing designs. Dimensionally this kit seems very accurate with the kit measurements being within .25mm of drawings published by AJ Press.
        The kit consists of two sprues of high pressure injection molded plastic, a small fret of photo etched parts, a single small injection molded windshield, an acetate sheet of instrument markings and a single resin radiator. The plastic parts are all well done with some mold separation seams but surface detail is excellent. The upper and lower wings are very striking in their detail level. Panel lines are crisply engraved and line up fairly well. The main fuselage parts have a single alignment pin at the tail which throws the whole kit off the mark. It is best to simple cut this pin off first and not even suffer that problem. Interior detail is very nice and with the addition of the photo etched instrument panel and acetate details, PE seatbelts and internal tubular framing really comes to life. The power plant is very well represented with good cylinder and exhaust manifold detail.
        Kit parts count is relatively low compared to some other kit of similar size with 42 plastic pieces, a single clear part, one resin radiator and thirty eight photo etched pieces we have only eighty two pieces in the box.

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Decals and Instructions
        Kit assembly instructions consist of a single A3 sheet of paper printed on both sides. One side of the sheet includes a brief history of the type in Czech and English along with decal placement and painting guides for two different aircraft. For each aircraft there is also included some individual historical content. The flip side of the page contains seven exploded view assembly steps that include painting codes and some construction notes. Also included on this side is a paint chart with colors listed by name and Humbrol paint codes.
        The decals for this kit by Techmod are very nice with good color density, nice sharp definition and near perfect print registry. They cover a single Polish aircraft and one Rumanian aircraft. The do not include any service stencils or warning markings and there very well may have not been any such markings on the actual aircraft. I’ve used Techmod decals before and they behaved very nicely when used with common decal setting solutions like Micro-Set, Micro-Sol and Mr. Marker Soft.

Conclusions
        While there are two other P.11 kits out there in 1/48, one from LTD and one from Warrior this one (or it’s two Mirage counterparts) is the one to get. It is well engineered, easy to assemble, deals with the serious flapping wing issues found on the other kits and has no serious short comings. There are a few aftermarket items available for this such as the True Details replacement wheels and four alternative decals packages from Techmod that would allow the modeler to do virtually any version of the P.11C. Overall I give this kit a very good recommendation.