1:48 PZL P.11c

A gull wing over Poland

In its day the PZL P.11c was among the most modern solutions that European airfields had seen. All-metal construction and a high-set wing cranked into the shape of a gull's wings gave the pilot a view that the crews of biplanes could not have dreamed of. But development moved fast, and in 1939 it faced machines with an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear that outran it by more than a hundred kilometers an hour.

The sheet brings four particular aircraft:

• the machine with the white 9 of the 161st Fighter Escadrille, 1939
• the aircraft with the serial 8.14 and the white 1, the 112th Fighter Escadrille, 1936
• the machine number 8.25 with the white 65 of the 142nd Fighter Escadrille
• the aircraft with the white 9 of the 132nd Fighter Escadrille

A span of thirteen years between the oldest and the newest subject means a difference in color as well. The interwar machines carried a lighter finish than the aircraft in a mobilized state, so a modeler has to choose the shade according to the variant selected. Two white 9s with two different escadrilles are then a small trap worth bearing in mind during the build.

Serials written with a dot, of the kind given for two of the subjects, match the Polish system of records, in which the first part denoted the batch. For a modeler it is a practical detail, because it makes it possible to trace which production batch a particular aircraft came from.

Advice: the fabric-covered surface of the control surfaces has a pronounced texture of ribs. A decal belongs on it only once it has been shaped, and it is advisable to soften it in two doses.