PZL.11m; V.175 of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor-Asz', Hungarian Air Forces, early 1939

Dizzyfugu · March 29, 2015, 09:32:29 AM

Some background:
The history of the PZL P.11 started in 1929, when a talented designer, Zygmunt Puławski, designed an all-metal, metal-covered monoplane fighter, the P.1. While most of the world's forces were still using biplanes, the new P.1 used a high-mounted gull wing to give the pilot an excellent view. A second prototype, the P.6, was completed the next year. The design generated intense interest around the world, the layout becoming known as the "Polish wing" or "Puławski wing". A further improvement, the PZL P.7, was built for the Polish Air Force in a series of 150.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

After designing the P.7, Puławski started further variants with larger engines, leading eventually to the P.11. The first P.11/I prototype flew in August 1931, after Puławski's death in an air crash. It was followed by two slightly modified prototypes, the P.11/II and the P.11/III. The first variant ordered by the Polish Air Force was the P.11a, considered an interim model and built in a series of 30. Otherwise similar to the P.7, it mounted the 575 hp (429 kW) Bristol Mercury IV S2 radial engine produced in Poland under licence.

The final variant for the Polish air force, the P.11c had a new, refined fuselage, with the engine lowered in the nose to give the pilot a better view. The central part of the wings was also modified. Production of the P.11c started in 1934 and 175 were produced. The first series of approximately 50 P.11c aircraft were fitted with Mercury V S2 of 600 hp (447 kW), the rest with Mercury VI S2 of 630 hp (470 kW).

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Apart from Poland, Romania showed interest in the new design. Even before the P.11a entered service with the Polish air force, 50 aircraft designated P.11b were ordered for the Romanian Air Force, while an agreement for license production was agreed. Deliveries of Polish-built P.11bs to Romania commenced in October 1933. They were fitted with Gnome-Rhone 9Krsd Mistral 595 hp (444 kW) engines, otherwise they were similar to the P.11a.

After the P.11c had been developed, the Romanians decided to switch the license production to the new model. As a result, from 1936 IAR built 70 aircraft as the IAR P.11f, powered by the Romanian-built IAR-K-9 engine, which was a heavily modified version of the Gnome-Rhone 9K giving 640 hp (480 kW). The Romanians then produced another Polish fighter, the PZL P.24, developed from the P.11 exclusively for export. Greece, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Hungary and Republican Spain were interested in buying the P.11, but finally Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey bought the P.24 instead.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Hungary bought thirty aircraft from Bulgarian license production, designated PZL.11m. These machines were powered by a slightly weaker Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, rated at 520 hp (388 kW), which had also powered the PZL.7. This lack of power was compensated by a new three blade metal propeller with variable pitch – a very innovative solution at the time, and it improved rate of climb and acceleration considerably, as well as endurance. Furthermore, the PZL.11m received armament of Italian origin: four 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns.

When the P.11 entered service in 1934, as a counterpart to the British Gloster Gauntlet and German Heinkel He 51, it was arguably the most advanced fighter in the world. However, due to the quick progress in aircraft technology, the P.11 was obsolete by 1939, overtaken by cantilever designs with retractable landing gear such as the British Supermarine Spitfire and German Messerschmitt Bf 109.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Hungary's PZL.11hs even saw short, hot action during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, when the country's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, were taken over by Germany in March 1939 under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. The incorporation of the Sudetenland into Germany left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak and it became powerless to resist subsequent occupation. On 16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Bohemia and Moravia were declared as German protectorates. The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 7.55 m (24 ft 9 in)
Wingspan: 10.719 m (35 ft 2 in)
Height: 2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)
Wing area: 17.9 m2 (193 sq ft)
Empty weight: 1,147 kg (2,529 lb)
Gross weight: 1,630 kg (3,594 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 1,800 kg (3,968 lb)

Powerplant:
1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial engine, 520 hp (388 kW)

Performance:
Maximum speed: 390 km/h (242 mph; 211 kn) at 5,000 m (16,404 ft),
300 km/h (186 mph) at sea level
Stall speed: 98 km/h (61 mph; 53 kn)
Range: 800 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)
Service ceiling: 8,000 m (26,247 ft) absolute ceiling 11,000 m (36,089 ft)
Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5.2 minutes
7,000 m (22,966 ft) in 11.5 minutes
Wing loading: 91.1 kg/m2 (18.7 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: 0.279 kW/kg (0.166 hp/lb)

Armament:
4× 7.7 mm (.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns with 500rpg

The kit and its assembly:
This quickie whif was a rather short notice build – I had a surplus Mastercraft PZL.11c in my stash, originally part of a cheap lot, and for a long time no idea what to do with it ...until I read an article about the Hungarian/Czech clash right before the outbreak of WWII, with very detailed army and air force activities, including profiles and pics of some aircraft of that era.
That spawned the idea to build a Hungarian PZL.11 from the kit, more or less based on a Fiat CR.32bis (aircraft V.107) in Hungarian service with a very attractive paint scheme as "design benchmark".

The PZL.11 was built almost OOB – the kit is simple, but has very nice surface details. Fit is mediocre, though, especially the stabilizers puzzled me. The only thing I changed is the propeller; instead of a two blade wood piece I installed a three-bladed alternative (from a Matchbox Provost, coupled with a spinner from an Italeri La-5) for a modernized/different look.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Painting and markings:
This is an individual interpretation of a real aircraft's paint scheme - I found VERY contradictive sources about the potential paint scheme. MKHL aircraft began to be camouflaged in a three-tone scheme from October of 1938. The upper surfaces received irregular, undulating patches of Green/Grey/Brown, while the undersides were painted light Grey-Blue.

As no specific official camouflage patterns were issued, a wide variety of styles and colors resulted, depending as much on the means available in every case, as on the particular tastes of the maintenance personnel detached to do the job. I also guess that many foreign aircraft like the Italian CR.32s or He 70 reconnaissance bombers simply kept their home countries schemes/colors and were successively re-painted with whatever was at hand.

I based my scheme on a CR.32's profile in a magazine, and I assume that the print colors are brighter than the real Hungarian aircraft – on other profiles of the same machine it looks as if it was painted in RLM 61, 62, 63 and 65! Anyway, I liked the more saturated colors, so I went for this more decorative option.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The colors I used are Olive Green (RAL 6003 from Modelmaster), Dark Green (FS 34079; Humbrol 116) and Brown (Modelmaster), with Pastel Blue (Humbrol 44) undersides. The latter tone is also found as irregular patches on the upper surfaces, it really looks wild and colorful – esp. in combination with the Hungarian national markings.
Personally, I think that the typical Hungarian paint scheme of the time was just a crude addition of paint on top of the original bare metal/aluminum finish of many aircraft, but pics are difficult to interpret.

1:72 PZL.11m "V.175" of 1/6 vadasz-szazad 'Kor Asz' of the Hungarian Air Forces (Magyar Kiralyi Honved Legiero); Szombathely, Hungary, early 1939 (What-if/Mastercraft kit) by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

A quickie, finished in the course of three evenings and some finishing touches before the fourth day's breakfast - the colors are certainly totally wrong, but it's a whif aircraft after all.

DogfighterZen · March 29, 2015, 11:58:54 AM

Yes sir, whif it is, and a nice one! The colors can wrong but look good to me!

BTW, you must hold the record of the fastest whif builder ever, or at least, for the sheer number of them produced in one year!

Dizzyfugu · March 29, 2015, 12:03:09 PM

Yes, I consider therapy... While typing this I wait for some rigging to dry on a WWI whif. $:-\$

NARSES2 · March 30, 2015, 07:29:07 AM

I like that. Have a soft spot for Hungarian camouflage and markings

Dizzyfugu · March 30, 2015, 07:54:00 AM

Unfortunately things turned out a bit rough, but I must admit that I haven't been too ambitious with this one - I was happy to find an idea of what to make from the PZL.11c. Hungary looked appropriate, and the national markings suit the little fighter well, nevertheless. Thanks a lot!

royabulgaf · March 30, 2015, 02:32:46 PM

IIRC, PZL built an aircraft along these lines, the P.11g.

Tophe · March 31, 2015, 09:01:43 AM

Nice improvement.

Captain Canada · March 31, 2015, 10:02:38 AM

Nice one. A rather lovely aero and the colours and pattern look really good together.