1:72 PZL P.23B Karaś

The Polish Karas between two wars

In the second half of the 1930s the single-engine PZL P.23 was the backbone of the Polish bomber and reconnaissance arm. The pilot sat high above the engine, the observer in a gondola projecting below the fuselage, and the whole structure looked rugged; but a speed of around 300 kilometers per hour meant that in September 1939 the machine was practically defenseless against German fighters. The losses of the Polish squadrons were accordingly heavy and some of the crews eventually flew on to Romania.

The seven options on the sheet follow that story from beginning to end. Five of them show prewar service: a white 3 of the 22nd Line Escadrille of the 2nd Air Regiment from Krakow in May 1938, a white 6 of the 41st Escadrille of the 4th Regiment from Torun in the autumn of 1938, a white 1 of the 51st Escadrille of the 5th Regiment from Lida in May 1938, a white 8 of the 65th Bomber Escadrille from Radom in September 1939 and a machine marked D1 of the 22nd Bomber Escadrille. The last pair, a white 12 and a white 17, belongs to the 73rd Squadron of the Royal Romanian Air Force and is listed to September 1941.

It is the Romanian machines that tend to be the greatest draw, because they show the aircraft in colors most modelers do not know it in.

The set is intended for a finished Karas model in 1:72 scale and expects a smooth glossy surface under the markings.

The Polish checkerboard consists of four fields in two colors and their order changed after 1993, so machines of the 1930s carry a different form of the marking from today's aircraft. When building it is therefore sensible to keep to the layout given in the instructions supplied.