PZL P.11c - Belcarz, Kopanski - MMP Books

[caughtinthemiddle]

 

The latest addition to the MMP/Stratus 'Yellow Series' is devoted to the Polish PZL P.11c fighter. On 152 pages, renowned historians Bartłomiej Belcarz and Tomasz J. Kopański describe its development, pre-war and wartime service in Poland, technical features and camouflage and markings - especially the latter chapter was of my interest and I must admit that I'm not disappointed, as it includes a lot of useful information supplemented with photos and an extensive colour profile section with 24 aircraft shown, some of them in 3 views (plus underwing scrap views). P.11's service with other nations is also briefly mentioned and illustrated with photos of Romanian machines. Speaking about photos, the reproduction of black and white archive images is superb and the authors must be congratulated for the selection of over 100 photos they had made. The modellers will warmly welcome the 7 pages of 1/48 scale drawings and especially the 47-page chapter dedicated to the airframe details, which contains numerous photos of the only preserved example as well as images sourced from the aircraft's manual and spare parts catalogue. These should be very useful when working with the recent kits from Arma Hobby and IBG.

Some readers might be aware of the previous book on the P.11c released by MMP in 2003. The most notable advantages of the new edition are a larger format, allowing for better presentation of images, inclusion of additional archive photos, extension of the walkaround chapter, fully new colour profile section and addition of the P.11c technical description and camouflage and marking chapter. For me the new edition is a definitive improvement over the previous one and I recommend obtaining it even if you already have the older book.

Video preview courtesy of the publisher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crvcUuLMKLo

Some sample photos I've taken: