Nichimo 1/48 Ki-51 'Sonia'

The Mitsubishi Ki-51 (Army designation "Type 99 Assault Plane". Allied nickname "Sonia") was a light bomber/dive bomber in service with the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. It first flew in mid-1939. Initially deployed against Chinese forces, it proved to be too slow to hold up against the fighter aircraft of the other Allied powers. However, it performed a useful ground-attack role in the China-Burma-India theater, notably from airfields too rough for many other aircraft. As the war drew to a close, the Japanese began using them in kamikaze attacks. Total production was around 2,385 units.

On the day Hiroshima was destroyed by an atomic bomb, two Ki-51s were responsible for the last Japanese sinking of a US warship, sinking USS Bullhead (SS-332) with all hands.

Charles Lindbergh, flying a P-38 Lightning, shot down a Ki-51.

Despite being tooled in 1975, this kit has surface detail that is as good as if not better than modern kits. All the panel lines are engraved as is the extensive rivet detailing. The kit has a nicely detailed cockpit section and there is lightly raised interior sidewall detailing. There are separate interior items such as radios, O2 bottles, rudder pedals, throttles, and control sticks as well as cameras and crew seats. For the interior sidewalls are a variety of black boxes and there are instrument panels for the pilot and observer/gunner. Two crew figures are included to fill those seats.

A well detailed two row radial engine is provided along with intake and exhaust as well as an engine mount and accessory section. The kit has optional parts if you choose to purchase the motorization kit. A three piece engine cowling will hide most of the engine work and mounts, which is a shame. Wings are a single lower piece with two upper halves. Tailplanes are upper and lower halves as well.

Wheels are mounted in nearly closed wheel pants and each gear assembly simply plugs into openings in the lower fuselage. There are small windows that install in the underside of the fuselage. Weapons are provided on two separate bomb racks. One is for a single large bomb per wing. The other option is for a large rack with multiple smaller bombs per rack.

Instructions are undecipherable unless you read Japanese, however the assembly drawings are very well drawn and you will have no issues when it comes to figuring out how to build the kit. The 50 year old decal sheet still looks very nice and may well still be viable. Markings are for four airplanes three of them are depicted as being blue uppers with a sky looking underside. I personally believe those should be a very dark green with standard IJAAF green-grey undersides. Those are from 48, 49, and 71 Sentai. The other is a heavily mottled plane with 67 Sentai. I would highly recommend finding some references for these schemes before painting the kit. I'd also recommend a masking set for the transparencies. Kora Decals does some interesting post war sets, Aeromaster has some in their long oop special attack set, and Dead Design does insignia masks.

Considering all the comments I've heard about the poor fit and difficulty of building the Wingsy kit, this one may well be an option to consider. They are generally easy to find, though on-line auction sellers are asking stupid prices. I suggest visiting a show's vendor tables or the various on-line seller pages to get a decent deal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Ki-51

July 2025