1:48 Ki-51 Sonia

A Japanese attack aircraft with fixed landing gear

The Mitsubishi Ki-51 was a single-engine dive bomber and reconnaissance machine of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. It entered service in 1939 and stayed there until the surrender, which cannot be said of many contemporary types. The Allies gave it the reporting name Sonia.

The design went for simplicity: fixed landing gear in teardrop fairings, a sturdy airframe and the ability to operate from unpaved field strips. It was exactly this modest appetite that kept the Ki-51 in the front line over China, New Guinea and the Philippines, where it worked as support for ground units. In the last year of the war some of the machines were used for suicide attacks. About two thousand were built, and besides Japanese units they were also flown by Thai and Manchukuo crews.

The long tandem canopy is made up of several separate parts and its framing forms a regular grid, exactly the kind of glazing where trimming tape by hand usually ends in a wavy edge. The die-cut shapes from this set are laid in place and the paint line comes out equally sharp on every panel. The covering from within also lets you spray the inner frames in the interior shade before the cockpit is closed.

• The real subject: an army dive bomber and reconnaissance aircraft from 1939 to 1945.
• The Allied reporting name of the real subject was Sonia.
• The set is prepared for the Nichimo kit.
• The frames are covered from the outside and from within.
• An accessory for spraying; the model and paints are not in the package.