Sweet, Sweet Sonia Hasegawa 1/72 Mitsubishi KI-51

 

 

I actually remembered to snap a photo of the box this time

        I have wasted enough time with wacky German late-war fiascoes and decided to get back to building kits that I could use for games covering the Khalkin-Gol and Sino-Japanese conflicts. Next on the Pile of Shame was this kit of the Mitsubishi KI-51. Built as a reconnaissance/light bomber it was too slow to be deployed against the Western Allies but served through the war on the Chinese and Burma fronts. It continued in the service of several air forces after the war. Aside from some crummy decals this is a very good kit, the parts kit and detail is very good for a kit over forty years old.

 

the assembled model makes a good-looking model of a good-looking aircraft

 

coming from the Mitsubishi stable you can see the relationship to the Zero

 

 

plagued by the inability of the Japanese to mass-produce powerful radial engines 

this plane ended up too slow for use against the US and Commonwealth air forces

 

 

 

but we all know why I wanted to add this baby to my collection, SPATS! big beautiful spats

 

 

more often than not Hasegawa does not include crew figures, 

I was force to recruit some half-track passengers (with suitable filing and trimming)