The Mitsubishi Ki-51 Sonia is one of those aircraft that has been consistently neglected by model kit manufacturers. Nichimo produced a kit in 1975 and that was the only option available until 2019 when Wingsy surprised Japanese aircraft model enthusiasts with a new tool kit. Yahu from Poland produces photo-etch instrument panels for a large number of kits including the Ki-51. I do not own any Yahu photo-etch instrument panels so this review allowed me to get a first hand look at their products.

ICM has released a plethora of German medium bombers in the He-111, Ju-88s and Do-17 family. It is only natural to include bombs for them! What do you do if you don’t necessarily want the big kit? Or you want to add to your diorama? Well, ICM helps you out with sets like this one. It comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a cover bearing a nice photo of the contents.

Unusual for me is the inclusion of torpedoes. The instructions are on two separate sheets: one for the bombs and one for the torpedoes. They are printed on high-quality paper with full color painting instructions/decal placement. A sheet of decals is included. They look and work perfectly. There are six sprues of light grey plastic that is flash free. The grey is a little soft. That is a good/bad thing. Good when gluing but a bit of a challenge when cleaning up small and thin pieces.More on that later.

This new kit from Academy depicts the K311A1 1¼ -ton truck currently in service with the Armed forces of South Korea (R.O.K.) and exported to many other countries around the world. A detailed history of the vehicle is available on Wikipedia, so I won’t repeat it here. The kit provides marking options for two R.O.K. army trucks, one R.O.K. Marines, one R.O.K. Air Force, one Philippines, and two Chilean Marines trucks. The last Chilean option is a single color, providing an option for modelers who aren’t in the mood to paint complex camouflage.

The kit comes in a sturdy and surprisingly large box with the entire top covered by artwork of the vehicle. The kit includes separately molded cargo bed, bed canopy, and cab floor, four trees of tan parts, one tree of clear parts, a tree of poly-caps, five tires in soft black plastic, a fret of photo-etch, a sheet of masks, decals, and instructions. Everything is well packaged to prevent damage or loss of parts.