Ki-21-1b 'Sally' with Pilots and Ground Personnel
The Mitsubishi Ki-21 “Sally” was designed in 1936 and first flew in 1938, it was used extensively in the war against China and was a trainer for bomber groups.
This subject has been neglected in the model world but ICM has brought out a nice representation in 1/48th scale.
Included in the kit is:
- Six grey sprues
- One clear sprue
- One grey sprue with figures
- One set of decals
- One instruction booklet
- One instruction page for the figures
The instructions are pretty straight forward and the kit seems well detailed with fine panel lines and some rivet detail.
Section 1-7 starts with the left fuselage half with detail items and a bulkhead going in. there are also oxygen bottles and some clear parts added. The left tail section is also added in this section. I decided to glue both halves of the tail together at this point and added the tail at a later point.
Section 8-13 is the Bombay area with four bombs being assembled. The bombs are made up of 10 pieces that are a bid fiddly to assemble and glue into place.
Section 14-24 is the cockpit and middle section with two fuel tanks and a front bulkhead. The cockpit has some detail but seems kind of sparse. It could use some seat belts, which I scratch built.
Section 25-26 is the lower front nose section which is molded clear and adds a cushion and what appears to be either a drift meter or bomb site.
Section 27-28 adds the center cockpit section and lower nose to the fuselage. These parts matched up nicely. Also there are more detail bits added to the left side.
Section 29-31 has two machine guns assembled and added to the interior. The guns are ok in detail but do the job.
Section 32-39 is the right half of the fuselage, it has detail parts and clear parts installed. I have to say there are numerous ammo boxes throughout the fuselage.
Section 40 is the instrument panel and the dash board that goes above. The panel gets a decal applied that looks fairly good once done.
Section 41 is where the two fuselage halves get glued together along with the instrument panel and rear gunners seat. Everything came together nicely with no issues.
Section 42-44 is the Bombay doors either positioned open or closed. I positioned them open but had a bit of a problem getting everything aligned and in position.
Section 45-50 is the top rear gunners area, the gun is made up of eight pieces and when together get mounted under the upper middle fuselage section where there is a slot to store it.
Section 51-53 has the two upper glass for the cockpit and upper gunners area plus the nose section with the nose gun. I used masks for both the interior and exterior of all the glass areas. I do have to say I’ve never seen a model with more glass than this aircraft. There must be 100 separate pieces of glass on this kit.
Section 54-67 the horizontals, elevators, rudder, wings and ailerons are assembled and attached. The clear parts for the position lights on the wingtips and the two landing lights in the leading edge of the wings are also added. The wings have a vertical spar that slides into a vertical slot on the fuselage. This and the step in the joint where the wings attach makes the wing position fit perfectly to the fuselage. The horizontals have the same step.
Section 68-75 is the landing gear assembly both mains and tail gear. The main gear structure is very fine and you have to extremely cautious when removing and cleaning up of the parts. I broke a couple in the process.
Section 76-90 finishes up the fuselage with nacelles and engines. The engines are not the most detailed but once inside the cowls you don’t see much. The attachment of the nacelles to the wing was perfect with that same style step as the wing.
Section 91-93 deals with the propellers, antennae and pitot tube. I did not add those until after paint and decals.
I chose to do the fourth scheme which is the “25th Air Brigade HQ Flight” Japan 1943, they added dark green camo to the upper surface instead of all grey green exterior.
In conclusion I thought the kit was very detailed in some areas and some not so. A lot of the detail in the interior will not be visible once together. The kit was easy to assemble, except for a couple areas of fiddly bits, but overall a very nice kit. The decals were OK but were a little translucent in the red insignia. I would prefer spraying or aftermarket decals.
Now to the Figures
There are five figures included in the kit, three airmen in cold weather flying attire with a samurai sword and parachute and two ground personnel, one carrying a wooden ladder. The detail is very good for 1/48 scale . All of the figures were in seven pieces and had to be assembled, which went together nicely.
I have never done figures before so this is my first time. The small size of the figures was a challenge but did my best to make them look halfway decent. I used enamel paint with brushes to do the painting. At three feet they look pretty good!
I would like to thank ICM Models for providing the kit and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this item.

Comments
Add new comment
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Similar Reviews