Guys I need your help I just bought a beautiful kit of Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia" made by Nichimo. It is not a new kit - I believe it was made around1980 or even earlier, but still it has a very, very nice details. I will love to build this kit but there is a problem ..... instruction is only in Japanese .... I am not really good in that language. Can someone help me with that problem? Thanks.

Hi Tom,

I had the same issue when buildind the same kit a couple of years back, (after picking it up as a second hand item), being an IJ Army bird, the interior is the opache green, I mixed a little Humbrol clear Green to Humbrol Aluminium to get my interior colour, the undersurface is IJA Grey which I used from the Tamiya range, The Mauve upper surface colour is from the very old Humbrol Authentic range of Japanese colours. The prop is a 50/50 scheme of Black on the inside blades and Aluminium on the outer part of the blades.








I hope this helps a little with your 'Sonia' project

Hi Tom,

Try Google Translate . It may not be that good unless you can type Kanja characters, though.

Fear not, the instructions are in Japanese, but the diagrams are easy to follow. And with a little research, you can figure out what colors to use. Just ask me or Rob, or several others on this site will happily come to your assistance.

Rob,
Very nice Sonia. I hope that mine will be as good as yours. I got back to modeling after 20 years of break so I am a little bit of rusty
Thank you guys for your answers. I did a little bit of research and i am pretty sure about colors of interior. But the question still arise on the top surfaces. I want to do Sonia with a blue, deep blue top color. Does any one of you can help me with founding a much for it?

Best regards,
Tom

p.s. i fund 90% of US sea blue + 5% black + 5% white as a top blue. Do you guys think it will look good?

Tom,

Thanks for your kind words on the 'Sonia'.
Seems your using the artwork on the side of the box as a guide.

The mix you mention seems right for the shade matching the artwork, one thing I would try is mixing 90% Non Specular Sea Blue, 5% Black and 5% White, then try the same ratio using Sea Blue Gloss with Black and White and compare the two shades.

The interior you would have to mix and match, Xtra Color have it in their range of IJ Army aircraft.

Hope this helps a little.

may I suggest sea blue, intermediate blue, and Violet-grey(RLM75) mixed to eye? I have seen some beutiful pieces put out using this combination over a dark primer.

ok, finally i did star wirking on Sonia. I will post some pictures which will show where i am know. As an inside color I used Tamiya Clear Green and Metallic Blue mix. Looks preety good for me, but for sure a better color cuold be used. I looks in real more greenish over blue:





Also i have a question - which color was used to paint fusalage under a conopy? Black? or color of the interior? (but interior color was a matalic color so it will not be good in my opinion to paint that part of fusalage?)

You can go with same color as the outer fuselage or Mitsubishi interior green.