A rarity....Marui 1/36 Fuji Aero Subaru

[Cap'n Wannabe]

While I don't know the history of this particular kit chapter and verse, I do know that Marui produced an Aero Subaru, Piper Cherokee 140, and Cessna 172 floatplane and land plane in 1/36 scale. To me, this scale, while odd, is far better for civil GA types than the more popular 1/48...of course, 1/32 would be far better! I have the Aero Subaru x 2, the Piper Cherokee x 2, and a single Cessna 172 land plane. They're about the size of a 1/48 P-51, so they don't need a whole lot of real estate.
The Aero Subaru - indeed, all the kits I have from this series - are designed to have an electric motor spinning the prop, which means two things:
1. They're lacking in the engine department, having an engine face rather than a full engine, and
2. They have a hatch under the rear fuselage to accommodate an AA battery.
I'm not going to wire up the battery, so I'll have to figure out a way to make the hatch look more "real", but I imagine that will be fairly simple.
The cockpit is pretty bare for a kit this size - basically an instrument panel and 4 seats. There's no side-wall detail, and I'm not going to put any in on this kit...perhaps on my second one. The instrument panel is inaccurate, and there are no decals for the instrument faces. Again, in this example, I'm not going to bother too much with that area.
There are heaps of raised rivets all over the kit - I'm undecided whether to remove them or not..
Anyhow, on to the photos..
Box art:


Various parts i've been working on:

[DesTROYer]

Does it come with the WRX body kit?

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Nah, the aircraft came out long before body kits were the order of the day!
So far, apart from a bit of cleanup, I've "carpeted" the cockpit. The technique I use for creating the carpet is pretty simple....I cut strips of medical tape and lay them down on whichever surface requires carpeting. This creates a realistic texture, which I then paint as required. Job done

[Adam the Akrodude]

Ow Ow Ow!

This is so cool! Glad you put that fiddley little 1/48 kit aside for this! Do you feel a foot taller building "Man Scale" dude? I'll have a Pitts "Bulldog" ready for next Expo. It would be brilliant to have your Subaru and my Pitts in the Civvie cat next year - Akro Group build!

Cheers

Adam

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Maybe 6 inches taller, mate...this isn't *quite* manscale!

[Cap'n Wannabe]

OK, now that I have new tyres on my car...
I've primed the cockpit, plus other assorted bits and pieces, in preparation for paint. In this photo, you can see the tape a lot better....reckon it'll look pretty good in the dark blue paint, stippled with grey...

[hrtpaul]

Nice work mate. As for the supposed "Man Scale" mate, it's over rated like you wouldn't believe

[modelbear]

Looking really good so far. It is not often that you see builds of the Marui kits and I will follow this one closely. Do you have a particular aircraft/scheme planned for the build?
I've only got the Marui floatplane 172 and don't think I could build it given its rarity (plus I wouldn't do it justice with my current model-building skills).

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Looking really good so far. It is not often that you see builds of the Marui kits and I will follow this one closely. Do you have a particular aircraft/scheme planned for the build?
I've only got the Marui floatplane 172 and don't think I could build it given its rarity (plus I wouldn't do it justice with my current model-building skills).

I'm going to do this one as VH-FJA in this scheme:


Although I could have done this:


And was sorely tempted to do this:

Unfortunately, I could only find this photo, so I couldn't get the "national" insignia, and couldn't read the writing on the door..

For my other one, I'm going to do this:

[tor lives]

I have to say......very unusual and most cool indeed Damo.
I too will be very much looking forward to seeing her/them in next year's Model Expo "Non Military" Category.
TOR