Arii 1/32 Subaru 360

While I dither about getting the Mazda R360 finished before the end of the year (ha-ha) I thought I would review the Subaru 360 which Arii have produced.

The one I have is the police patrol car version, as seen here:

The actual kit is identical to the normal 360, apart from the addition of a red light, a different decal sheet and additions to the instructions.

On opening the box you have the main body, the other parts on a single fret and the windows as a single unit (plus the lights of course).  The red lamp, tyres and decals are stored in a separate bag.
The main fret has some signs of flash, and the windows have the usual less-than-perfect ripples and bumps.  But the bodyshell is a bit of a mess.  At the rear are very obvious mould separation lines, with the right side being particularly bad, with a huge web of flash.  The window openings also have plenty of flash, which takes a lot of cleaning up.

One thing I should point out from the start: this isn't a 1958 version.
The earliest versions of the 360 featured horizontal slots in the engine cover, horizontal rear lights and a raised petrol cap cover.  It also had a single intake grille on the left rear section behind the side window.

http://www.netcarshow.com/subaru/1958-360/

Later versions featured two rows of vertical slots in the engine cover, a covered petrol cap, vertical rear lights and two engine intake grilles.  There were other differences such as window wipers, logos, headlights, etc.

http://ninjagarage.blogspot.com/search/label/SUBARU

The Arii kit is really a later version, as you can see from this photo of the rear of mine:

Thanks to the internet, and sites such as Ninja Garage there is a mass of photo material out there for reference, making it relatively easy to date a version of the car in hand.  So I would say this one is more like a 1967 version than a 1958 model.

The model, as with around half of the ones I have bought so far, was originally designed for a clockwork motor, as the chassis so clearly shows:

As a result it sits too low to the ground and will need to have the chassis altered to allow for the correct ride height, which as you can see is considerable.

http://ninjagarage.blogspot.com/search/label/SUBARU

The rest of the model is to the usual high standard and will build into a lovely model once properly modified and carefully finished.

While researching the car I came across a 1958 copy of the British magazine "The Autocar" which has a 2-page article on the brand new Subaru 360.  It's not quite Top Gear, but, well, it was the 50s!

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As a footnote to this entry I would like to express my sadness that so many lovely little 1/32 car kits have ended up as slot cars.  I find this particularly annoying with regard to the Airfix cars of the 60s.  I have seen so many of them on eBay with slot car chassis that it breaks my heart.  I would love to build the Sunbeam Rapier, Ford Cortina and Ford Zodiac... even the Morris Mini, but all you see are metal chassis and ungainly wheels.
Rare and desirable models have only the bodywork retained and the rest consigned to the junk pile.  They deserve to be built as models, treated with care and admired, not gutted and whizzing around a track.
Rant over.