Impreza Wagon

[Cooper645]

So, seeing as the lockdown and social isolation continues, i thought i would grab another box down off the shelf to occupy my evenings.

 

As the titla and tags suggest it is the Subaru Impreza Sports Wagon WRX in 1/24 from Hasegawa.

 

A nice little curbside kit that should go together well. The mouldings lok crisp with minimal cleanup looking to be required. There are a few parts in the box not required as it looks like some Impreza sprues with the Wagon stuff added on top, so the kit bash spares box continues to grow.

 

Included are some window masks for the clear parts which is a welcome touch.

 

This should be another fairly quick build i hope sue to the time avaialble, but i'm still undecided on colours. Any suggestions are welcomed of course.

The carpet is likely to be getting flocked in a charcoal/anthracite, but the rest is currently up for the vote. Maybe even some homemade decals are an option (Possibly)

 

Here is the box art and the first load of parts enjoying a coat of primer.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Coops

[JeroenS]

Comparing the box art with your primer, I think it would look better in a dark colour. And maybe lower it some. It's not the best looking Subaru 🙂 

[Spiny]

Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree on the lowering front, I quite like it sitting a bit higher given that Subarus were still workhorses at the time.

 

I can't tell whether it's the light in the photo, but the dark blue on the body (is that the primer) does seem to suit the car. However, I do like these in the dark green colour they do.... and a dark blue Subaru Impreza is a bit of a cliche. Ultimately though, it's up to you - paint it bright pink if you like

[Schwarz-Brot]

Oh please bring back those times when cars looked quirky and were not all alike. I have a soft spot for Impreza and Lancer Wagons

 

[Cooper645]

@JeroenS I happen to like the wagon look myself, too many people think about the WRC Imprezas. This is not that. I may even get a roof box for it. I may drop it a little, I considered going widebody but the rims I wanted to use were too wide, it looked ridiculous. May have other rims in the spares box, I’ll have a dig about.

 

@Spiny 🤣. This is not going to be blue, for 2 reasons, everyone seems to do Imprezas solely in blue and I am not following the crowd, secondly, I have too many other blue models currently on the shelf. (Black primer) dodgy lighting 
 

@Schwarz-Brot I’ll do my best for quirky, I had even considered hydro dipping this one......and still might 

 

No progress tonight, I walked the dog in search of a good sunset photo, managed a couple of OK ones, not great but just a bit meh. 
 

Coops

[Cooper645]

So an update,

 

The body shell was all going well, unitl i put the clear coat on, it seems to have reacted oddly to the clear orange over gold that i was going for.  I will let it harden off and polish it up any how, and mark it up to a lesson learned, to spoon test all paint combinations ona spoon before the car shell.

 

The interior is finished and the underside providing a rolling chassis. Still need to do the odd few details and windows before the final build, no major rush as the body shell still needs a couple of weeks to harden off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers for looking,

 

Coops

[JeroenS]

Bummer Coops! What paints and clear were involved? 

[Cooper645]

I used Vallejo Mecha Black primer, with Mr Colour Gold and Mr Clear Orange.

The Lacquer was the usual Halfords own that was fine when i used it over the same combo with clear red on the taxi.

I'm hoping a polish wil help tidy it a bit. Its not unbearably awful just not what i had in my head

[JeroenS]

Ok... A good rub should probably help. I must say, it sounds like an intriguing colour combo, I'm curious 🙂

[HoolioPaulio]

Looking forward to this.  Impreza is one of my favourite cars, and I personally like the wagon version.  Its also the best car I've ever owned, and I miss it daily, but it wasn't practical when I became a father.  I had the saloon face lift version of this in burgundy, it had a turbo body kit and racing air filter and exhaust, but wasn't the turbo.  The insurance (because of all the mods) and boot space was the reason I had to get rid of it.

 

 

 

[Cooper645]

Ok, so whilst the next Comp build is on hold for dating I took some time out to polish the Subaru.

 

I knocked polished a couple of the door handles a bit much, so will need to figure a way to sort that out, but in natural light and polished it doesn't look too bad.

 

I even bought some IPA in preparation to soak the shell and start again. (Still might....maybe redo it tango orange with black roof and accents)

 

The two spots on the rear right quarter are marker pen that never covered at all.  The more I look at it, the more I want to strip it.

 

 

 

 

Thought I would keep you posted on this one.

 

The competition piece will find its way into the RFI section when the comp is finished. Incidentally the taxi I did took first place in the last comp.

 

 

Coops

[Spiny]

It wouldn't be unheard of to have contrasting colour door handles - could you maybe paint them black of silver to cover up the burn through? Something along the lines of this...

 

https://c.encycarpedia.com/ci/8961.jpg

 

As for the blobs of pen, you might be able to get away with a very light wipe over with a cloth damped in IPA, but will need to be very careful not to take the paint of with it. Basically, give it a wipe, if that doesn't work leave for a few hours for the paint to harden then repeat. So long as you don't get through the colour coat, you can probably polish it back to a shine with a polishing compound even if you do dull the paint finish.

[Cooper645]

The pen can be covered with a JDM style vinyl . 
 

and I thought black to go with the window trims. Probably do the sills black as well 

[HoolioPaulio]

Well I love the colour so far, and grats on the Taxi win.  Well deserved, that was a good chop job

[Mr Mansfield]

That colour really pops in the sun!

 

I've used a fine brush with a little of the thinned base coat when I’ve polished through the paint. It could be worth a try before stripping it 

[Cooper645]

Was only going to strip it in order to respray another colour instead. I’ll see If I can accept it when I next open the box to finish it off. On hold currently with another competition build taking precedence.

 

then this is back on the table, followed by finishing a DBR9 

[Cooper645]

So, the skyline got finished. I opened the DBR9 up and did some detailing there. But then decals got me annoyed so boxed temporarily.

 

This box got opened and I still didn’t like the colour, so in the IPA for a day then a quick scrub back to bare plastic. It’s now sat with the primer drying and a Tamiya can of paint ready to spray on soon.

 

next update should be of the new colour. We will be going with TS-98 and likely black roof 

[JeroenS]

Hey Coops, good to have you back! I think the orange and black should make a nice combo. 

[HoolioPaulio]

Nice to see this back on the bench.  I have to say, I did love the orange/bronze, would look good on a full size car.  But the more I look at it the more the metal flakes look too big for the scale.  Looking forward to seeing the new colour...

[Cooper645]

Well, after a long hiatus, this has finally been seen through to completion.

 

Here is the body after a recolouring. Will get some better images up in the RFI section when I get the camera out again next time.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all the people who stopped in to watch along the way. 

 

Coops

 

 

[HoolioPaulio]

Looks ace that mate, nice colour.  Will look out for the RFI  

[JeroenS]

Niiice combo!

[Alan R]

Love it!