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Subaru Sambar 5/4/17 last mock up


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My daughter has a dog daycare business called Love Us and Leave Us that has not a cage on the property. All the dogs hang out together and have the run of the place, inside and out. If they're lucky, they get to go on a walk in the Berkshire Hills with 10 other dogs. The owners LOVE her place because the dogs come back tired and happy. They literately BEG to return the next day, according to the owners. Her Subaru Outback was covered in vinyl by a friend that has a Dr. Vinyl business here in Pittsfield, MA. I took his graphics and adjusted them for a Subaru Sambar Pickup.

 

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The Subaru Sambar kit by Aoshima is an incredibly detailed little pickup. It was reviewed here at this link. After seeing just the number of parts in the chassis ... 46 not counting the wheels and tires ... I had to see one so got one in the mail from Japan. I was even more amazed at the detail level when the kit arrived. I just started gluing the cab ... 11 pieces! ... but got the decals all worked to represent a dog transport for walks. It's going to be pretty much stock with some wood fencing around the bed to keep the dogs contained. I have some Subaru Willow Green Opal Mica on the way to match my daughter's Outback.

Here's a shot with the cab and frame against a '55 Cameo to show how small it is. Remember, this is a 1/24 kit too!

 

with55DSC_1428_zps29f84b01.jpg

 

 

Edited by Foxer
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Here's tiny for ya ... A same scale VW Bug sitting next to it. They are the same length and width.

The bed sides needed good 90 degree holders when gluing to insure things were square. The bed and body have all pieces added for painting ... bed has 16 parts (!) and body consists of 5. And the frame just popped onto the tiny pins perfectly! This is a VERY well done kit! I got the Subaru paint to match my daughter's Outback so it's off the the paint shop for some primer.

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I've been spending considerable prepping and painting the chassis parts and trying to use as many different blacks as I can to get some differentiation to all these parts.

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Cool little project. What program are you using above for the logo decals? I always want to know how pople can get the nice side view shots and then work from there.

I use Photoshop to make decals, but there are many graphics programs for a lot less that can do it. The car images I used are scans of the instruction sheet that I scaled in Photoshop so they print at the actual model size. Then I just brought the photos into a layer and scaled them to fit. It was pretty simple and wouldn't take much to learn how to do it in any program.

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will you be putting travel kennels or anything like that in the back? (3 dog man myself!)

 

I got some wood posts and slats that I'll make an enclosure from. Hopefully that's proper to keep the dogs in. I haven't shown this to my daughter yet, so I hope I get approval on that! I have to glue some angle brackets to the bed to receive the posts and my daughter's in Alaska so it'll have to do. I also have a pack of G scale dogs to populate the bed. I should note that there are NO kennels or cages at my daughter's place ... the dogs just hang out with each other, up to 25 at a time including overnight. I'm convinced that's why people like it so much.

 

One note since posting, the triangular piece at the front of the bed dropped off on one side and the carpet monster got it. I made one from some .03" stock and it's glued in place now ... whew ... wasn't bad making it.

Edited by Foxer
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On ‎2014‎-‎03‎-‎22 at 4:41 PM, Foxer said:

I should note that there are NO kennels or cages at my daughter's place ... the dogs just hang out with each other, up to 25 at a time including overnight. I'm convinced that's why people like it so much.

....

Edited by dieseldawg142
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that is cool! we never tie our dogs, fenced yard, & i dont think my mastiff would EVER let me shove her in a cage!, just though you would have usual dog kind of dog stuff in back.

any rotties or massy's in your pack? :)

I just have some dogs I could find and neither of yours. I don't remember seeing either at my daughter's but there's always different ones.

Either one of them would pack that Subie! :lol:

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Very cool Mike! I will need to get a copy of that kit. I do have a few of the Suzuki Carry vans. This one I cut down into a pickup..

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There were a lot of these small Japanese pickups sold in the US as 'in plant' vehicles since they don't qualify for license plates. Here's one that was used on the Rowan University site in New Jersey. I remember that Disney in Florida had a huge fleet of these that they used for a variety of tasks on the property.

I've worked for three different 100 acre plus sites that were occupied by pharmaceutical companies. Each had a large fleet of Cushman and like electric vehicles on the sites that did everything from personnel transport to maintenance staff work. I once had my own very rusty Cushman pickup that I used around the facility. At the last one, I tried to introduce these small Japanese pickups. It made a lot of sense because they are in the same price range as the smaller electric vehicles. The maintenance department was all for it, and I had a dealer engaged that loaned us an evaluation unit. What happened? The whole thing got squashed by a lady in Environmental Health and Safety who wanted only electric vehicles on site!

I'll be watching this build Mike! Great idea and I love your daughter's business! Is this the same daughter who drove the Chevy van?

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I'll be watching this build Mike! Great idea and I love your daughter's business! Is this the same daughter who drove the Chevy van?

I never realized there were so many of these imported here though I have seen some older ones that seem to be working on the road.

I should have guessed you would have built one of these, Tom. :D

And, yes .. same and only daughter ... hippie gone business ... but one she loves and is good at.

The van stayed together long enough (after it fell apart on the trip back from NNL east) to give her, though I hated to not be able to gaze at it here. There are 11x9 prints of it on the garage wall .. :)

P.S. the Reliant K-Car is her first car .. a gift from my aunt, who also gave me MY first car ... a 1951 Plymouth. ... how am I going to finish the k-car with this new Subie on the table??????

Edited by Foxer
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The wood enclosure is cut and stained and the bed angles are glued. I may add a higher row that will allow the wood to just slide in with no glue. Have to check my bolts to see what works as bolts thru the members.

woodDSC_1436_zpsee23c366.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

It's been awhile but the Subaru Willow Green Opal Mica matching her '06 Legacy are on. I did a lot of detail painting because there are so many parts to the suspension! It's not worth taking pics of those but I will do good photos of the chassis before mounting the body. I have a load of sewing pin heads painted and ready to be mounted to the wood. The decals are also about ready for printing.

 

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Edited by Foxer
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Too cool. I'm gonna be needing to get both the pickup and van versions!

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While not legal on US roads, there are a bunch of these small Japanese pickups in the USA. They are used on campuses and other large properties. The first time I saw them was at Disney in Florida. They were all over the property, a lot of them with the landscaping crews. The above one was on campus at Rowan University in NJ.

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And here's one I have, a Suzuki Carry. There is a whole series of these, some out of print and some current. So you should be able to get one if you want. I cut the van body off to make this small car hauler. I should finish it one of these days.

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  • 3 months later...

It HAS been a long time since an update but this one has been fighting me with little things .. and .. I HAVE been working on it since last update. The frame is mostly all together and the decals all applied. The fine, small details of the frame and suspension challenged my aging fingers but the resulting detail is amazing.

 

The decals using Papillo decal paper has been taking the most time to get them to lay down. They didn't respond to Micro Set or Micro Sol at all so I tried some Mr. Mark Setter and Softer for the first time. They did respond but not as well as I would have liked. You can see on the back of the cab ridges that the decals would not settle down around. I even slit the decals along the ridges but they still wouldn't settle tightly. I left it as is as good enough.

 

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Edited by Foxer
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Nice work Mike!

There are a lot of these Japanese mini pickups in the US. Most of them get used on private roads. When I was at Disney in Florida, they were all over the property, Rowan University in NJ had a bunch of them too. The companies I have worked for have had 100 acre campuses and used electric Cushman type vehicles, and I had suggested going for this style pickup since they would be more robust and last longer than the electrics.

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