Fuji FA-200, 1/20 Nichimo

[mgbooyv8]

Hi guys,

 

The Fuji FA-200 is the third of the Nichimo 1/20 general aviation kits and just as rare.

 

This kit has a story.

I know my retired flight instructor for a longer time as a modeller than as a flight instructor.

When I started to take flying lessons in 1993 at what was called at the time "Martinair Vliegschool" at Lelystad Airport,

I met him there and thus found out he was a flight instructor!

The previous year Martinair had replaced their Fuji's with brand new American General AG-5B Tigers on which I learned to fly.

 

One of our members of the flying club bought the Nichimo kit to build the plane he learned to fly on.

Not being a modeller he stalled and gave the model to my flight instructor.

He kept it for years in the stash but did not came around to build it properly.

So last year, with permission of the previous owner, he sold it to me for a nice price.

 

And I'm going to build it!

 

First I had to dismantle it.

Being the start of the build according to the instructions, only the wings, fuselage and tailplanes had been glued together, I'm afraid not very expertly.

Luckily, nothing had been done with the interior, engine and the clear parts! 

 

The trick of putting the glued parts in the freezer helped to disassemble the wings, fuselage and landing gear.

For tailplane - and control surface halves, other drastic measures had to be taken, but that's for a next post.

 

Here's the box top:

 

And here are the box contents after disassembly of the kit and a little ordering of the parts in small bags:

 

That's it for now.

In the next post (maybe tomorrow if I have time) I will show the sprues and the parts, as I think you would like to see what this kit looks like.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[Jack]

have fun building Peet..........

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice project, Peter! I've just added you to this month's raffle draw.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Neat!  Yes indeed, Id like to see a breakout of the parts. Not a kit you see every day. 

[mgbooyv8]

Thanks guys!

 

Well, what's in the box?

 

The instructions and the decals:

 

An empty sprue with the stand to keep it on its three weels and a sprue with wheel spats and some interior parts:

 

A red and a black sprue with interior parts:

 

A sprue with not very convincing figures; the same as in the Cessna and probably the same as in the Hughes 500:

 

Sprues with engine and cowling parts and

a flexible sprue with torsion links for the undercarriage and a battery holder to power

the electric motor (not in the box anymore ), landing and taxi lights:

 

A blister with sliding canopy and rear part of the cabin, a blister with small metal parts for undercarriage and engine, optional rubber tyres  and other stuff,

a clear sprue with the windows and the landing light cover:

 

I have put the detached control surfaces in  separate bags, including the wing tips,

I did the same with detached undercarriage parts, other small parts etc.

The black parts are the interior floor and a holder for the electric motor if you wish to spin the prop:

 

Finally the wing- and fuselage halfs and the small light bulbs. One of the lights is gone, so these won't be used:

 

As an extra I got "mini-me" from my modelling friend Meindert: the Eidai 1/72 version.

Don't be surprised if it will sometimes make an appearance in this thread:

 

The plan is to make a Fuji of "Martinair Vliegschool" like the one below:

 

You already see that Martinair used two different versions of the Fuji. The rear one has a different cowling than the forward one.

The forward Fuji on the picture has the same cowling as in the kit, so most probably I will model PH-MBK.

Also I will not need the wheel spats. I haven't see any pictures of Martinair Fuji's with wheel spats installed.

 

I will start with neatening the control surfaces.

They are movable and their leading edges fit nicely into recesses at the trailing edge of wings and tailplanes.

The best approach is to finish them in nice white paint before they are attached. It will be fairly easy to mask them when the whole model will be sprayed.

I think this way I will avoid nasty paint ridges.

 

To be continued...

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

Edited July 18, 2019 by mgbooyv8
Added a sprue picture I forgot

[RadBaron]

Awesome! This looks like a fun kit to build

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Interesting photo....you may want to check the prop that comes with the kit.  I *think* the kit's prop is a constant speed prop, whereas the one in the photo looks like a fixed pitch.  I'd check my kits, but they're both packed away in a box from my recent move..

[MikeMaben]

 

               

 

 

[mgbooyv8]

Thanks guys!

Good catch, Cap'n Wannabe, thanks! 

The kit has indeed a constant speed prop, the pedestal has a pitch lever.

I checked the pictures: the  Martinair Fuji's had a fixed pitch prop and the throttle lever is at the location of the pitch lever.

So I will have to modify the pedestal accordingly and have to check if the kit propeller blades have a representative pitch for a fixed pitch prop. If not, I will have to change that.

I've made notes in the instructions. 

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

[Cap'n Wannabe]

3 hours ago, mgbooyv8 said:

Thanks guys!

Good catch, Cap'n Wannabe, thanks! 

The kit has indeed a constant speed prop, the pedestal has a pitch lever.

I checked the pictures: the  Martinair Fuji's had a fixed pitch prop and the throttle lever is at the location of the pitch lever.

So I will have to modify the pedestal accordingly and have to check if the kit propeller blades have a representative pitch for a fixed pitch prop. If not, I will have to change that.

I've made notes in the instructions. 

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

I'll be modelling one of mine as the last pre-production prototype.  I have the Cessna kit as well, so I'll be casting the prop from that kit in resin.  Not sure what I'm going to do about the spinner, though..

[mgbooyv8]

The work has started.

 

First I had to undo the not-so-very-good work done by the first owner.

The halves of flaps, ailerons and rudder were not aligned with each other, some of them had a shift of more than a mm at one side.

 

For example, here are the flaps:

 

The rudder was worse, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

 

While the leading edges and the sides popped apart easily, this was not the case with the trailing edges.

In order to preserve the delicate surface detailing, out came the JLC razor saw to carefully saw the halves apart:

 

The flap hinges did not survive the handling intact, but I could save the detailing.

 

Here's a picture of the rudder halves, sawed apart:

 

And the outer sides:

 

There's only a tiny scar, which is easily repaired. I've taken off the trim tab, it's easier to replace it with a piece of plastic strip.

The same procedure was needed for the ailerons.

 

Fortunately, the elevators halves were glued correct. The connecting axle was already broken.

What did not survive were the small posts in the fixed part of the horizontal stabilizer, which anchor the springs holding the elevator in place:

 

The same holds for the small spring posts in the wing.

However, these are easy to replace.

 

Some scars resulting from disassembly and glue marks of the first owner have to be removed as well.

For example at the location of the main gear on the wings:

 

And at the location of the horizontal stabilizer:

 

Thanks to the size, these scars and glue marks can easily be dealt with using small sanding sticks while preserving the surrounding surface details.

The ones made by Flory Models are ideally suited for this task.

 

Next will be the reassembly of the control surfaces.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[mgbooyv8]

Hi guys,

 

Reassembly of the control surfaces started.

I show the procedure with the flaps.

First, the leading edges were glued together with Tamiya Extra Thin (TET), held in place with clothes pegs:

 

When fully dried, the trailing edges were glued with TET. this time, they were clamped between two small planks (paint stirring sticks) with clothes pegs.

This way, a straight trailing edge is ensured:

 

The ailerons and the rudder were treated the same way.

The elevators only needed regluing of the leading edges and the balance surfaces with TET.

 

I found a picture of a Fuji in landing with flaps extended, which shows lightening holes in the end ripbs of the flaps, it's on the Ipad on the picture below.

So I drilled the holes required:

 

...only to find out that the Martinair example had closed en dribs on the flaps, see the picture in an earlier post!

 

That will teach me!

However, there was an advantage.

On the picture above, you see that the spring is easily removed from it's peg.

Guess who did not read the instructions carefully enough?

In the times before superglue, when this kit was born, a retainer had to be glued on the peg to hold the spring in place.

Well, now I can reach the peg to fix the spring with super glue before closing the flaps again.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

[chrish]

Whoo hoo!

I love these old 1/20 Nichimo kits!

wish they were still available  

[Shujaa]

Gonna follow this one with interest Peter !!!

Been lucky enough to fly Mike Bravo Kilo a few times back in the days...

 

Good luck with your build and I hope You will be able to do her justice.

 

Regards,

 

Rudy

[mgbooyv8]

Hi Rudy,

 

Thanks!

Good you were able to fly MBK back in the days.

There is still a Fuji for rent at EHLE, I think i should make a ride in it before it is sold.

I heard it is getting harder now to obtain parts, so the firm who owns it wants to sell it.

 

Well guys, nothing interesting going on with the Fuji: sanding and filling of the control surfaces.

Not worth a picture now.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter