# Farpro's Ancient Shiun: Norm of Ages!



## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Sometimes, my love of esoteric subject matter and my almost perverse addiction to old, cruddy and more-or-less-completely-undesirable kits intersects in a cool, but ultimately painful way. A perfect example of this is when I encountered, and proceeded to snap up, a whole mass of Farpro Japan kits in a (now defunct) local shop.

These are the ancient Aoshima kits, but without the cool box art. That means they’re just dogs with mangy coats, I suppose. Still, the part of me that loves a challenge and roots for the underdog can’t help but want to see these 50+ year old gems built. I’ve already built one, and another will be underway soon. To get a feel for this next project, check out my Out of Box review for the Farpro 1/72 Shiun (Norm) recce floatplane.

Regardless of the badness of the kit, the Norm itself is a cool looking plane, and is rare for Japanese aircraft in that it has a counter-rotating propeller! I could have bought the newer, better and I’m sure less troublesome RS kit, but why, when I have this gem on the shelf!

Check it out here, and then survey your own stash of more modern kits and thank the modelling gods they don’t make ‘em like this any more!

* https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/m...ws/farpro-japan-172-e15k1-shiun-norm-oob/[/b]







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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Over at the IPMS Orlando show this last weekend there was a vendor with a crapton of these old 1/72 kits. They were all only $2 to $4 each and in various boxes. Farpo, Aoshima/Aosima, Nitto, Nichimo, Otaki, and some brands I have never heard of. I should have bought some of the 1/72 planes but I did pick up a lot of old 1/50 Marusan, Bandai and Tamiya kits. I had a stack that added up to $40 by my counting but the seller said it was $25... Marusan Oscar, Marusan Zero, two Bandai/Imai Val dive bombers, Tamiya Myrt, Tamiya Raiden, Tamiya Oscar and Tamiya Tojo.


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## Faust (Dec 1, 2012)

Nice! 

I've never seen any Maru-san kits, other than a trading kit of their old F-86. Yours, the original in 1/50, is probably pretty valuable, actually. Nice haul! Those must have cool box art too, eh? 

Gotta love the old ones, for interest's sake, even if not for building


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Oh yeah, the F-86D. I have a couple of those in Fuji boxes. I did start working on Imai's 1/50 Val and its awful. I had to sand the whole kit smooth due to poor fit on the main pieces. The shape isn't too bad but that is about it. There is no cockpit to speak of and the top of the fuselage and the wing were designed to be removable and have huge 1/32" wide gaps. It's one of those kits where I keep having to put more putty on it and sand it down again and again.

The Marusan kits are in UPC boxes but they artwork is okay. The paintings were done by one of the artists who also did some Revell paintings.


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