With the Revell Viking Model completed yesterday, I wanted to build a kit I had not done yet – a larger scale Chinese Junk. I have an old Imai Model of the Chinese Junk; the kit went under in Hurricane Katrina (like 50 others) and had to be soaked and washed to get the dried mud from all the various parts.
The kit has been re-boxed a few times and also sold by Aoshima as a Chinese War Junk. I’m removing the machine guns and aft deck guns and filling the holes; I’m building a normal version. I’ve been doing a good bit of research on this as well. I’d like to give a shout out to a few modelers in Australia - Harry Houdini (for his excellent build up for inspiration) John Lattanzio for sending me a scanned set of instructions and some very good notes for the build.
The assembly is pretty straight forward and there is little flash, but you’ll still need to remove some light seems from the masts and other parts as normal. I’m going to use the stand that comes with the kit as it’s very sturdy and the name plate is part of the stand.
The deck treatment is the standard Black base with sand topcoat, (which I learned about 30 years ago), it will be lightly sanded to show the black deck grain. Because the model will represent a working Junk, it will have a heavy amount of dirty wash.
The sail treatment will be the hardest due to the contrasting colors of the dark red sail (either Tuscan or Box Car Red) and the bamboo battens, which are very light/bleached tan color. I’m going to do my best mask and airbrush these vs. hand paining if possible. The kit provided rigging blocks but I’m not too sure they are accurate, so some more research is needed.
The junk has 3 bow anchors that seemingly are simple pitched over the bow when needed, I’ll build as instructed, but I’m not sure that correct.
Moving right along, because the deck has a nice wood grain finish, I was able to lightly scrape off a bit of the tan top coast to show the black undercoat. In the first pictures you can see it really makes the deck boards ‘pop’. The caulk seams are also scraped and then a #2 pencil is drawn down each as well. Because this will be a worn and dirty junk, the deck will get an additional wash down with a water base black grime to accent the panels. The deck wells and stairs will get a darker brown color and a lit bit of weathering, but hatches will cover them mostly, so you really won’t see the inside of them. The hull got its base colors but I’m undecided what bow and stern quarters colors I’m going to use, at first, I was going with a shade of faded blue or green but I’m leaning toward a red shade - which is widely considered a symbol of good luck, prosperity, and happiness in Chinese culture.
The blocks might be ok, I like the rope groove, but the eyelet is as large as the block so I’m looking at the blocks from Syrene Models and model expo. I 'll use the beautiful blocks if I need to order. The standard blocks are too rough cut. I have a sizing chart that will help for the block size and rope size.
While the hand painting makes the model trim look sloppy, it an intended effect as the dry brushing and grimy water wash will balance it out, the Junk was a working boat, and it would never be clean and neat. The aft section will have the round Ying and Yang painted in the traditional white/black combo as normal. The fore and aft deck hatch will be 50% covered, so I simply gave them a grimy wash down. The main hatch is fully covered, I don’t know why I even bothered, force of habit ;). I spot tested 2 shades of Red to see how it would affect the colors.
The Ropes of Scale size chart is something all ship modelers should have as it will help you select the right size rigging for any models.
The photo with the different block size serves the same purpose; to help get the correct sized blocks, I will go with the Model Expo "Beautiful’ walnut blocks as they are cleaner and in better condition than the rougher boxwood blocks that most kits use. The plastic kit supplied blocks with the built-in eyelet was intended to help simplify the rigging, remember this was for mostly kids to build, NOT crazy modelers, like us!
Thanks Kevedog, long way to go it will be a bit slower build with a 9 day break starting June 11-19th. We’re heading out for an Alaskan Cruise with the boss lady.
While the hand painting makes the model trim look sloppy, it an intended effect as the dry brushing and grimy water wash will balance it out, the Junk was a working boat, and it would never going to be ship shape. The aft section will have the round Ying and Yang painted in the traditional white/black combo as normal. The fore and aft deck hatch will be 50% covered, so I simply gave them a grimy wash down. The main hatch is fully covered, I don’t know why I even bothered. I spot tested 2 shades of Red to see how it would affect the colors.
The Ropes of Scale size chart is something all ship modelers should have as it will help you select the right size rigging for any models.
The photo with the different block size serves the same purpose; to help get the correct sized blocks, I will go with the Model Expo "Beautiful’ walnut blocks as they are better shaped than the boxwood blocks that most modelers use. The plastic kit supplied blocks with the built-in eyelet was intended to help simplify the rigging, remember this was for mostly kids to build, NOT crazy modelers, like me.
Not a lot done today, just fitting and gluing parts on the deck, weathering and washes. There are 2 shades of yellow, all bamboo parts are Floquil Polly Scale Depot Buff (water base), including the 7 larger bamboo stalks that mount on the outboard sides of the boat., this color is so close to real bamboo, you have a hard time see a difference. The deck trim (dragon, framing, ladders, etc. are Floquil Sp. Armor Yellow. The Dragon background is Boxcar red with drybrush gold for high lights.
In case anyone wantred to know the colors and brand of paint I’m using here they are. I have a decent supply of Enamels by Testors, Floquil and Timaya paints left from near 40 years of modeling, but you should be able to cross referance the colors with most acrylics. MCW Finishes has many of the same colors of the Testors lines in enamel as well.
Model Stand – Testors Flat Black with heavy dry brush of Floquil SP Yellow (SP= Southern Pacfic).
Lower Hull and Rudder– Testors Military Brown with a black washdown.
Larger Tan section of the sides - Floquil Earth.
All Bamboo parts – Floquil Polly Scale Depot Buff (water base).
Hatch Combings and inside of stairwells – Testors Rubber brown with Armor Sand dry brushing.
All wood structure framing on the decks and masts are – SP Amour Yellow with black wash.
Bow and Stern Quarters – I’ll leave to you to decide, but a heavy water based black wash will accent nicely whatever color you use.
Deck Treatment - base coat of Testors flat black, let dry 24 hrs. then covered with Testors Armor Sand (you can use different shades of tan to your liking). Let dry 24 hrs then using a #11 blade, lightly scrape off some tan to show the black basecoat.
OK, I couldn’t sleep past 3am and I went swimming the in the deep water of the net and found these references, from Ship of Scale and the net. Simply hanging the anchor off the bow like many of the pics show makes the ONLY sense. I suspect the still secured the hook from banging against the hull in heavy weather, but is normal sailing, they simply let them swing. I think for lack of better proof, I’ll do the same BUT only use 2 anchors. I found reference to the style anchor that were used on some of the boat and the one circled is close to the simple style of the kit. I also think the hole by the hook would have been used for a BAR to keep the hook from getting stuck to the bottom, I have just enough room for drilling out a chain link for a buoy, I’m still trying to research IF they use buoy’s
With the kit supplied anchors have the ‘Bar hole’.
Prepped the last of the parts tonight, Vallejo makes several shades of wash these two are my favorites. I decided to go with pale green quarter panels on the bow and stern, just could not talk myself into the pale blue or reds, the green will blend better with the tans and browns anyway.
In the first photo, you see is the spare bamboo the boats carries, the next photo is after a wash down which seeps into the cracks and seams and gives a shadow effect.
The little things take the most time it seems… Its not helping that everything is in Chinese… the lifeboat finished and washed, the kit did not come with oars, so I’m trying to figure out if they used oars or if they used a ‘paddle tail’ to propel.
The rice bag/cargo is assembled, I’m adding some barrels that did not come with the kit, they have to keep their rice wine in something.
The hull was test fitted with the deck in place to see if there would be any fit issues, The inner bulkheads were washed down to darken, I won’t wash the outside till its assembled because I need to fill and sand down the seam where the hull meats to get rid of the gap.
In case you’re wondering that section above the rudder is not missing anything, it’s actually open like that - strange if you have a following sea, they going to ship water quick.
While I was doing some research on the style of boats, I found a reference to Chinese Pirates, so I requested an Inter-Library Loan through the parish Library to see if they can find the book so I can read it.
I learned the technique WAY back in 1983-84 from Les Wilkins booklet “How to Build Plastic Ship Models” published by Kalmbach - Out of print, but I have scanned it.
