Well, its been awhile since I posted a WIP on the ol’ forum…
Just finished my Chebec, and now I’m excited to begin a new build of Imai’s Chinese Junk.
I got this kit on Ebay some time ago, and I figure this is as good a time as any to build it! Looks like a lot of fun! It’s not a large or complicated kit, but I really dig the textures of the ship, and I hope it’ll be fun for other members to watch it come together…
Here’s a pic of the box to get the ball rolling! I’ll add more as events warrant!
Very nice grab there Dave. I love Imai kits in fact I searched this one after you posted it and found something else, a topsail schooner, I’ve been wanting for a while.
Can’t wait to see you bring her to life!
I only ever built the old Revell kit, which was, well, a piece on junk.
But I was inspired by the Gann book “Soldier of Fortune” and added a 20 mm cannon in the captains cabin behind a drop transom.
Glad you guys are interested! It should be fun! Noticed today that the big deck piece was broken into about 4 pieces! Guess I’ll be doing some preliminary gluing! Such are the pitfalls of buying previously-owned merchandise!
Doing some parts prep today to get ready for airbrushing, and I noticed a part that I wanted to share…this is a great example of things that Imai did with their molds that make some parts, well…special. This is a canopy/frame of a deck tent…the part is actually perforated where the canvas or whatever is separate from the frame, on each side of the long railing you can see the narrow slits on the left of the part…I think little details like this would be easily overlooked by a typical model manufacturer…with a part with this kind of detail, I can make it actually look like a piece of canvas tied to a wooden frame (except for the out-of-scale thickness of the canvas, of course!)…
Anyway, maybe I’m blinded by my love for Imai kits, but I wanted to share it!
Had some time to finish up all the airbrushing of basecoats today…here’s a snapshot of the main sail, with only a coat of Radome Tan, oversprayed with some Dark Tan for added texture. Still needs the yards painted, and some additional dingy-ness to make it look dirty and old. I’m using the kit molded sails…I’ll probably go to the extreme with weathering on this kit.
Thanks, Steve! I’m glad you’re excited about it, too! After some of my previous builds, I really think this will be a piece of cake, but it should turn out very pretty, I hope!
Got a little bit of assembly done recently, hull and deck are together, and got some detail painting/weathering finished. One thing that struck me as odd (and I didn’t notice it until after the parts were fitted) was the stern of the ship is apparently open…there’s no stern! Yes, there are a couple of guns and some framework, but really, the hull is kind of split in the rear, above the waterline…trippy.
Anyway, here’s a few pics of the current state:
The display base- Hatches- deck railing with Dragons!- Caprails- Hull on the stand- Deck from above (the interior of the lower decks will be covered by the hatches, so I don’t think I’ll bother with any detailing down there) Rear of the ship (you can see how it’s left open, I guess that’s how they were?)…like I said, there will be some guns mounted in that area, and some framework, but I think it’ll be pretty much exposed…have to get in there and do a little painting!
Is there no transom at all? What about the directions, do they show a transom? If you look in “The Ship” you’ll see that they were usually very decorative. I know the book is not the end all and be all of reference material, but in my experience, I have never seen a junk that was open ended like that.
Here’s a link to a build of the IMAI kit that clearly shows that the bow and stern are both open on the top deck, but there is a “railing” which may or may not have been added by the builder who states that he made some modifications, but not what they were.
Well, I dry-fitted the “transom” for this ship, here’s a pic:
As you can see, it’s very much open in the wedge-area aft of the rudder post…there will be two guns mounted within the middle “window area”, and also a big “gunport” that will be open in that area, but below that…nothing. Seems weird, right? And the instructions/parts do not indicate any other construction down there…although, the ship’s boat will be suspended from the rear of the ship also, so that area will be pretty obscured…just makes me go Hmmmmm?
I saw those pics from the Benno’s Forum when I was doing some reference-searching…that dude did a great job! I like the red on his sails, for some reason…
Looking at that build again. There is no direct shot of the stern to show what he did (bummer). And I really like the red sails too, adds to that oriental flair. I think if it were me, I would have to cover that up unless the boat completely takes care of that.
Just looked up some info from Landstrom’s The Ship.
There are two illustrations of different Junk transoms…both richly decorated (as Steve mentioned), but one does appear to have an open port above the rudder, though much smaller than the void on my model.
However, in the text Junks are described as having their hulls compartmentalized into many (as many as 20) watertight bulkheads, to protect the ship from sinking in the event of a leak, or if it were hit by an hornery whale!
So I suppose that open area could just be a cavity, and the remainder of the ship could be perfectly sealed and each compartment dry? Dubious.
The caprails on the amidships bulwarks are shaped in such a way that they interfere with the placement of the pinrails on the inner deck…basically, they get in the way of each other, and one or the other must be modified to fit them on the model. I’ve decided to re-shape the caprails, re-paint them, and then re-attach. Shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s worth noting for future builders of this kit…also, I think it’s just a bit lame…I don’t think design flaws like that should exist in my world! haha
It’s also worth mentioning that in the illustration for assembly of this step, it’s very obvious from the pictures that the builder for the instructions had to modify the parts, or scratchbuild something new…in the pics, they are just rectangular strips! Too bad there’s no warning in the text of the instructions!
Here are the caprails…notice the bulging shape! And here is one in place…notice that the stylish bulging shape gets int he way of the nearby pinrail…and it won’t sit correctly on the locator pin. Reference pis of the pinrail with the locator pins…it’s very obvious they are too close to each other… Thanks for looking in! Once I get done with surgery on these parts, I’ll post a few pics of the hull with deck furniture in place…hard to believe I’m almost ready to step the masts…very few parts to this bad boy!
Nicely done Dave. I do not think I have seen such a bad fit problem on an Imai kit. I expect it on Heller sailing ships and on some other manufacturers. However, didn’t you have a fit issue on the transom of the Imai Santa Maria?
By the way, red sails were not restricted to orient. Apparently there is a preservative that was widely used that made the sails red in color. I am building a Great Lakes schooner that apparently had red sails- they were quite common on the lakes.
