Hi Tim,

Like the Preiser figures, they look a bit good.

I am sure you are right, there is something iffy about the scale. Looks to me though not all the components are the same scale.

Still looks pretty cool though.

Cheers.

Si

Tim,

Looking forward to your next installment. I love Pyro kits!

Thanks guys. I’ve been thinking about how to fit the anchors. The instructions show them mounted like in this picture from the boxtop of the Lindberg re-release:


This seems wrong to me. The anchors are awkwardly perched way out front without any support – they would have been immediately swept away in any kind of sea. Worse, there is a hawser leading into a “hawse hole” which Pyro had mistakenly placed in the hull. Actually, junks didn’t use hawse holes; the windlass for raising the anchors was located on the deck above, and what Pyro had depicted as a hole was actually a painted “dragon eye”, a feature once common on Chinese (and, as I recall, ancient Mediterranean) ships.

I patched the holes with .120 inch discs of .010 plastic. As for the positioning of the anchors, here are a couple of options which might make sense:


Which looks more likely?

Tim,
I'm thinking the anchor layout in your left photo is more plausible. It would require less man-handling for storing/releasing the anchors and the anchors could be secured to the rail above in high seas.
Just my $0.02.
John

Tim,
Just a quick question. In your earlier technical drawings there appeared to be a line through the hawse hole back to the rudder. Have you given thought on how or whether that line will be depicted?
John

Hi Tim,

Agree with John regarding the Anchors, the right hand picture doesn't look as seaman like, the kit method positively odd, the damage that would be caused if the fluke end of the anchors broke loose.

Cheers

Si

As for the question.... I have no idea. However, I do know that your Pyro builds are some of the most thought provoking builds here, just for questions such as how the anchors should be mounted. Add informative, and just a heck of a lot of fun gives the result that the builds have to be some of the most enjoyable going....

Looking forward to seeing more...

Bob

This is a great build to watch. Really liking what you did with the keel it looks SO much better and so obviously right now youve done it. Re the scale, i always thought it was about 1/80, when i saw the box art with the two guys and big guns in the back it didnt really look right compared to the actual model, i always thought of it as one guy with a twin machine gun like on a WW2 sas jeep. Junking the gunboat idea and going cargo might look better as you can now add more cargo and bits all over it, the figures look cool too! Maybe add a few chickens.

Cheers Bob

John and Si, thanks, I think you guys are right about the anchor stowage – I’ll probably secure them as you recommend.

BobSolo and bwiber, thanks very much for your kind comments; I try to make the blog as entertaining to others as the build itself is to me.

As for chickens, I hadn’t thought about that, what a great idea! As it is I have a few HO scale cats on hand:


I’ll have to find some chickens too

Hey Tim,
Love the idea about the cats! They keep down the rats and with a little sweet and sour sauce, who knows! LOL
John

Moving on to the sails, they are attractively depicted in three molded plastic parts. In typical Pyro fashion, they are handily represented as single billowing units with the battens (spars) already in place. Although simplified, this approach to sails almost always looks better than those vacuform things so often found in sailing ship kits. I find these more robust molded styrene sails much easier to work with too.

The one big disadvantage of molded sails is the circular knock out pin marks often found on them. Knock out (or ejector) pins are used in the injection molding process to apply a force to eject finished plastic parts from molds, and they often leave circular marks. This is especially true of older kits such as this one.

The three sails had a total of 18 of these knock out pin marks on them, but fortunately they were all located on the less visible concave sides.

I scraped them away one by one with a curved X-acto. It wasn’t the most engaging part of the build, but it was a pleasantly mindless exercise I could accomplish while sitting with my son watching the 300 Spartans take on the Persian Empire on DVD – so time well spent!

Another small task with the sails was to remove the little pins for aligning the masts from the battens.

It isn’t a highly visible change, but those pins really shouldn’t be there. I always regretted leaving them on my Niña and Pinta builds.

This is looking interesting. I'm rarely over here. Your problem solving skills are winning this kit. I'm following this blog, if you don't mind

By all means, KoSprueOne – I am honored, In fact! I have long admired your sci-fi dioramas

How about wargaming (1/72 or 25mm) Samurai?

Hey Biggles2, I looked around, didn't see anything I liked. Anyway, I'm now into the idea of my all girl crew, plus cats!

Het Tim,
A silly thought just entered my head; a floating cat house? Now my interest is reallt picqued.

On a more serioous note, I really like the way you are taking the limitations of the kit and making them opportunities to make your build unique. Hats off sir!
John

A simple, but elegant solution Tim.

Coming along very nicely.

That's the kind of cruise I could enjoy!

Another bad pun has come to mind. You could title the build "Puss and Boats". Bad John. Bad John. LOL

Anyway Tim, looking forward to your next installment.

This is a fun little kit, but the scale problems have sometimes been hilarious. My favorite is the bamboo poles. You can see them mounted to the junk’s sides on the boxtop of the Lindberg re-release :



They do look like bamboo... but the kit parts are MASSIVELY oversized for the ship at something like 1/35th scale!


Interestingly, real junks did carry what look to be spare battens or beams lashed to their hull sides – possibly these were sometimes wood, sometimes bamboo? Here’s a picture of one in Macao in 1977:

The bamboo pole parts in the kit are clearly oversized, but I wonder – should I go ahead and use them anyway, replace them, or maybe just leave them off altogether?

Replacing them with wood would look ok.. but looking at the box art they do mess up the lines of the ship, id leave them off, the hulls too cool to hang them off the side. Also you can then hang other things over the side like sacks, drying fishing net, tire? did they have tires back then? probably not

Tim,
They look way thicker than even the masts so unless they have a particular function like cushioning between ship and pier I would either replace them with poles the size of the battens or go with Bob's recommendation of leaving them off and hanging other stuff over the rails. I like the idea of fishing or cargo netting. I believe the bumpers would probably be made of woven rope bundles kind of like those I've seen on some DUKW trucks in the water.

That picture you posted also shows all sorts of shading options when you get to the painting phase. Rigging sure looks complicated too.

Also trolling around the web a couple nights ago I noticed several asian and peasant figures in 1/72 by Zvezda that might give you some options if the girls don't work out.

As always, looking for more.
John

Tim,

great work with all your little fixes to the kit while basically staying OOB and keeping the spirit of this nice litte old gem

And the crew-discussions - hilarious! this is another real fun to follow build log of yours!!!

As for the bamboo, honestly no idea what they are for... I would definitely not use those kit's parts, they are too oversized... some good ideas here already!

Cheers

Jan

Hey Tim,
I've been reading a book of old sea stories, mainly British experiences. In one of the stories they mention a battle with several junks who were under way using sweeps in a constricted waterway. Could those poles have been tubes used to store the sweeps? They would be fairly handy without cluttering up the deck. Just a very long shot here. Either way you go I know its gonna look great.
John