Per Arne Rikvold, Tallahassee, Florida
Per writes: “Chen Yuen (also Zhenyuan) and her sister, Ting Yuen (Dingyuan), were battleships built for the Imperial Chinese navy by Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). She was laid down in March 1882 and started sea trials in March 1884.” Per found Bronco’s 1/350 scale Chen Yuen at a hobby shop in Tokyo and couldn’t resist. He added: wooden decks from KA Models; pre-painted photoetched-metal lifebuoys from Eduard; depth-marking vinyl decals from BECC; and photoetched-metal shrouds with ratlines from Alliance Modelworks. Soaking the kit’s bright copper anchor chains overnight in Clorox bleach gave them the proper patina. He brush-painted the ship with Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics and rigged it with polyester fly-tying thread.