That's a great subject. I'd like to see how it comes together.

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.

I love seeing something different and this should be a good one.....Cheers mark

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.

This is going to be cool!

Steve

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!

Looks awesome Dave!

Steve

Off the beaten path for sure, and I'm loving it

Dave,

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.

Steve

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.

http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12867

Hmmm...can't get the link to work right... you will have to copy and paste it.

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?

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.

The mysterious orient...ergo the phrase?

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.

Interesting stuff.

Dave

Another questionable facet to this kit...

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?  

Steve

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.

Wow, very neat and different subject. And fantastic job - I love the wood finish you've done.

Thanks!

Steve- Now that you mention it, the Santa Maria did have a sloppy transom fit...nothing a few rubber bands and some CA couldn't fix, though!  

Gamera- The finish is a hybrid of acrylic paints, thin black wash, and oil paints...I'm going to spray the whole thing with Dullcote later.

Dave

I have a few progress pics...assembly is pretty straightforward.  

Top view of deck Foredeck with tent and anchor windlass Starboard view These are the winches for the boat davits...Note that the instructions did not mention putting any line on them, but I figured it out... Quarter deck canopy, in this pic you can see how I trimmed the caprail so it will fit next to the inboard pinrail...much better. Just need to add a few more parts, then it's just rigging...and mounting those big, clunky molded sails...I hope the masts are up to the task! Thanks for looking! Dave

David_K

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...

Dave

Spoiler Alert!

In the swashbuckler story "Soldier of Fortune" by Gann, our hero has a 40mm Bofors cannon hidden in there that he uses to enable an escape from PRC patrol boats.

If you want to make it a modern junk just stick on a VHF radio antenna, a satellite T.V. dish,  registration numbers on the bow that look like the were painted on with spray paint, and some modern navigation lights.  ;-)

This thing is awesome!

David;

You have truly mastered the technique for making it look like real wood/bamboo. I am interested to see how that empty wedge comes out. (weird, weird,weird!)

That is an incredible kit, and an awesome build.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Arnie, don't be too surprised when you see that the wedge is left totally open!  Haha

I'll be sure and post a close-up of it for ya!

Good times!

Dave

Dave,

You have done an amazing job of blending the oils on the Junk, well done!

Steve

I've taken a few more progress pics today, after getting the anchors installed, and the bamboo "bumpers" outside the bulwark.  For some reason, the lighting at my desk is making everything look very reddish with the iphone camera...the colors aren't actually this red...I'll need to figure out how to fix that.

Anyway, here we go:

The anchors are unlike anything I've used before (like a lot of stuff on this model!)...they have holes near the head, and at the base...since the instructions are super-vague, I kind of used my imagination and ran the rope through the upper hole, and tied it off at the lower one...makes sense, since it's how they would get the anchorhead up onto the deck to secure it. By the way, the line I used for the anchors is some Corel hemp stuff I got from MS...though it's thoroughly waxed, it still keeps fraying...the more I think about it, the more I realize I need to score a bunch of line from that Syren company I've been hearing about! Here's the bamboo bumpers...bundled them up, held in place with clothespins, wrapped a few times with line, held the line with clips and tied it off with some darker, thinner thread. Wrapped the line around the railing a few times, and voila! Here's the finished look of the bumpers... All that's left now is the rigging...should go pretty quickly...although, as I may have mentioned, the instructions are vague, the pictures are terrible, and my interpretation of the rigging will probably be...creative! Thanks for looking!