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Imai/Aoshima 1/60th Junk build

Joined
Sep 18, 2022
Messages
240
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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 the Viking) 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 Blask base with sand topcoat, which 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 washes.

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.

The pics below are the initial stages of parts prep. Here is a link to learn the history.




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Mud 1.jpg

Mud 2.jpg

Mud 3.jpg
 
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Let me know what you find about the blocks.

i was planning on using the ones from the kit but I'm going to add rigging for the sheets and the lifts and so I had to get some extra (traditional) blocks. So maybe the kit blocks will look out of place. Or, if the kit blocks are correct, then the ones that I've bought will look out of place!

So I'll be interested in what you learn!
 
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.

 
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