Le Requin 1/48 ZHL model [COMPLETED BUILD]

This week, I have been working on the ornaments on the sides. They need to be thinned down from 4 to 2 mm. Since the pieces are so small and fragile, I do it manually on a piece of sandpaper and only a few at a time, to let my finger tips recover/heal. The ornaments are placed first to align with the holes, and afterwards a (golden) strip is placed aligned with the ornaments and grid in the back. Afterwards, I'll place the top railing together with the back plate. Easy!! ;)

IMG_9472.jpg

IMG_9473.jpg

IMG_9475.jpg

IMG_9476.jpg
 
This week, I have been working on the ornaments on the sides. They need to be thinned down from 4 to 2 mm. Since the pieces are so small and fragile, I do it manually on a piece of sandpaper and only a few at a time, to let my finger tips recover/heal. The ornaments are placed first to align with the holes, and afterwards a (golden) strip is placed aligned with the ornaments and grid in the back. Afterwards, I'll place the top railing together with the back plate. Easy!! ;)

View attachment 421141

View attachment 421142

View attachment 421143

View attachment 421144
Looking very good Crypton
 
This week, I have been working on the ornaments on the sides. They need to be thinned down from 4 to 2 mm. Since the pieces are so small and fragile, I do it manually on a piece of sandpaper and only a few at a time, to let my finger tips recover/heal. The ornaments are placed first to align with the holes, and afterwards a (golden) strip is placed aligned with the ornaments and grid in the back. Afterwards, I'll place the top railing together with the back plate. Easy!! ;)

View attachment 421141

View attachment 421142

View attachment 421143

View attachment 421144
Good evening. This is beautiful. The ZHL Le Requin has to be the best kit on the market at present. Just stunning.! You have done justice to this kit and then some. Awesome work. Cheers Grant
 
Thank you all again for your nice comments. I agree that this might be the best kit currently on the market. This week, I finished the rail on the back. There was not too much info in the manual, so I improvised a bit. Surprisingly, it all fitted very well ;)
Afterwards, I finally took the ship out of its frame to inspect the bottom side. There is quite some sanding to do there at least to keep me busy for another week.

IMG_9514.jpg

IMG_9516.jpg

IMG_9517.jpg

IMG_9519.jpg

IMG_9523.jpg

IMG_9524.jpg

IMG_9525.jpg

IMG_9529.jpg

IMG_9530.jpg

IMG_9531.jpg

IMG_9532.jpg
 
Thank you all again for your nice comments. I agree that this might be the best kit currently on the market. This week, I finished the rail on the back. There was not too much info in the manual, so I improvised a bit. Surprisingly, it all fitted very well ;)
Afterwards, I finally took the ship out of its frame to inspect the bottom side. There is quite some sanding to do there at least to keep me busy for another week.

View attachment 422806

View attachment 422807

View attachment 422808

View attachment 422809

View attachment 422810

View attachment 422811

View attachment 422812

View attachment 422813

View attachment 422814

View attachment 422815

View attachment 422816
Good afternoon. I love this ship and how you are building it. Marvellous. Cheers Grant
 
This week, I have been sanding very carefully to prepare for the planking of the hull. The top hull planks are only 1 mm thick, so there is not much room for flattening it by sanding after planking. Also, I have placed the first line of the hull reinforcements. I'm happy with the straight lines. Let's see how the planking will go...

IMG_9543.jpg

IMG_9544.jpg

IMG_9545.jpg

IMG_9546.jpg

IMG_9547.jpg

IMG_9548.jpg
 
This week, I have been sanding very carefully to prepare for the planking of the hull. The top hull planks are only 1 mm thick, so there is not much room for flattening it by sanding after planking. Also, I have placed the first line of the hull reinforcements. I'm happy with the straight lines. Let's see how the planking will go...

View attachment 424322

View attachment 424323

View attachment 424324

View attachment 424325

View attachment 424326

View attachment 424327
Very impressive.
 
Just before finishing the Brazzera from Maris Stella, I ordered a new kit. It took almost 2 months to arrive (Aliexpress :) ), but it was worth the wait. I have been looking for a high-end and challenging kit and I think Le Requin from ZHL is exactly that. I expect, it will take quite some endurance (no not the ship) and research (crappy chinese manual), since I did not find too many complete building blogs of this kit.
ZHL put online a nice unpacting movie of the kit (
) so I'll just leave it with some pictures. My first impression is really everything I hoped for. I like that everything is high quality wood (I believe I got the pear version) and the 3D carved parts are very detailed.
Like the previous building log, I will most likely post an update every week. Any help and suggestions are always welcome.
Hallo @Crypton
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday-Cake
 
Thank you all again for your nice comments. I agree that this might be the best kit currently on the market. This week, I finished the rail on the back. There was not too much info in the manual, so I improvised a bit. Surprisingly, it all fitted very well ;)
Afterwards, I finally took the ship out of its frame to inspect the bottom side. There is quite some sanding to do there at least to keep me busy for another week.

View attachment 422806

View attachment 422807

View attachment 422808

View attachment 422809

View attachment 422810

View attachment 422811

View attachment 422812

View attachment 422813

View attachment 422814

View attachment 422815

View attachment 422816
Wonderful and amazing work.
 
I continued with planking the hull. The instructions indicates to start with a 3.0 mm thick strip, followed by an every decreasing thickness (2.8, 2.6, 2.4 ...). For each thickness 4 strips are provided and at least 2 are needed to cover the length of the ship. Since it is high quality pear wook, I do not need to soak them or use any clamps or nails. I just super-glue them, while bending them with force force and hold them in place with patience. The planks are tapered to 4 mm in the front. For the rest there are not too many sharp bends in the hull, so planking is pretty straight forward.

IMG_9666.jpg

IMG_9669.jpg

IMG_9670.jpg

IMG_9672.jpg

IMG_9692.jpg

IMG_9695.jpg

IMG_9706.jpg
 
This week, I closed the hull and started with the gun-ports. The tricky part is to drill the holes straight through the bulkwards. Also, the small hatches next to the gun-ports are too small for me to cut out of the hull. Therefore, I decided to mimic them by carving a pencil line in the wood. Most likely I'll weather the brass hinges in a later stage of the build.

IMG_9708.jpg

IMG_9710.jpg

IMG_9711.jpg

IMG_9712.jpg

IMG_9713.jpg

IMG_9715.jpg

IMG_9717.jpg

IMG_9718.jpg
 
Back
Top