Unicorn 1/48th scale Bonhomme Richard (Swiss Pear)

Jim Conacher said:
The kit looks nice. I have been told that ZHL copies kits and that they are cheaply put together kits? I do not have any personal dealing with them so I am only going off what I have read and been told. Is the kit a good grade? I will be following your build to find out. I sure hope shes a good kit.
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Ive had good luck with my ZHL Soleil Royal. The parts look even better with this kit, especially the blocks and line (with the exception of that shiny one). Max responded well with requests. Chinese to English instructions a little difficult and out of order.
 
Jim Conacher said:
The kit looks nice. I have been told that ZHL copies kits and that they are cheaply put together kits? I do not have any personal dealing with them so I am only going off what I have read and been told. Is the kit a good grade? I will be following your build to find out. I sure hope shes a good kit.
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ZHL is just a reseller, he's good because he will supply little extras here and there in some of his kits and he is a ship modeler himself. But he doesn't manufacture the kits. He does sell kits that are copies of western kits, like the Caldercraft 1/64th HMS Victory. I know for a fact that ones is a copy since I have one.

But this Bonhomme Richard kit is made by Unicorn. I don't know if they copy kits, they might. This kit however is not a copy. No one else makes a 48th scale BR. If you go on MSW they will tell you it's still stolen because Unicorn used the ANCRE monograph plans to create the kit, but that's stupid. Western kitmakers use other's research all the time, oftentimes attributed, sometimes not. Here I think they are merely lumping all Chinese kitmakers together.

This one looks pretty nice to me. There are some things I will try to do better, but the same is true in pretty much every kit I have ever seen. I always see stuff I want to improve on every kit I have bought.
 
Jim Conacher said:
The kit looks nice. I have been told that ZHL copies kits and that they are cheaply put together kits? I do not have any personal dealing with them so I am only going off what I have read and been told. Is the kit a good grade? I will be following your build to find out. I sure hope shes a good kit.
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Jim,
thats an incorrect statement. There are a few haters from another site running with that comment, but they are high quality and great value for money kits.
 
Vfordyce said:
Ive had good luck with my ZHL Soleil Royal. The parts look even better with this kit, especially the blocks and line (with the exception of that shiny one). Max responded well with requests. Chinese to English instructions a little difficult and out of order.
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Bryian said:
Jim,
thats an incorrect statement. There are a few haters from another site running with that comment, but they are high quality and great value for money k
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Bryian said:
Jim,
thats an incorrect statement. There are a few haters from another site running with that comment, but they are high quality and great value for money kits.
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It was a question. I was asking because I had never dealt with one of their kits. I said it looked like a nice kit. Now I do not know of what site you are talking about. I know I have not seen ZHL kits for very long and like I said I have never dealt with them as far as building any of their kits.
 
Jim - ZHL, as has been mentioned is simply a seller. The kit is manufactured by Unicorn which is one of - if not the best, mainstream manufacturers in China. Thay are one of the BIG THREE in China, together with Luihaiqingkong and Schicheng.
 
 
Jim Conacher said:
The kit looks nice. I have been told that ZHL copies kits and that they are cheaply put together kits? I do not have any personal dealing with them so I am only going off what I have read and been told. Is the kit a good grade? I will be following your build to find out. I sure hope shes a good kit.
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There is a Bonhomme Richard build log on Sos ,the kit is very good quality,the kit is not made by Zhl ,it is made by Unicorn Models

USS Bonhomme Richard 1779 1:48 [COMPLETED BUILD]

Hi everyone, I thought maybe it's not bad idea to share my current build - I'm doing it since January 2018 and the hull is almost comletely finished, just some final touch-ups untill I move to masting... I will post photos from the beginning, maybe several times per week. I'm not very good in...
shipsofscale.com
 
rtwpsom2 said:
I'm sorry, Luiz, I am not ignoring your question. I planned to answer when I have time to post the third box. However life, like always, can get in the way. For the most part I am impressed with the parts. The swiss pear parts are AMAZING. They feel so nice to the touch. The CNC boxwood carvings look awesome with an incredible amount of detail. More on those in the next box posting.

The blocks and tackle are nice, I think they are cherry. I plan to find boxwood ones to replace them but I don't plan to throw them out, they are still nice and can be used in other projects.

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The lines are pretty good. I am not sure if they are synthetic or not, but they hold their twist and don't stretch at all.
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I am unsure about the colors, though. The tan is a bit on the glossy and, I don't know how to say it, but shiny side. It is very nice thread, but I think it should be a bit duller, less reflective. Here it is compared to some rope I just made Gutermann Sew All, which is synthetic. Don't try to compare it to the quality of my rope, I suck so far, still learning. The quality of Unicorn's rope is far superior. That said, there has been some recent discussion about black rope on ship models, and I think I would prefer colors like Gutermann's 722 tan for running rigging and 696 dark walnut for standing rigging. Plus, I just bought a ropewalk and REEEEEAAAAALLLLLYYYY want to make some nice looking rope on my own, similar to Ohla Batchvarov's, Chuck @ Syren, and Ben @ Rope's of Scale.
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There are also a few castings, like the fantail lamp. If you look REALLY close you can see they were made from 3D resin prints, but you really have to look close to tell. I am pretty happy with them. There is some PE, it seems run of the mill, which is to say it's nice, but we all know what PE looks like these days.
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I promise, I have all the pictures for Box 3 ready, I just need some time to sort them and pick which ones I will use, then I'll get it posted ASAP. Kinda been burning the candle at both ends with work, researching the Bluenose, building and testing the ropewalk, and this. Fortunately I had today off for my b-day and next monday we have a holiday at work. So there has been some me time to focus on stuff, and I'll get a little more this weekend. toodles.
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Thanks for the answers and photos. The lines really look good quality. It seems that the supplier has greatly improved this item. I bought from ZHL the Xebec kit, Le REQUIN 1/48, all in great quality except the lines, very bad in colors and appearance, I will have to replace everything.
Good luck with your ropewalk
 
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