ZHL

I just ordered a ZHL kit a month ago and awaiting it's arrival some time next year (slow boat from china) LOL. I came to this site to try and learn all I can prior to receiving it as this will be my 1st build.... ordered the 1:50 scale as my hands have been injured and I am hoping the larger size will help......I am retired and have wanted to build something like this ever since I was a kid....
tried planes but kept breaking the soft balsa wood (not good). I also found out that the plans for the ZHL Royal Caroline, which is the one that I bought, is in Chinese once again (not good) is there any way to get the instructions in English?? This site is overwhelming at times as I don't know a the nautical lingo and have to look most of it up to understand what people are talking about. But I have learned a great deal already from the articles on this site and the knowledgeable people here that are willing to share and teach. AWESOME group to learn from thanx and can't wait for my ship to arrive and begin my journey. Hopefully by the time that it gets here I will have learned enough to do a decent build.......LOL have a great day and happy building. Mike
just looked at zhl site for this ship and it says english manual . with that said the translation can get a bit fuzzy but the kits I have bought from zhl are full of pictures which is mainly what you will use rather than text in the manual.
 
OrCre is an excellent model kit manufacturer from Spain. One kit I was considering from OrCre was the Endurance which you may want to consider...it has history a great looker an very reasonably inexpensive. Also their instructions are excellent with plenty of pictures. The Endurance instructions can be downloaded for free....read Thur them find out if with you skill set you can complete the model. Also instructions and online build logs will help you a great deal with your work. Go for it !!!!!
 
I built the hull of this ship but not the rigging due to aging factors. As kits go today I would say it is mediocre in accuracy but it has good materials to work with and the price is right. This company has some of the rip-off manufacturers of high-priced kits trying to clean up their act.
 
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I built ZHL's cross section kit of the Bonhomme Richard, and it was by far the best kit I have ever built. Quality plans, WONDERFUL pear wood and other materials, etc. Their pear wood spoiled me for life, in fact.

It is difficult to buy anything today NOT made in China. Yet we do it all the time. At one time, everything from there was considered junk, but that has changed. I do NOT support copying plans and designs of others, but to my knowledge that was not done on the BH. I DO support a company who may have erred in the past by doing so, who is now doing their own research and producing kits of a quality available nowhere else. Everyone is entitled to mistakes; the new stuff coming from them appears excellent.
 
Thanx for the input and The more I read and see on this site the more I appreciate and learn.....thanx all and HAPPY HOLIDAYS
 
This ZHL controversy comes down to this. I don't like being told what I can or can't do with my hobby/art decisions. Period.
I think / feel no one is telling you. Just little advice to those who ask. Compound, 100’s parts and inaccuracies can make any builder loose faith. I give a jig saw as an example. But yes, you choose, your money, your time, your hobby. But at one forum meeting in Greenwich several model makers were very upset as they could not get answers from speakers. How do you explain a Man of War stem building to spilling of planks or their edges cut to fit snug, taper and … even rigging ….to lightening conductors … or scale or research and guess as there is no formal drawings. Also drawings are drawings : everyone knows building to drawings are 2 different things in practice. Good luck
 
I built ZHL's cross section kit of the Bonhomme Richard, and it was by far the best kit I have ever built. Quality plans, WONDERFUL pear wood and other materials, etc. Their pear wood spoiled me for life, in fact.

It is difficult to buy anything today NOT made in China. Yet we do it all the time. At one time, everything from there was considered junk, but that has changed. I do NOT support copying plans and designs of others, but to my knowledge that was not done on the BH. I DO support a company who may have erred in the past by doing so, who is now doing their own research and producing kits of a quality available nowhere else. Everyone is entitled to mistakes; the new stuff coming from them appears excellent.
This is what I bought. Great kit but problems but … as a kit. I was very happy! Hope yours turned out beautiful + did you do the updates?
 
Buenos días. Yo te recomendaría de Occre " Montañés". Es impresionante. Yo estoy con el muy ocupado.
I was going to suggest this one too, & also look at John Aliprantis's You Tube build for guidance. My first build was in 1983. I returned to the hobby in 2017, when I built USS Constitution (Mantua) 2017/18, I followed her with 'Monty', so technically, having forgotten what I'd learned 40 yrs ago, this was my 2nd build. I did find Lennart Pedersen's book invaluable during the rigging stage.
 
This is what I bought. Great kit but problems but … as a kit. I was very happy! Hope yours turned out beautiful + did you do the updates?
I did get the optional Interior kit, carved railing, and bought it in Pear wood. Is that what you mean by updates? I think it worked out well, but you can judge for yourself on My Build Log. (Scroll down for completed pictures.)
 
OcCre is also very good with customer support, sending broken or missing parts with no cost or little questions.

They have a range of products from beginners to advanced, so if you get one kit now and it ends up being to much, just hold on to it and in a year or so you will be up for the challenge.

If thinking of a specific ship do research in the build logs (search tool here is great) and see what others have done, and what issues them may have had.

When you do start, please start a build log so we can all follow along, and the team here is great on providing help and answers, which you may have.
 
One more thing to remember…although there are some aspects of building a more complex model that require a whee bit of experience (you can count on forum members to walk you through those), no matter how simple or complex the model, it is always one part at a time. Concentrate on the one part and don’t become overwhelmed by the thousand more parts still in the box! One part at a time…
 
If you are talking about serious kits which are independently developed, probably the most accurate that you can find, have brilliant materials and that is challenging to build, look no further than Kolderstok Models. And if you want the creme-de-la-creme have a look at the Zeven Provincien.

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Model built by Hans Groenenberg.
 
Thank you guys for all your answers. I just purchased Corel sm10 mirage, found it for 200 eur so I guess it was a bargain. So now im wondering what type of glus you guys use. Of course satandard wood/white pva glue. But is there any good CA glu or somthing that dries faster? Hate waiting time:)
 
Thank you guys for all your answers. I just purchased Corel sm10 mirage, found it for 200 eur so I guess it was a bargain. So now im wondering what type of glus you guys use. Of course satandard wood/white pva glue. But is there any good CA glu or somthing that dries faster? Hate waiting time:)
I recommend Titebond II glue for yellow PVA glue. It sets up pretty fast. Other people have other glues that work well too, but you'll find that one is probably the most popular. As far as CA glue goes, most any brand works, and I found that medium thickness is the most versatile. It won't soak into rigging knots and turn them into instant rock, and it leaves you enough time to correct the position of a plank you are laying down on the hull before it sets. After my first ship, I changed from CA to PVA for more glue joints, especially planking. because I got more experience getting planks to stay in position with clamps or simply pre-forming the plank wood to eliminate it springing apart. CA will fill wood pores and resist stain, so you may end up with unstained blotches if you use it exclusively on the final planking layer. If you do use CA glue on the hull, MOVE FAST AND EFFICIENTLY to get that plank in the correct position.

Le Mirage is a most beautiful ship! When building a Corel model, you may come across simplifications in rigging some of the lines that will conflict with your research, so if you are looking to super-detail the model, watch for that. There are occasional mistakes in the drawings, so don't think you are crazy when you find one. Instead, post a question on the forum and get opinions from your forum buddies first. As a final step, washing the gold plated decorations with a diluted dark brown or perhaps black paint will bring out lots of details and you'll like the effect. Corel models assume you know how to plank a ship hull and know basic rigging, so written instructions are almost nonexistent, so get a booklet on planking, read build logs on this forum, and approach it slowly, carefully and neatly. Don't rush it. Be aware that after first planking, you WILL have to buy wood filler, and fill and sand flat spots and fill low spots to get rid of hard bends or areas that appear like folds in the hull, so the overall shape is smooth and graceful. Also, the scale of 1:100 is rather small for a wooden sailing ship, so working on the rigging and adding details will be a great challenge than on a large model.

Looking forward to watching your build log as you go. Thumbsup
 
Hi Steve,#
I agree with you, using books, archaeological field reports, manuscripts to produce your own plans is I expect what most legitimate companies do when they produce a model kit, I cannot see how else they would. But that is not really what I was saying, I think it was the cutter 'Lady Nelson' that Kurt was referring to in the MSW exposé. The 'Lady Nelson' was a factious cutter designed from scratch, yet ZHL produced a kit identical to that produced by Victory Models. This I am sure even Perry Mason could not defend. It is this type of outright theft, plagiarism, copying, call what you like, that I think we should call out
we use ZHL as a producer / manufacture of model ships but from what I understand they are just a supplier of Chinese produced ships kits of which many ships sold by ZHL are legitimate, and the suppliers have the rights to produce! I left MSW just because of this Rederick, and here we go again! just ask Max at ZHL for the manufacture of the kit you are going to buy and see if it is a knock off or not!!
 
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