Vivian Galad

Nice update. Painting looks good and seems black turns things a little bit obscure.

Hey, Edwin, thank you very much. Popeye, rigging is right there, bending that corner. Mother of Invention came here couple of days ago, we had some green tea

Hola, Raymond! Thank u for your words. I love the stairs, too. Took some pictures from the ship and the hold. Next four pics show the hold with and without the ship. Next 3 pictures shows the ships ladder attached to the port davit amidships closely and a bird´s view from top mast.

I want to thank you all, guys! I´m feeling clever reading your words ^_^ !! And, Sjors, I´ve got the popcorn. Yours are always the best!

Nice comeback, Popeye! :D

Hey, Hjalmar! Welcome and great ship you´r building. Nice scale to work with!

The preocupation with something as the central ornament of a shield pays off when your build is finished and details speak of accuracy for you. Great work!

Great project, Sharpie. As for the historical accuracy we can always build a new one with what we learn from the previous build. I´ll be following, for sure!

Janet, I´ll follow your build. The 2 of us are constructing this kit and is great to see each one is a really singular ship. Yours is a neat job. Great!

Fantastic work, Mark. And, if she´s a beast, you´r a great tamer :P

I´ve read from the 3, Mark (Well, I do wish to build Zheng He´s flagship)

Hear ye! Hear ye! News from the realm!! Vivian´s Chinese Junk got new fittings and it´s main mast - read all here! So, as I said, main mast is installed. Some tackles for the rigging are there too - with some small modifications since AL instructions told me to do it differently. Let us go for the pictures. Cannons are there too. I was a little skeptical about cannons at first (since I want a ship from about 1420 - 30). Research helped me to decide keeping them - The first guns found in junks wrecks are dated between 1400 - 1420. Laws from 1530+ dictated trade ships could carry 4 mounted guns and an assortment of small guns, for example. As chinese ships were victims of Wako pirates long before, my ship should carry guns for protection from pirate attacks. Fixed my anchor, too. I would prefer a different anchor, to be sincere - AL gave me a 2 armed anchor but most of the chinese junk depictions shows 4 armed anchors. As I didn´t find any works regarding the 15th century chinese anchors, I´ll stay with what I´ve got. And, last but not less important, my battery box for the lighting (part of the switch, too, since to light the cabin one just have to turn the box to one side) [ Last picture shows where the box will be. Two copper stripes will be attached to the box botton. Two other stripes will be coming out from the hole fix - as I explained before, to turn on/off you only need to turn the box till it enchase with the copper stripes.

Michael, my many thanks. I thought it to be (me as the only woman in the country to build model ships) - I entered some FB brazilian groups and there is only guys in there, basically building local ships or kits. It´s quite motivating to be the only one - or even the first one! cya!

To analyse Zheng He´s treasure ships you first need to understand the type of ship. Although too controversial, Zheng He´s fleet had ships 3 to 4 times the first ocean going european ships and tonnage about 800 tons for the treasure ships. After reading the monograph 'Misunderstood Junks: Western View of Chinese Maritime Technology' by Hans K. Van Tilburg I got through a lot of referencies and the best (monograph author´s appointment) for junks description is that of Joseph Needham´s Science and Civilisation in China, Vol 4, part 3 over Nautical Technology. I still have to find this book, but we can read some parts of it on google books - one special part regards a figure that shows the rudder for a treasure ship reconstructed after a rudder post found in 1962 in Nanking. Disregarding the Ming period texts, Zheng He´s ships were still marvelous in comparison to the Portuguese Caravels on the early 15th century.

Hey, Michael. Beautiful job. Your cannons are just great - almost want to take them home and feed them!! Your ship looks terrific with those guns.

Great pictures, Danny. Take off my hat for your work. Every detail is fantastic.

Prices are high, indeed. I would like to buy the Knarr and the Hanse Kogge. But the greek ships are great looking and surely demand attention.

Schnu, thanks ! I´ll put some pictures as soon as I finish all the fix - but is basically a box that once turned, lights the cabin. Brian, ty for visiting and for your words.

Ty for the explanation, Ships. It´s a very unique kit and is always good to know where the weak points lie. Also, it´ll be great to see you solve this problem (to reinforce the ram seems easy, but to reshape the ram itself looks more challenging). Great start! (I have interest in some kits from Dusek - your insight on this build will bring me some light )

That´s a nice kit to build. I´ll be following along. By the way, can u show us how the kit´s bow and ran are?

Hey, Jack. I´m feeling the "end is near" sensation on my ship. There is work to do, though and I´m happy for it. Thanks for visiting and I´ll keep working carefully on her. Popeye, thanks! I know I shouldn´t, but my main mast is already there ! Today I installed my cannons and the main mast, also worked on the switch mechanism for lighting the cabin (I´m trying to keep it simple). Problem is I wanted to have the outside lighting too, but I´m still thinking how to hide the wires - maybe only the cabin will have light. I´ll bring some pictures later.

Mark, thank you. I´ve been researching a lot to put this ship some place in history (even if AL wasn´t that precise - this ship has many accuracy errors). Pops, glad u still following Joe - I´ll still give my tries with blacken it, don´t worry. By the way, copper can be blackened with it? Ty!! Sjors, glad u passed by - can u give me some popcorn??? :P Thanks! Grant, I´m trying. U guys give me a lot of inspiration. Hey, Cap'. That´s the image I really want to pass. Ulises, no te preocupes!! Working still on her and I think it´ll take some more. It is my first junk, but still my second wooden ship ! And I´m learning every single day with you all, since I´m here always, reading and following and absorbing all that I can. I´ll be a little bit presumptuous, though, as my goal is to be a master in the future . Obrigada, amigo.

Hey, hey, hey. Time for new pictures, some words and advices for the young at heart. I took a pause from my ship since I was waiting for the Blacken It to arrive. As it arrived, I resumed my work. For using it the Blacken It Trials topic, by E&T was used. I did follow all the steps only replacing the muriatic acid by vinegar. I was about taking lots of pictures from the process, but, that is really unecessary since the Trials´ topic shows how it works so fine it would be a waste of time. But I do took a picture from a mistake I made... That´s how I put the metal pieces on the solution. I tried to shake the solution from time to time, but my results weren´t that great - lot´s of parts were stained - instead of a flat darkened surface, I got a stripe stained one for most of the metal parts. Even if I liked that way it wasn´t my goal they look so. Next time I´ll dump lesser metal parts on blacken it solution for a consistent result. Well, then I started on my ship´s hole, as it'll need some attention before rigging. I worked on taking out the planking around it so when I fix all the eletronics it´ll be easy to glue new planks over it. Now I´m waiting for some copper foil I bought to finish that part. After that I coated a second layer of varnish on the hull and a first one over the rails and castle. That was a called step from the ship´s instructions some pages before, but I decided to postpone it while I was still using sharp tools around. It was time for the rudder, then. I´m still thinking if I´ll set some brass stripes to it. Some old pictures shows rudders with no iron on them. Seems an obscure subject to build the rudder. So far, I followed the kit´s instructions. After the rudder I fixed all the metal fittings missing before. Cannons aren´t there yet cause I´ll paint them black - I tried blacken it on them, but didn´t like the results. The following pictures are from the fittings instalation and the ship´s general look so far. Next steps will be the lighting fix finish and rigging beginnings.

Hi, Vince. I´ve gone through your log and add my claps to MSW crew. Great ship to build and a fantastic job you´ve been doing so far. That stair got a lot of attention, mine included . I´ll take a place and follow your build with interest - Euromodel do have a kit I want (or the plans for one of my next ships).

Hey, Wolf. Nice improvement on the fittings. Great idea with the masking tape - I´ll possibly addopt it in some step . As for the carriages, think when I get my San Francisco under construction I´ll throw a lot of time at researching them cannons and carriages since I want to make she look a bit older (try to build an older galleon, something like the first ones to be built - still don´t know if it´s possible and that will be part of my research - sure thing my San Francisco won´t be the San Francisco ). Your carriage looks great enough for the late 1500´s.