Jack Panzeca

Thank you for your nice comments Michael, Randy & Sjors, and thanks to everyone for visiting/using the like button.
 
Finally I have some time to spend on some other details of the ST..
I had an idea in my head about how to create my own version of the poop lantern ..
 
Too be sure I use the right dimensions I started out with an template and made sure everything was in the same scale.
 

 
Creating the frame for the glass was a bit of a struggle (after several attempts) I found a "easy" way to manufacture these ..   
I used my mill setup (with an X-Y table) to have length consistency of the individual frame parts …
 

 
And used the table saw (with some “homemade” additions) to get the needed thickness of the frame.
 


 
The result after cutting/assembling them.
 


 
I used the same technique for the muntins and assembled them with the template I made earlier to make sure they fit inside the frames.
 

 
I made a top & bottom of 2 different sized pieces of 0.6 mm finer...
... and to make life a bit easier, i used a brass bar to keep the frames in place during the gluing process.
 

 
So far so good, the wrap up will follow soon...
 

 

Yes !!!
 
....It has taken some time..
(so this will not even be an update with a lot of dazzling new stuff..)
but ....
 
I managed to install all the channels on port and starboard including all the lower deadeyes and the corresponding chains !
In parallel I rigged all cannon hatches and installed all the armory "OcCre" has included in the kit. 
 
Naturally here are some pictures of the final result..
 

 

 

That all looks really wonderful.  I was raised in Louisiana so peppers are alway welcome.  I think that I will take a break and go find some meat to eat.

Thanks Grant,  Brian, Bindi and KeithW for the kind words and noticing the photography.  I felt it was time for a portrait session.  
 
Hi Bindy,  Welcome Back!  We have missed you. 
 
KeithW you have great eyes.  The ball head and L plate are Really Right Stuff and the tripod is also.  The tripod is a little overkill for indoor short lens work, it's main use is for birds with a 10 pound long lens. It is a very stable platform.  
 
My 32 year old daughter moved back in and brought her 2 cats with her so the food lives under the photo set.  I guess thats what they mean by the "boomerang generation".  They leave for a while and come back again.  The admiral and I like having her around.
 
Thanks to all the "Likes" they are truly appreciated.

That all looks really wonderful.  I was raised in Louisiana so peppers are alway welcome.  I think that I will take a break and go find some meat to eat.

Hans, as I said, I´ll take any gnomes, regardless of color, height, weight, nationality, religion, political view and hobby preferences, since they help with rigging!
;)
 
Sjors, that´s valid to everyone.
 
As for the churrasco, well, that´s a barbecue - brazilian style. Many different types of meat grilled over charcoal - it begun as a gaucho tradition (from the south of our country/continent) and developed into a national passion. Churrascaria is the typical restaurant which serves churrasco. In a churrascaria you eat as much as you can have - meats come at your table every 30 seconds or so. Pictures follow, as solicited (hope everybody be well fed at this moment):
 
The way it´s prepared:

 

 
The way it´s served:

 

 
And the caipirinha, a drink made from pinga (a strong sugar cane spirit), sugar, lemon and ice.

Jud, as my junk is an "elitist" one, no squids to dry on her. The dignitary traveling in the ship wouldn´t be pleased by such an insolence, it seems. I would love to build a diorama, though, with some traders and fishers, drying squids and fishes, nets all around. Have found some pictures of something like that:
 

(don´t have the credits for it, but it´s so great a model)

Hans, I know it´s a bit preposterous to say "my ship is accurate" when there are no plans, more than 500 years separating me from my subject and lots of misinterpretation along the centuries. I´m building a ship over a base (the kit) and texts from monographs and books - actually, I´ve never seen a junk. I see all my efforts as a mean to better understand what I´m doing and to exercise both researching skills and ship modeling skills.

Joe, since you brought the theme, I´ll put my ship where it belongs on time
 
Admiral Zheng He made his exploratory journeys in behalf of China´s Emperor Yongle. First exploratory journey was in 1405 and the last ended in 1433. Between these journeys Ming Dinasty stablished commercial routes with new countries using diplomacy, routed some pirate groups and expanded knowledge on seas and oceans. To maintain those commercial routes after Zheng He´s first contact, chinese junks sailed forth, many trade ships but also official, diplomatic ships (although westerners view the junk as a type of ship, there are many types of junks, ranging from small river junks to the treasure ships, with junks builded for particular purposes as war, diplomacy, trade, fishing, transport, leisure, etc).
 
The Red Dragon from Artesania Latina is a 17th century pirate junk - most fictional on it´s shape and functions, based on western reviews and misplaced in time. There is no link to where the ship was built, neither it´s purpose (although it should be a trader).
 
To build a ship I wanted to build I researched over a lot of texts, pictures and videos to be able to fit her on time, purpose and building location. So, my ship is a fushuan type of junk, built in Nanjing between 1415 and 1420 for diplomatic travels to southern seas. That´s why the cabin is used only by one person, while the crew sleeps on the compartments - same motive for the rudder to be isolated from the cabin (on traders it would occupy the cabin). As chinese coasts and ships were constantly attacked by wako pirates (from Japan), it´s a gunned ship (first guns on chinese junks date from this period). Cannons from this earlier days were simple, mounted on small carriages and with short range.
 
Compartments also hold gifts for good relations maintenance, mostly porcelain and silk, but other treasures as seen fit by chinese bureaucrats (statues, jewerly...). Color schemes are a foggy theme. Later Ming ships are described as red and black painted (there are few depictions, though) and I found no evidence about Zheng He´s ships being painted. For that, I don´t feel obliged to paint my ship, leaving the wood to have it´s natural colors, contrasting as the ships were built with more than one type of wood. The compartment is painted, though, as the color is part of the caulking mixture applied to the bulkheads and hull´s planks.
 
Two features are still on hold, but will be installed - the stern transom painting and the eyes on the bow. There will be no dragons depicted, but a mithical landscape and chengyus (good luck phrases) on the stern transom and dragon eyes (eyes could be dragon, phoenix or tadpole) on the bow.
 
well, that´s it ^_^

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

Hi Vivian,
 
The shields really made a difference.  And the time spent looking for the center ornament really paid off.  The oars are next but after that will come the dreaded sail.  My daughter has promised to teach me to sew but I am not holding my breath until she does.  As always thanks for the encouragement and kind words.

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

Hi Vivian,
 
The shields really made a difference.  And the time spent looking for the center ornament really paid off.  The oars are next but after that will come the dreaded sail.  My daughter has promised to teach me to sew but I am not holding my breath until she does.  As always thanks for the encouragement and kind words.

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

The ship has come to a nice milestone so I decided to take some studio shots for this update.
 

 
This is what the set looks like.  I pulled out the big Spiderlite soft boxes for the shoot.
 

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

I have been working on the shields.  Finding the right center ornament has been very time consuming.  I settled on cone head Hungarian hob nails.  The shield on the left is supplied in the kit.  The hob nails are next in the image below.  I cut the head off and ground it close to flat.  The construction of the new shields is documented earlier in the log.  To finish them off all that was done is to ease the edges, glue the nail head onto the center and odd a coat of wipe on poly without stain.  I did tests and the poly alone worked best on the mahogany.  The hob nails were right size and crudeness for a ninth century shield.
 

 
I finished 8 of them and here is how they will look on the ship.
 

The starboard channels and moldings are now done. Everything was done identically to the previously completed port side and will not be repeated.
 
I think that I've about run out of excuses to not do the head work and may just have to start doing it now.
 
Bob