Ancient Chinese XiXing Pavilion by James H - FINISHED - CAF Model

[James H]

As I'm currently in ship-building hiatus (not for long), I thought I'd make a start on CAF Model's Ancient Chinese Pavilion kit, reviewed here.

 

 

At the moment, I've only got the base built up, but the fit is superb. This consists of two hexagonal plates with one of these being engraved and containing the holes for the pillars. There are six side pieces which have engraved bevel marks. The material is ply, but really nice stuff with no warp. Before starting, everything is given a nice light sanding with some 320 grit paper.

 

I found a knife the best way to evenly bevel the size piece ends.

These are then glued in with Titebond and the the lid temporarily fitted whilst the sides dry. The lid of the base is then finally glued in position and elastic bands used to hold things nice and tight. 

Char removal is now done with a piece of 80 grit paper, followed by finer grades so there are no surface scratches.

 

...more as soon as I've actually done some!

 

 

 

[robdurant]

This looks fascinating - hope you don't mind if I follow along.

[gjdale]

Another interesting subject James - I’m in for the ride.

[popeye the sailor]

awesome structure.......looks neat!  I'm look'in in   

[James H]

I"m also keeping this one unpainted as the timber looks real nice as it is. The laser char on the roof tiles should really set itself off against the pale ply.

[James H]

I've not been idle this last week. 

 

In between finishing build work on a Tiger Moth for a mag article, I've been cleaning my man cave and getting things back into order. What time I've had left, I've put into some extra work on this. As I said, Tom will use this for his manual, and that's why I've not used any paint. 

 

The next step was to glue the column bases into position, followed by the columns themselves. To ensure I got those columns vertical and evenly spaced whilst setting, I slid the pavilion upper former into position. Small pots of paint (same size) were used to make sure that part was even all around until the columns dried. It was then removed.

Next come the 5 sets of walls. It's important that you get all these so the pattern is the same on the outside or it will just look odd. If these look familiar, remember that the symbol was a Buddhist one long before it was misused in the 20th century. 

Those walls are now glued into position using the etched markings on the floor, and the benching part slid down the columns. At this point, I glued that upper former into position at the top of the columns as it provided that extra rigidity. 

These parts here are the frames onto which the seat backs will mount. 

The seat backs were soaked in hot water for 30 mins and then wrapped around a 2kg weight and bound tight. This was left overnight on a radiator.

The seat backs were now carefully glued into position. 

Time to pretty up the top area of the pavilion. Several panels, both decorative and plain are now glued into position. 

 

The next stage is the roof, but that will take a week or so until I can get onto it as I need to finalise my magazine project.

 

This pavilion is a real nice kit and a wonderful diversion whilst still sticking with timber modelling.

[Landlubber Mike]

Really nice work James!  What a cool little project.  Are you planning on painting it?

[James H]

2 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Really nice work James!  What a cool little project.  Are you planning on painting it?

Not on this one as Tom wants to use it for an English language instruction manual/leaflet. 

 

Still, it actually looks very pretty in bare timber.

[popeye the sailor]

looks great James.....as all your other projects I've looked in on     there's some really intricate laser cutting in the kit.......very nice

[lmagna]

15 hours ago, James H said:

Not on this one as Tom wants to use it for an English language instruction manual/leaflet. 

Another plus mark for Tom and his company. What a novel idea to use a native of the language to write the instructions rather to rely on a person who uses it as a second language! I have wished that companies would do that so many times over the years! Sometimes the mistakes are only humorous. Other times they are downright baffling.