FINISHED - Ancient Chinese XiXing Pavilion CAF Models

[Charter33]

I have had an interest in Chinese architecture for many years, so when I came across James H's review of this kit I was keen to explore it further. The kit itself looked excellent value, but the cost of shipping was a bit of a surprise!

When my two sons asked for suggestions for a suitable gift for Christmas this the one item at the top of the list.

I came across a similar pavilion in Hong Kong several years ago ....

 

and often see an even more similar structure at RHS Wisley in the UK, although not as ornate as the kit, with a different style top decoration and one of the seats missing to enable visitors to pass through .....

(not my own picture)

Well, Christmas arrived, all be it very low key and unusually quiet, and I was the proud recipient of a plain brown package with an intriguing colour photograph of a pavilion on it.

The decision was made to attempt a fully painted model. It took the best part of an evening armed with a sharp scalpel and cutting mat to carefully cut out all the separate components and bag them up. The quality of the laser cutting is exceptional, with many of the decorative pieces finely detailed but, be warned, some are very fragile.

First bit of advice - hang on to all the off-cuts of ply, they will prove to be very useful!

Thanks to James's detailed review the construction of the base, and the construction up to the roof should be straight forward. The instructions are graphically nicely clear, but my knowledge of Chinese is limited to introducing myself and saying thank you - reading the written instructions is beyond me. The CAF website, fortunately, has a very helpful gallery of pictures showing both the finished model and the real thing. These were a regularly visited resource during the build.

First step is to construct the hexagonal base. This went well, following the advice to cut the bevels on the ends of the side pieces with a scalpel. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph this stage!

I decided that this base needed painting before progressing further. I started by hand brushing a light grey across it all surfaces. I then used 2 mm Tamiya masking tape to mask the grout lines that are evident in the gallery pictures. I then darkened some of this shade of paint and went over the inner panels:

 

 

Photo attachment problem seems to be sorted!

Graham

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Charter33
Addition to title

[Old Collingwood]

You could try this photo downlaoding site  - I use it quite a bit  - 

 

https://postimages.org/

 

 

OC.

[Charter33]

Thanks O.C - I'll have a go tomorrow when I get another chance to play on the Admiral's pc.....

Graham.

[Old Collingwood]

3 minutes ago, Charter33 said:

Thanks O.C - I'll have a go tomorrow when I get another chance to play on the Admiral's pc.....

Graham.

No problem glad to help.

 

OC.

[Charter33]

Hi,

Having successfully uploaded my images to a downloading site (thanks again OC.) another problem arose - the laptop I'm now granted occasional access to is set up to block this method of accessing and downloading them!

The Admiral, bless her, has now shown me an alternative bit of I.T. manipulation to get around this so this build log can now, hopefully, continue.

 

The next stage is dealing with the six columns. Each has a laser engraved ring at the base. After opening the internal holes a bit to make them slide over the dowels they had the top edge radiused and the decoration extended down the side of the ring with a sharp scalpel. In this picture the assembled columns have been inserted into the base to set rings at the right height while the glue dries. They are not glued into the base, however. The top piece is dry fitted to ensure the dowels are vertical. (This was done prior to applying the tape and final coat of darker grey paint.)

 

Next task was assembling the five decorative panels .....

 

These panels, together with the underside of the seat base and the columns up to the seat level were painted with gold acrylic.

 

These parts were then glued in place together with the supports for the seat backs.

 

 

Curving the seat backs proved 'interesting'! After a false start I came up with this solution. Fortunately the kit comes with a spare. After soaking in hot water they were bound to a piece of 36 mm OD plastic waste pipe with garden twine and left overnight to dry.

 

 

To achieve a neat joint at the ends of the seat back pieces I used another off-cut of the waste pipe, cut at a suitable angle and roughly bevelled on the inside, to support the ply while it was bevelled with a scalpel.

 

 

The finished seat backs were then glued in place.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Graham.

 

[Canute]

Very nice tip.

[Charter33]

Hi,

Thank you for the 'likes', a genuinely appreciated encouragement to keep going ......

 

The next task is to fit the roof base. Looking at the photographs of the real example the additional extensions on the corners represent distinctive gold painted round section beams. I tried to adapt the hexagon's side square edges by rounding them off and shaping the beam ends to full rounds.

 

 

This was then painted with the same darker grey paint that will be used on the roof tiles later, and the rounded edges painted gold, before the piece was glued into place.

 

 

The four separate components, two plain and two pierced, that fit in the top each of the six sides are so well laser cut to size that no trimming or sanding is needed. The lowest fretwork piece, however, is very fragile to the extent that I managed to damage some just picking them up! Repairs were made by grafting on small pieces of card ....

 

 

 

All bare wood on the main structure was now painted gold.

 

From now on I have to 'wing it' and rely solely on the kit's illustrated instructions ...........🤔

 

There are six curved 'ridge' bases that locate onto the top of the roof base. The front protrusion that sticks out on underside is ornately carved on the full size pavilion to form a dragon's (or lion's?) head so .......

 

There are three separate lengths of ply that are glued to the top curve. Edges of this ply were rounded with glass paper to produce a fluted effect. Off-cuts left over from the kit made ideal clamping aids.

 

 

Once fully dried a fine toothed junior hacksaw trimmed these laminations to final length. At this point they were finally re-clamped in place with glue. Gold paint was applied where required and they were glued in place together with the central spire assembly. As the top three of the eleven hexagonal core parts at the bottom of this spire also need gilding I decided add the various wooden spheres and paint these too rather than leaving them to the end of the build.

 

 

Slowly getting there!

 

Cheers,

 

Graham.

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking Really nice.

 

OC.

[Charter33]

The next stage is to tackle the decorative panels that adorn the the two columns either side and above the front entrance. The two vertical  pieces are the thinnest ply I've ever come across. Once the base coat of blue paint had dried I resorted to a fine tipped gold paint fine liner pen for most of the Chinese symbols etc. using a sharpened cocktail stick to apply the most delicate details.

 

 

These vertical panels wrap around the columns so I decided that they would be easier to fit if pre-curved a bit.

To achieve this they were clamped in a grove cut in a scrap of foam block, using a pencil to apply the forming pressure...........

 

 

..... and left overnight......

 

 

 

 

These, and the central panel, were then attached to the main structure.

 

 

At this point I decided not follow the graphic instructions to fit the top curving ridge pieces in order to avoid damaging them while working on the tiled roof panels. Construction of the tiled sections of the roof begins with the assembly of a sub-structure.  I suggest that each one is glued together and placed in it's space on the roof to dry. Number it, and the space, so that they don't get mixed up later. They should all be identical of course, but there can be very slight variations between them (I found out the hard way!) Areas that could be visible were painted gold.

 

 

Adding the strip profiles begins with the gluing of three pieces across the lower end ......

 

 

Once these had dried it is a case of working up the curve to the apex, (and a bit further as will be explained later) ....

 

 

Using a combination of a fine junior hacksaw blade, scalpel and glass paper the excess ends were trimmed and smoothed to the level of the side pieces.

 

 

The extra spur at the top ensures minimal gaps at the top when fitted.

 

 

Before these panels can be glued into place the bottom edge needs to be given a concave arc.

Even our largest diameter dinner plate was too small to mark this out so, once again using off-cuts from the kit, a curved template was made ...

 

 

This was used to mark a line to guide careful paring with a scalpel almost to it's final shape. The finished curve was achieved using an old drum sander, rotated by hand I hasten to add!

 

 

 

The last step is to add the laser engraved decorative strip and trim it to size

 

 

...almost there.....

 

Cheers,

 

Graham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Charter33
photo attachment issue...

[popeye the sailor]

superb how you made the decorations.....I've seen a couple of these models already....it so nice to see one painted    I'm particularly impressed with the laser cutting......in some ship kits I've done,  the laser cutting caused the plywood plys to separate.  it's not a real big deal.......simply cement them back together and your back in business.  char isn't much of an issue either.......some don't like it,  but it can be used to one's advantage,  since sanding can expose the ply layers.  sometimes leaving it on there can cover so much sin     nice work shaping the roof beams as well.  did you curve the side edges?  I ask only because one kit that I built had planking that had rounded edges along both sides of the edges.  cemented together as you did would have produced scrolled sides to the beams,  which would add a bit more detail.  I think I still have some of those planks.......something to think about for future fabrication     super job........really liking the colors.

Edited February 5, 2021 by popeye the sailor
extra text

[Charter33]

Thanks for that Popeye. The quality of the laser cutting on this kit is exceptional - in fact it really does push things to the limit with the fretwork pieces! I guess that the high quality ply the manufacturer uses has a significant impact too. The only de-lamination I had was with a couple edges on the seat backs after they had been soaked to make them more pliable but, as you say, easily fixed.

Yes - those side edges were radiused. Basically if it's gold on that piece of roof base, it's been curved. With a painted model the charring is not an issue but I can see where if would definitely be beneficial with an unpainted version, especially the roof tiles.

 

I gave the six tiled roof assemblies an initial coat of the dark grey paint before gluing them in place. The paint is being applied onto mostly end grain which absorbs the acrylic at an alarming rate so they were given an initial coat of sanding sealer to achieve a more even finish.

 

 

The final construction task is the distinctive curved ridge pieces. As with some other elements the first stage is to glue together pairs of components. Once dried, and with the cut surfaces lightly sanded to match, the overhanging ends have to be tapered - quite a delicate challenge it turned out to be too! (lower) The top of these pieces then had to be radiused which was done by first lightly paring with a scalpel (centre) and then VERY gently sanded with 240 grit glass paper (top)

 

 

A little adjustment had to be made where these butt up against the central spire, sorted with a few light strokes on a sanding board. Once glued in place these pieces and the fluted laminations underneath them were painted. A second coat over the whole roof finished the project.

 

 

In summary this is an excellent kit. Well thought out and engineered from good quality materials it has given me a welcome diversion over the Christmas and New Year period. There is a satisfying level of diverse challenges and can be completed with just the basic range of tools and equipment. 

And to top it all - the Admiral loves it and now has it prominently displayed!

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Graham.

 

[popeye the sailor]

congratz on a great looking model!  I can see that painting greatly enhances the model....a very neat job too  

[Old Collingwood]

Indeed  same as Denis said  -  lovely finish.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

Well Done Graham, VERY well done....