Chinese cruiser CHING YUEN in 1:350 by Bronco.

[Haddock]

           This is all Mrs Haddocks fault. I was struggling a bit with KGV, her solution was to put it on one side and start of something else. This isn't something I like to do, I don't have a lot of room and I didn't have any thing small that seemed to fit the bill. "Why don't you buy something then" she said. I don't need much encouragement to buy a kit so I had a look on t'internet and came across this. 30% off RRP so I had to have it. I thought it would be a quick chuck together of a simple basic kit, slosh some paint on, bung it on one side and fish it out again when the spirit moves and finish it in the fullness of time.

            I don't associate Bronco with ships so I was expecting something basic so this was quite a shock. The mouldings are exquisite, there's a brass fret included, the instructions are printed on high quality paper and there's the usual paint instructions. The pictures should speak for themselves.

             I started a couple of weeks ago. The kit is water-lined and some dry-fitting done. Again, the pictures should speak for themselves.

Haddock.

[zak]

The kit looks very nice, how long is it?

[MSea]

The kit looks very nice, how long is it?

Depends on how FAST you work -- ho ho ho  - but it is 280mm in length.
Thank you Haddock i had forgotten this one -- it was put to one side when I decided to change all the masts and never got back to it. Now its back on the list to finish.
Picked it up cheap at White Ensign at Telford many years ago - and yes never had done Bronco model but the quality is excellent.

[Haddock]

Yours is the Ting Yuen which is a bit bigger than Ching Yuen. I'm ashamed to say I ended up with both.
Haddock.

[Haddock]

Ching Yuen is 9" long.
Haddock.

[Haddock]

              Progress has been made, albeit very slowly. Part of the reason is the parts count. The compass platform on the quarter-deck consists of thirteen individual parts, a mix of brass and plastic. The twin mount on the fore-deck is made up of fourteen parts, and so it goes on.
Haddock.

[MSea]

Lots of small parts but looking excellent.

[zak]

It looks a really nice kit.

[Bigkev]

Looking Good Haddock,
Always admire your modelling skills. I learn a lot by the step by step techniques.
Cheers,
Bigkev

[Haddock]

                                   Not a lot done over Xmas.
Here we are up to date, most of the pictures speak for themselves.
                        The railings around the bridge were "interesting". If you look at part Nos 27 and 28, these represent a varnished wooden rail around the top of the steel rails. As you can imagine, the bending has to be pretty close to look right. Each  bend needs to be the correct radius and in the right place, happily, it seems to have worked out OK. The Haddock patented radius bending device helped a great deal. the pictures should speak for themselves.
                             Masts were fun too. Because all the joints were close together, I had to resort to using different ways of joining each bit together. So the lower and upper masts are silver soldered, on the foremast, the yards are soft soldered and the gaff is super-glued into a pre drilled hole. The mainmast gaff is soft soldered. The different sizes of tube, where telescoped together are fixed with a Loctite type nut-lock. Sounds complicated but not really so, just takes some thought.
                        As silver solder melts around 600*C and soft solder around 200*C, you can happily solder away without adjacent joints melting and the whole lot falling apart provided you do the hottest first.
Haddock.

[zak]

Clever stuff, an education as always.

[Bigkev]

Hi Haddock,
I can see that the 'heat is on' at Che 'Haddock, with all those different heats and techniques.
I love learning this from the master.
Cheers,
Bigkev

[Roger]

A master in his element!

Roger

[Haddock]

                         Some rigging added.
                                  I've counted thirty pieces of thread that pass through the decks or superstructure. They all pass through two levels of plastic, in some instances, three, some holes accepting two pieces.
                   The last shot shows what goes on beneath the model. It's a bit laborious and needs planning at an early stage in the build but I think it's worth the effort. It makes it possible for a ham-fisted oaf like me to actually rig the thing.
                It's all EZ Line, the holes as you are aware are known as "'addock 'oles" which are lengths of 0.6mm brass tube 0.4mm bore super-glued in place.
Haddock.

[zak]

Your ingenuity never fails to amaze me.
Wow!