HiS Models has some belaying pins that are 8mm in brass.
Cheap Chinese Halcon speed build [COMPLETED BUILD]
- Thread starter DARIVS ARCHITECTVS
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- completed build halcon
I love the kill markings.
Forever flat is what they make cruise control and audio books for.
Wife and I went to SD to see Crazy Horse monument and Custer Park.
Wanted to see Rushmore, but it was too crowded.
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I looked at those, but am not sure they are small enough in diameter to fit in the existing holes in the pin rails. Enlarging the holes is not an option because of their close proximity to one another.
The smallest belaying pins are from @Dry-Dock Models & Parts
drydockmodelsandparts.com
Tiny brass belaying pins
Dry - Dock Models & Parts is providing high quality ship model fittings and parts
drydockmodelsandparts.com
That BMW looks like a blast! Good on you, sir!
The 600 was fun also. It had enough torque to climb a tree. Not much top speed, but who needs it in mountain cut back roads in Japan? Also, kickstart only. It had a compression release since you were basically trying to kick over half a Harley! Took about 1 1/2 minutes to warm up and then would lift the front end up and launch.
It was super cool to ride in Japan since I would have a full-face helmet on, and no one knew that I was a foreigner. Where and when I lived there, we were all considered rock/movie stars. I saw school kids ride their bicycles into phone poles looking at me and not where they were going. The bike/helmet combo let me just be.
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Great times. The kickstart motorcycles always start as long as you don't flood them.
Those look awesome! I'll be measuring the Harvey to figure out which of the smallest two will be best.The smallest belaying pins are from @Dry-Dock Models & Parts
Tiny brass belaying pins
Dry - Dock Models & Parts is providing high quality ship model fittings and parts
Thanks!
Belaying pins were wood, right? And so I should just paint the brass miniature belaying pins? Or is there a better way?
M.
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Yep. Never had a problem with kicking it over. But since I bought it used off a lot I had no idea that the tires were so rotted. I nearly slid into an intersection while testing her out and needing to brake hard. She skidded! And left a bit of tire dust in a stripe behind!
Some new Dunlop's fixed that issue. And gave me a challenge... I have heard a "real" motorcyclist will wear off the little rubber spikes that are on the sides of new tires as they test how well they grip. I was never a good enough (or aggressive enough) rider to take off the last row. I'll leave that to the pros.
M.
This. And then again, THIS!Hi Kurt. Looking at the current state of your model, has made me question the way that I am sure many of us think. Here we have a super-cheap (and let's be honest - much maligned) kit which is in no way comparable in quality to the models that we prefer to build. With La Couronne you have invested tons of time to build a beautiful model whilst on SOTS you have invested the proverbial blood, sweat and tears in the quest for historical accuracy. ) Yet, the question remains: Did you enjoy those builds exponentially so much more than this one so that it justifies the prices we pay for those "dream" kits? Or, are those builds sometimes more of a frustration to us, because we simply expect so much more from those kits and ourselves?
As an added advantage, this model has allowed you the opportunity to be actually building in your current circumstances by being small enough and mobile enough to be taken with you as necessity dictates. With either of your two big ships, you would now have sat in your hotel room, twiddling your thumbs and ended up the next day at work in a bad mood, because there was no "relief valve", the night before.
As an example, the 1:50 scale model of the Harvey by Shicheng builds into a model that is almost 1-meter long and which retails in China for the equivalent of approximately 164 USD. At that price you can do an awful lot of kit-bashing - enough to satisfy the needs of the demanding builder or build it as it is and save yourself lots of money.
The fuzzy ropes are exactly what I mean. To the builder used to paying lots and lots of money for expensive kits and who have the knowledge that custom-made ropes are available, these ropes may be unacceptably fuzzy*. To the ordinary guy who spends 12 USD on a kit, it doesn't matter one iota. He wants something that he can build and can display - fuzzy ropes and all. To him it is about the ENJOYMENT he derives from BUILDING. Is that not the lesson that we should learn? I am sure that you thoroughly ENJOY/ED this build and, in my opinion, this build has highlighted your talents and skill sets just as much as your more expensive kits.
In summary, kudos to you for building this kit and kudos to the "cheap, Chinese Harvey/Halycon". Let's declare them an SOS icon!
*In some of those expensive kits, the ropes aren't much better!
But now that I have been coloring and washing the breech ropes, I have a conundrum. I need to rig (eventually) all the running lines. And the pale thread that came with this kit will not do. And painting all those longer lines is off the table.
Do I just purchase another common thread color (they normally do not describe the diameter). Or go somewhere else?
Suggestions welcome!
M.
Hello Mondrasek,
I just used common thread I had in inventory and didn't buy any thread just for this kit. The scale is so small that I just simplified things in the rigging by using dark brown heavy coat thread for the standing rigging and the thinnest tan thread I had for the running rigging. Didn't even bother measuring thread diameter. The thread wasn't the best quality but it still beats the thread from the kit, which is really more like yarn that thread. as you can see from the close up photos, it's fuzzy. I've already spent more than I bargained for using expensive small blocks and cannon barrels and other parts on this model. The kit came with no blocks, so there's no choice but to supply your own.
Thread is cheap. One can either spend a few dollars at the sewing store and buying a small spool of thread, enough to build 10 of these kits, or raid your wife's sewing box and use what you find there (REALLY cheap
). My wife inherited my late mother's sewing thread collection and was begging me to take some of it off here hands, it was so much. Lots of needles and bobbins too.Best wishes on your build!
Yes, real belaying pins are wood. They make handy clubs too if you're boarded. The thinnest wood ones are made by Falkonet in Russia, and are not available in the USA at present. If brass ones are browned with chemical "brass browning solution" that you can buy on Amazon, they look like wooden ones, plus they are far stronger, if you bump one, with won't snap off like the delicate wooden ones always seem to do when I get clumsy. Paint can work too. There are countless small upgrades that you can make to a kit to make it more detailed and improve its historical accuracy, so many that it's easy to end up scratch building the model to completion soon after you finish assembly the hull framework. How far you go dumping parts and money into the model is up to the builder. What matters is that you enjoy the build and like how it turns out.
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This and Heinrich's comments combined are worth printing out and saving as mission statement for the ship model builder; what we're doing, why and ewhat to expect from ourselves and the models we produce
. Well said, gentleman and thanks for the wisdom!Pete
The goal and purpose of the model builder vary from model to model. In our build logs, it does help to provide the reader with a statement up front as to why you are building the model, the level of details and cost you are putting into it, your level of experience, and how you want the ship to appear when you are done. If the readers know what the model is about, they can contribute advice to the builder to help achieve that vision or learn a few techniques from the build log to use if they are trying to achieve a similar effect on their model.This and Heinrich's comments combined are worth printing out and saving as mission statement for the ship model builder; what we're doing, why and ewhat to expect from ourselves and the models we produce
Pete
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Well said, Kurt. I also think that our original intentions at the start of a build may well develop/evolve as we go along. On my WB I had a very specific goal in mind when I started the build, but Pandora will be very much a case of starting off with a blank sheet of paper and then keeping an open mind as to where the build takes me without any preconceived objectives.
Ha! Yep, yeah, and YES.
I had no idea this model project would consume so much time, yet alone inspire me to learn so much about model ships, real ship history, or $pend so much on bashing, when I first "impulse" purchased it on Amazon. Even now I feel guilty when I creep into the basement to work on her knowing right behind me is a cool wood kit of something else my girls gave me for Xmas that has not even had the plastic wrap removed from the box yet! I should really make that though. Maybe after the cannon are all decked? I mean, it can be another "stall" excuse for holding off on the rigging, right?
M.
Wow. I had a 1/96 Revell Cutty Sark with the same problem after my cat kindly relocated it onto the floor from where it was stored 6 feet up in a cupboard. I even managed to to find inspiration to re rig it and amazingly the cat still lived but we weren't on talking terms for some time . I might even have an old photo of it. The boat, not the cat.
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This is fantastic build and a great build log Kurt. I have seen it pop up a few times and decided to view it from start to finish. I am only reiterating what others have said when I say your skill is very evident, any kit can be made into something special with time, patience and imagination and that enjoyment in building different kits for different reasons is what keeps us all going and furthering our skills. Hats off to you. I love too that a "speed build" is already up to 38 days. Cheers Davydd
Welcome the full realization that a model ship build is a long term ordeal! We all hope that it won't take much time to build, only to rig that final line years later. I thought this little schooner would take a couple weeks, then got mired in the details (because that's fun) and months later, here we are and it's still not finished. So much for the speedbuild.
But then, one also realizes the fun was in the building, and sharing the build log on the forum brings in the socializing fun we all enjoy here. Isn't that why some of our builds costs thousands yet we still find them worthwhile? If there was some way to convey these realities to the beginners, but every beginner seems to have to learn these things on their own despite what they read here.
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Hi Kurt. I am incredibly excited about this build of yours. I think the way this build has gone (and inherent to that are all the questions, comments, advice and tips) is incredibly relevant to model building as a whole, but in particular, to those who are starting out. This is so inspiring that I may just build a similar model in the distant future.
Strange, because I originally predicted a build log on this small kit wouldn't have even been noticed on the forum because of the nature of the kit. Funny that. It's turned into quite a conversation for many of us.