Ni hao gentlemen, this is my new project: BRONCO´s Type 056 Jangdao class corvette and Five Stars super upgrade set for it. Firstly I planned to build this one as one of the export ships for the Bangladesh navy but closer sightings of pictures of the real thing unveiled many small difference I would not like to do. So I changed plans and will finish this one as a ship from chinese PLAN´s ever growing fleet. Chinese navy give their ships names of bigger cities. I will build ship number 585 “Baize” after a bigger city from the Guangxi province. Here is a picture of the real one:
Baize was commissioned at 12. oktober 2013 in Sanya / Hainan and is since on active duty within the south sea fleet, guarding china´s proclaimed territories around the Diaoyu (aka Senkaku aka Spratley) islands.
What do we need for the build?
and the very nice and comprehensive upgrade set from Five Stars
All visitors aboard are welcome 
Cheers Thomas
5 Likes
On board for the ride, Thomas 
As a true constant visitor you will get an officer´s cabin 
1 Like
First update - as I want to depict the ship at sea I glued the ship´s hull together and prepared the sea diorama first. I glued with white glue crushed aluminium foil atop of a Styrodur piece
The aft helicopter deck is the biggest PE-part of the whole upgrade set. So I used this first. It is much nicer as the kit´s helicopter deck´s surface. There is also an etched spray mask included for making the white lines at the helo deck
I started with the bow deck. I improved the bollards with flat punched out styrene discs. I drilled out the openings of the deck hatches of the hull.and also the anchor chain holes. The 76 mm deck gun was next. 5Star ask you to make the barrel out of ridiculous 19 parts - I made it with “just” 14 parts - no one will see the difference…
The bow sidewalls should be replaced with etched sidewalls. These sidewalls should have a sharp kink which is impossible to make without looking awful. Even 5Star wasn´t able to to this kink at their boxart. So I decided to leave the kit´s bow sidewalls as they are now with the correct kink.
Thats it for the moment
Off for a snifter of rice liquor 
5 Likes
Wow that is some serious PE work right there! This looks very detailed.
Thomas,
a little late as usual and not the most frequent poster - but you know that… Still, of course I#m on board and looking forward to another find build log! Very interesting ship, and a good start!
Cheers
Jan
Thomas, even with the abbreviated etched parts count, that barrel is awesome!
1 Like
So I’m half awake this morning and I opened this page and damned if that photo of the bow deck doesn’t look like a steampunk Star Destroyer…
welcome aboard all to my steampunk Star Destroyer… err Type 056 Jiangdao class corvette 
thank you all for looking in and your kind comments.
Some more progress today. First I brushed on some white glue at the sea diorama. It will need a day drying time until I can start to paint it
I continued with the ship´s bridge area and main mast. 5Star let you add a lot of microscopic small parts which are partly beyond my skills (especially at the mast) and as I didn´t saw an remarkable advantage to the kit parts I ommitted them. But the kit´s bridge windows are not correctly shaped if you look at the real ship. The correction from 5Star is necessary here also if this is quite some work who need a steady hand (don´t remind me of the window washers…) and some putty. But it will improve the look of the ship a lot.
This is the improved part of the ship´s frontal superstructure; there was a huge gap which had to be treaded with putty
This is the finished upgraded bridge area without the railings and some small cameras - these will be fitted separately after painting the main areas
I also preassembled the 30 mm close range defence guns which consists of 7 parts per gun
Off for a cup of ricenoodles 
Cheers
Thomas
4 Likes
our photoetched welders were ahead of their plan and were able to finish the complete funnel compartment. The upper air grills at the compartment were really flimsy and some already bended /twisted due to removing them from the fret. I hope we will not see too much of the damage after I painted the upper structure in black.
Now thats it really for the weekend folks
4 Likes
Thomas, nice work with the etch!
I love the shot from above where you can see what’s behind the louvers. They will be largely hidden at the end (at least if there is an overhead coming?), but the vague shapes should be just discernable through the openings. Nice. 
1 Like
Thomas,
great etch work as usually, another build log that is much fun to follow! Your photo etch welders are a great bunch!
Cheers
Jan
Some more progress with my ship: I finished the 2 x 2 yingji-83 (translated “Eagle Strike”) ship to ship subsonic cruise missile launchers; the rockets have a reported maximum range of up to 150 km. I ommitted some microscopic parts which should have been installed at the launchers outside surfaces but these are not even to grab with my microtweezers… The wholes at the feather edges will be closed with putty later before painting.
I also assembled the two 9-barreled decoy launchers and the lifebuoys with their etched racks
Finally there was the eight-barreled HHQ-10 close in AA-missile system for up to 9 km range. I also finished the complete rear superstructures together with the railings as there will be enough space to brushpaint the deck surfaces later by hand.
Now there are just the upper bridge railings and some etched antennas missing- I plan to install these later after finishing the main paintjob.
Thanks for watching
Cheers
Thomas
3 Likes
I finished the ship´s helicopter, a Harbin Z-9. I did not used all the proposed etched parts from the 5Stars upgrade set as they are very tiny and too fragile. But I did add a torpedo from a finished german Zerstörer kit.
Then I decided against my former plans to finish all railings left at the ships bow, bridge and helipad deck. Now there are only the etched antennas and both flagpoles left. But these will be added only after the complete finished paintwork.
Somehow I am glad now I did used up all etched parts from the extensive Upgrade set. It remembers me at the very exhaustive Z-25 Zerstörer super upgrade set I did before some time ago 
3 Likes
Thomas,
brilliant work and really fun to watch your build log! That’s some very nice and swift progress! Looking forward to the paint going on!
Cheers
Jan
Thomas, your skills with photo etch and your brush painting are always of the highest quality and continue to impress
This is top quality work here, especially the etch which is stunning when you consider just how small it all is! The helicopter is a stunner all on its own!
@JJ1973: Hallo Jan, thank you. Not as crisp as your Gneisenau build but I do my best
@Russelle: Old sweet-talker, I think I am still way behind your skills 
@Karl187: Thank you very much, I do feel honored. The helicopter in fact have one error but I fixed it
Gentlemen, I continued with my corvette. I continued with the sea base and spraypainted the ships surfaces with ALCLAD enamel primer. Then I painted the vertical surfaces of the ship with VALLEJO 70.907 Pale grey blue and the horizontal surfaces with VALLEJO 70.867 Dark blue grey which both fit perfectly for PLAN surface ships
Then I testfitted the prepainted ship with the unfinished seabase
There is a remarkable gap between under the frontal bridge windows and the ships lower hull but this will be fixed later with liquid putty and color.
I got one hint that I made a mistake with the etched helicopter rotor blades. I cutted the protruding rotor blade holders and glued then over the rotor blades. Not looking perfect but good enough for me
Cheers
Thomas
4 Likes
Finished the tiny Harbin Z-9 ship´s helicopter. I painted it the same color as the ship - vallejo 70.907 pale grey blue. I like him
Cheers
3 Likes
