Kearsarge guns and yard arm rigging questions.

First, realize that Revell's instructions are simplified to produce a nice-looking result.  Replicating every line on a square-rigged ship model line would be a very complicated and daunting, if not impossible task.

To address your first question, if you are asking about the lifts, then yes, they would pass through blocks attached to the mast and then typically down to the pin rail at the foot of the mast.

The lines that run below the yards are footropes that allow the crew to work along the yard to tend the sails.

I have found the following books to be great references for rigging:

"The Shipmodeler's Assistant" by Charles G. Davis

"The Art of Rigging" by George Biddlecombe 

"The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor"  by D'Arcy Lever

"Rigging Period Ship Models" by Lennarth Petersson

Good luck, 

Mark

 According to Canney's "The Old Steam Navy: Frigartes, Sloops, and Gunboats, 1815-1885" (Nuois, aval Institute Press), the 11" Dahlgrens were onboard from the beginning, the nine inch Dahlgrens likley coming onboard during her 1871-1873 refit in place of the 32 pounder Dahlgrens and the rifled Dahlgren on the focs'l.

The line under the yardarms is likely the foot rope that sailors used to make their way out on the yard to take in or lower sails (holding on to the yard with their hands and stepping sideways). There should be pictures of builds of the Kearsarge on this site and the Model Warships Gallery.  You can also check the USN Naval History Site (http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org11-2.htm) for information.  The Kearsarge was not a standalone ship, but one of a group of sloops authorized in 1858 that were more of less similar with the Kearsarge and Mohican being close in design - so any information you find on the Mohican would probably help with the Kearsarge.

A number of folks have noted that the kit was based on the plans of the Kearsarge AFTER the Civil War so that the kit does not depict the ship as she looked in 1864 for her engagement with the Alabama, so you might want to look at pictures and plan from 1870 or so onwards.

Other sloops in the "class" included the Wyoming, Tuscarora, Iroquois, Oneida, Wachusett, and the Dacotah.

Good luck! 

Car, My intuition was telling me that was probably the time for the upgunning since she was going overseas on a tour after being laid up for some time. I'm not referring to the footropes in my first message. Revell specifies a line with a block that runs under the yards and makes no sense to me. Without seeing the plans I guess I would have to describe it more clearly. I'll take another look, but it could easily be a stylized piece as that theme runs through the engineering of this kit. It's fun upgrading for now though. I'm doing the Marin Califorina picture on the navy.mil site because it falls out of the kit pretty easily and has the cool black lifeboats and minimal trim too. I've repositioned my collapasable stack and fooled with the stovepipe and ventelators too. I might try a cut down version after this one gets rigged, but that will be a while from now. Thanks, Paul