Converting the 1/96 Cutty Sark into the Glory of the Seas

Rob, Beautiful model & beautifully displayed. I love to show original artifacts with a model. I used to do that with my train layouts. I treked all over Colorado at over 11,000' collecting narrow guage spikes & anything RR related.

     I have original Florence & Cripple Creek wrenches & switch locks & keys from D&RG.& spikes from everywhere . How did you get the parts from the Glory ?

                             Gene

Thanks Gene.....I had planned the excavation trip for over a year..waiting for the extreme low tide..(-3) to fall on an acceptable date.  Study..revealed the exact location of the remains and follow-up with others who went to the site...aided greatly in my success.  The encrusted iron remains required some excavation(even under a foot of water).  The iron bars(pins) used to fasion the timbers together were so numerous and were the goal of the contractor who burned the vessel.  I had hoped to aquire a copper sample...but I'm sure after nearly a hundred years those samples have been removed by others.

I am still excited to have the samples I did retrieve..since they came from the yard of Donald McKay and were actual parts of the Glory of the Seas...who else can make such a claim?

Thanks again

Rob

Wow...the pictures are all over the place....hoiw do I fix this?

Rob

bump

Good day Rob,

very beautiful model You create!

I like it very much,... impressed your speed in building model! and quality at the same time!

Great!

All the Best!

Kirill

Rob,

Your work always is interesting to view. I sure hope that page 10 can be bypassed.

Mike

How did that photo mess happen? I'm not dissin' the photos, just have never seen a format/layout like that before!

Evidently a link or boot from photobucket was erroniously posted or linked.

Rob

Rob, That is great how you got those ship parts. That is half the fun of model building. I grew up in St. Louis & as a kid rode the real wooden riverboats.  I have been all up & down the Mississippi looking for riverboat  & Civil war ironclad info.

   I spent 25 years all over the west looking for 1800's train & building info & pictures.We went to the Air Force museums in Dayton & Dulles a number of times when I was hot on planes. At Dulles we even saw the actual Kingfisher plane my brother flew in off the Indiana in WW2. They only had 2 on the Battleship & he flew in both. That was a surprise.

      What are you building now?

Hi Gene...sorry for the delay....I'm on vacation in Arizona...not much work on the Glory...however, I will be working soon on the mainmast yards...getting them all rigged up.

Rob

Bill...are you going to build a clipper from the Cutty Sark hull?  Which clipper?

Glory?

Rob

Rob,

I'm going to try to emulate your great work by copying what you have done.  It will be a great learning opportunity!  My ultimate goal is to take what I have learned and focus another effort on turning the old Revell Stag Hound into a more realistic model.

Bill

I wish you all the best and would enjoy being any help.  I compared both my examples of the Flying Cloud and the StagHound and they are nearly the exact molding.  Even the port side die errors of the earlier Flying Cloud are reproduced in the Staghound.  

Here is a rendering of the hull as represented in the book, "The Searth For Speed Under Sail".  Hope it helps in your modifications.

Rob

Rob,

Thanks! I have hinted quite aggresively for that book for Father's Day!

Bill

Arguably I think I have an extensive library on the subject of American clippers myself....And I have read every book from cover to cover...even all my Time/Life Seafaring series(Long out of print)

Rob(I may have missed one here and there)

I'm rebuilding my library.  I also had an extensive library but it was destroyed in a flood several years ago.  I have that Time/Life Seafaring series; I bought the entire set for $35.00 at a local used book store.  My grandsons enjoy reading them.

I was missing a few and would you know it, of all places(Arizona) I found the Vikings...one I was missing.  I believe I have them all and probably a couple repeats as well.  By the way could you do me a favor and list the voluums you have?  Just a check to see if I still need to add to my collection.  I first began collecting them around 1979 when they first came out..but I can not for the life of me remember the titles of the entire collection.

The Pirates was the first.  I hope my graqndkids will enjoy reading my collection as well...such rich Maritime history.

Rob(thanks)

Rob,

The titles are:

1. The Ancient Mariners

2. The Venetians

3. The Vikings

4. The Explorers

5. The Spanish Main

6. The Armada

7. The Altantic Crossing

8. The Pacific Navigators

9. The Northwest Passage

10. The Pirates

11. The East Indiamen

12. Fighting Sail

13. The Men-of-War

14. The Line of Battle

15. The Frigates

16. The Whalers

17. The Clipper Ships

18. The Windjammers

19. The Dreadnoughts

20. The U-Boats

21. The Great Liners

22. The Luxury Yachts

23. The Racing Yachts

This is the list.  If there are others, I don't know of them. These were sold to me as the complete set.  I hope that it helps!

By the way, what are your opinions of the old Scientific Models clippers?

Bill

I only built one Scientific model of the Cutty Sark eons ago and it was not that detailed..nor did the hull come completely ready.  You had to do some carving and actually scratch build some items if you wanted it to be accurate.  I'm not sure of their quality today...I'm hopeful they have improved.

Your list has thrown me off...I don't recall there being a *Line of Battle* voluum in the series and no on-line search has revealed such a voluum.  There are 22 in the series and I have all of them with the axception of having 2 Atlantic Crossing,Fighting Sail and Frigates.  Plus 3 of Pacific Navigators.  I'm over zelous I guess.

Rob

My mistake . . . I have a book called The Line of Battle that looks exactly like the Seafarers series. In fact, it was stashed within the Seafarers and I simply read the titles from the books on the shelf.  It is actually published by the Naval Institute Press as part of the Conway's History of the Ship series.  I sincerely apologise.

Concerning the Scientific clippers, you are absolutely correct in saying that they are not that well detailed.  However, each is large enough for detailing. I see them as a challenge to turn them into serious models.  Scientific has been out of business for years, but these ships can be easily found and are quite affordable on eBay.  I mentioned them because of your interest in clipper ships.

Bill

I appreciate that Bill.  Through my evolution of clipper builds..I have come to the stage that I have.  Building the vessel I want via re-engineering of other kits..namely the 1/96 scale Revell Cutty Sark hull.  A great start point..IMHV.  However if I were to build a version of the Great Republic in the same scale of 1/96...it would have to be twice as large.......

But each vessel I build based on that scale and hull...it becomes rescaled.

I'm glad you are desiring to build from other models that can be modified.

Rob

Rob,

We are all here to learn from other modelers. I have learned from you, and I hope to emulate your Glory of the Seas before tackling the modifications necessary to turn the Revell Stag Hound into a worthy replication. Also, being from the San Francisco area, I have an interest in Glory of the Seas.

I have built model ships since 1960, but I learn from most of the posts here in FSM. I hope I never stop learning!

Bill

Indeed..this place is a plethora of knowledge for the ship modeler.  I use every media available...so many purist modelers are critical of my use of plastic hulls...saying my builds are not really scratch.  Well that may be true(from a certain point of view).  However I'm not a purist..I'm a replicator...and that defined means, *Use what you got to get the job done*.  Yes the Glory of the Seas spent lots of time in San Francisco and I can imagine her attraction for you.  She was McKay's last clipper...she had a long varried life...and she ended it up in my neck of the woods....so..there you go..no better motivation to model her.

I'll share any and all my resourses with you if you need the assistance.

Rob,

I saw your post on the Airfix site. I really appreciate it!  By the way, have you seen or built the Bluejacket clipper ships?  I have the Flying Cloud and the Young American.  They have a different on in 1/96 scale, but the name escapes me.  Also, Model Shipways used to produce the Flying Fish as a solid hull kit but changed it to a plank-on-bulkhead kit. I'm sure you knew of these, but the do extend the range of available clippers in your chosen scale (except Young American).

Bill

My pleasure.  I have seen but have not built any of the Bluejacket kits.  Years ago I made the diversion from POF, POB to solid hull ships. ( I actually made a 6ft POF hull of the Cutty Sark 30 years ago)   I have a pretty nice wood shop..so I can cut nearly anything I want and carve the hulls.  Lately, though I have been on this transforming gig with 1/96 scale models...namely because of the size is large, but not so large you have no place to display it.  Pre-carved hulls of the Sovereign Of the Seas clipper can be found at 31" at http://www.ajfisher.com/hulls.htm.  For $155....which I might be tempted to go after.

Rob(I'm a lazy modeler... so If I can skip steps and achieve my goals...so be it)

Oh Bill...I forgot to tell you that http://www.ajfisher.com/hulls.htm has plans for Young America, Staghound, St Paul, Sovereign Of The Seas, Lightning, Great Republic, Flying Cloud.  I cannot vouch for their detail...but for the price I might give it a whirl.  I'm sure the plans are not that detailed, but I can work with ahything. I've heard good things about this outfit.

Rob

Rob,

A.J. Fisher has a solid reputation for excellence.  I had the pleasure of visiting their store in Massachusetts last summer, and I plan to visit them again in about a month. Their fittings are great! I am looking forward to seeing these ships.

Bill