Now starts the research as to deck layout, tryworks, masting and yards, ect.  I also saw a beautiful C.W. Morgan in diorama showing the cutting in of a whale.  I'm going to do my best to show the same thing.  If I do it right, should be nice as the model is approx. 2ft. long. I'm reading the book from 1974 on the CWM righ tnow (generally a short history of her voyages and various problems).

Prof. Tilley,

Have any suggestions on research material.  BTW I ahve the silent (down to the sea in ship) which was filmed on the wanderer, I'll try to capture some stills from that. and check with Mystic Seaport.

Jake

Congrats on your acquisition, Jake. Ten years? That is being persistent.

Congratulations, Jake, on your triumph.

(We will, of course, expect a lavishly-illustrated, step-by-freaking-step build log....)

The big problem with that kit (other than those awful "sails" molded integrally with the yards) concerns that whaleboats.  The boats, of course, are a key feature of any whaler model.  The Aurora versions are caricatures of the real things, with gross, swooping sheerlines instead of the beautiful, subtle curves o the real things.  They look slightly more like the whaleboats used by the Azores Islanders.

If I remember correctly (highly questionable these days), the old movie Movie *** used Azores whaleboats bought or rented for the purpose.  They look ridiculous, too.  Maybe the movie inspired the Aurora designers.

I think Walter Channing, who drew lots of whaler and whaleboat plans, did a set for the Wanderer.  You might be able to get a set through Taubmann's, or maybe from the New Bedford Whaling Museum.  (The museum used to sell all sorts of plans through its gift shop.  I don't know whether it still does or not.)  Another pretty good source is Albert Cook Church's book Whaleships and Whaling.  It's a book of photos, including some of the Wanderer.

Thanks John for the heads up on the boats.  I wonder if I can find replacments for them through some of the model supplier such as BlueJacket or others, I'll start looking now. I'll try to find a copy of the book you mentioned!

Jake  

Biographical Note

Albert Cook Church was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1880, the son of a tugboat captain. His hobby of photography developed into a vocation and as a result of his early exposure to the sea and New Bedford harbor, he concentrated on photographing whalers and whaling, thus documenting the final days of New Bedford's most important industry. Other subjects that Church photographed were fishing operations, fish processing, fishing schooner races, and schooner construction. His ability as a photographer led to his being given special assignments for the New Bedford Standard Times.

In conjunction with his photography, Church also developed skills as a writer. His first article, Whaling, Past And Present, was published in 1908 in New England Magazine. He wrote several more articles for this magazine as well as for Yachting and then published his first book, Whale Ships and Whaling (1938). His other book credit is American Fishermen (1940), which he did not author but which is profusely illustrated with his photographs.

During the first World War, Church left New Bedford for several years, and on his return after the war, he offered illustrated lectures on "Submarines in Their Application to Modern Warfare." He also served as president of the Submarine Writers' Association.

From 1936 until his death in 1965, Church maintained a darkroom and exhibit studio at the Pierce & Kilburn marine yard in Fairhaven. Although his photograph production slowed considerably, he was kept active reproducing prints. At his death, maritime museums engaged in an extensive search for Church's 65,000 negatives, few of which have yet been recovered.

gregbale

Congratulations, Jake, on your triumph.

(We will, of course, expect a lavishly-illustrated, step-by-freaking-step build log....)

My parents bought me the BHR and the whaler, and one look at those yard/ sail monstrosities put me off. But I've always been a fan of the subject, the CWM is one of my alltime favorite plastic kits of anything, so if you can deal with the thing, good on you.

I'm afraid that, unfortunately, you're not going to find any aftermarket whaleboats that (a) look like honest-to-goodness whaleboats and (b) are anything like the right scale.  If (gawd forbid) I were doing it, I'd probably try making a master and vac-forming the hulls.  (If I remember right, you need seven:  five on the davits and two stowed on top of the after deckhouse.  I may be wrong about that.)  

Model Shipways' Kate Cory and Morgan kits provide precut basswood lifts for building the whaleboats on the bread-and-butter system.  A member of our model club brought in a Cory that he'd done that way, and it looked superb.  But those kits are both on a larger scale - 3/16"=1'.

Revell did a beautiful job on the basic shapes of the whaleboats in its Morgan kit.  But - and this is my major beef with that kit, which otherwise is one of my favorites - only two of the boats have any interior detail.  The others are intended to be either stowed upside down (fine) or covered up with vac-formed covers that are on the "sail" sheet.  Ouch!  Whaleboats were very rarely, if ever, covered - for two reasons.  (A) They had to be ready to swing out on a moment's notice.  (B) They were stuffed with masts, sails, oars, line tubs, harpoons, lances, and all sorts of other stuff that would have made them just about impossible to cover.

There's just no getting around the fact that building a model of a whaleship involves putting in a great deal of time on the whaleboats - unless, of course, you want to leave them off, in which case your ship won't look much like a whaler.  That's one of several things that have kept me from tackling a whaler.

I found this old thread from 2006 on doing just that "buildign the boats from scratch"  Hey Sumpter250 want to make some extra money ;).  I'll even come over  to Mississippi to get them .

Sorry left off linky string.

cs.finescale.com/.../60523.aspx

Jake

You all got me. Just bought a Morganfrom Amazon as it's currently in rerelease by RoG.

Thanks for the links Jake, I've been fitting out open boats and launches at 1/350 for my last couple of pre-dread models, so this should go ok.

When you get around to researching the fit out of the boats, which Tilley recognized as a major project in itself- I'd love to share back and forth any information you have with mine.

Ok as crazy as this MAY sound, I contacted Model Expo and they do have 1/64th scale whale boats for their model of the CWM. I'm going to order one and see just how out of scale they are and consider taking out a center section to shorten IF  it is too big - well nothing ventured, nothing gained?  YOu never know.

Hey congrads! I'm not much of a ship modeler but it's always great to see someone pick up that dream kit they've been searching for years!

That ModelExpo kit is going to be way too big.  (If I remember right, the Aurora kit is just about on HO scale - that is, 1/87.)  But I think what you'll get from ModelExpo is just some pieces of wood, cut with a laser to approximate size (i.e., considerably oversize).  It wouldn't be difficult to scale the shapes down (you could do it on your printer, if it has an "enlarge/reduce" function), trace the reduced versions onto sheet basswood (or something better, if you can find it), and cut them out.  Having done that, you'd be at the same point where somebody starting the Model Shipways kit would be.  

If nothing else, a bread-and-butter hull made from scaled-down Model Shipways parts would be a good basis for vac-forming, or just press-forming, hulls from styrene sheet.  That approach would cut back on the amount of repetition.  I was pretty successful, I think, with the scratchbuilt wood boats for my little Hancock model, but the thought of making seven identical ones is pretty intimidating. 

What those whaleboats were used for turns me off (though I recognize that something of the sort was necessary in those days when whale oil was such a vital commodity), but the hull of a New Bedford whaleboat is a thing of great beauty.  Anybody who's looked at a really good model of a whaler knows that the boats are a key to its success.

HI !

   Okay , so you outbid me .He! He! No in all seriousness , I keep looking for one AURORA model to find few and then the bidding is so high I CANNOT bid . I am glad you like sailing ships .All I want , is to find a complete in the box (condition of box not relevant as long as all parts there ) AURORA model of the WHEELER CRUISER ! My dad had the actual type boat in real world size and I built a model years ago . I just want to build another - it's on my BUCKET list .           Tanker-Builder

The Wanderer kit is very close to 1/87 ( HO ) scale. When I got mine, at a garage sale, and got it home, I got out my copy of Whale Ships and Whaling, by Albert Cook Church.

Published by Bonanza Books, a division of Crown Publishers inc. ( I can find no ISBN number ).

There are a number of photos of Wanderer in the book.

A 1/64th scale whaleboat will measure close to 38' in 1/87th scale ( about an inch and a half too long.)

Even if the kit is a 1/96th scale, which I seriously doubt ( I measured the kit hull with an HO scale rule, and every measurement came out within inches of the specifications of Wanderer's hull as published in Whale Ships and Whaling ), the 1/64th scale boat would measure about 42', in 1/96th scale.

OK I was hoping to cut out a middle section but the side height and prows may be way off as well.

EWWWW Sorry about that.

The more I read it, the more I thing Prof T is on to something in moulding the boats.

If I remember rightly from all those decades ago, 10/1000 is 1" in 1:87, and 0.005 a half-inch to scale.  So, a mix of vacu-form and draw-moulding  would help make the five near-identical models  the kit really wants.

Just a thought. If you carve a master you could  cast them out of Plaster of Paris. You might have to make some compromise about the internal volume but if you fill it with thwarts and gear and paint the innards black it would probably work out ok.

As far as the gear, I believe the line tubs were kept onboard the ship and loaded into the boats when needed. That stuff was state of the art and expensive, of course the whole enterprise depended on its integrity.

not going through all that trouble on the boats. thinking about a diorama of cutting in a whale. Only us crazy detail people will be able to tell the difference anyway.

I reme3mber seeing a dio along those lines--but, I cannot remember if it was in my one trip to Mystic, or on one of a couple trips to museums in SF and/or SD.

As a ship dio, it has much to commend it to the modeler.  During the flensing, only enough sail was set to keep way on.  This helps the modeler, if only in answering the "should I set sails or not " question.  

Visually, you have some challenges, which will make good vignettes too.  Like folk sharpening harpoons & lances; a boat could be being painted.  Toughest part will be in getting the smoke coming off the tryworks.