Building a Revell 1/96 CSS Alabama

Gene, It looks great. I really like those Cottage replacement guns. Your deck detailing is amazing.  I got a deal offered to me on one of these kits. So now I will have one to work on, once I finish the Connie build. I will use my Alabama as a learning platform for doing the really nice BJ Alabama. I have some more to learn before tacking that BJ kit.

Looking forward to seeing what Bill is doing.    Dale

Gene your deck is beyond spectacular, the kind of thing that must be seen to be believed. If mine turns out one tenth as good as yours I'll be happy. 

Robert, the deck just take some needle sharp drafting pencils with HB leads & a sharpener & about 5 hours drawing lines over tamiya Wooden Deck tan . Then a light raw umber wash & I did a light black wash too. I went over individual planks random with a heavier umber .

  Dale, you should see the guns painted, they really look good. I like the plastic ships now. I built a bunch of wood ships & riverboats when i didn't shake so much.

Gene 1;

Question ; I found out by checking boxes prior to boxing for shipping .You'll be getting the Alabama and The Bonus ship . Do you want a box full of extra Alabama parts ? From the deck up ?

 I have the flat box later edition and for some reason the hull seems to have escaped . It certainly is not in my shop . It was still sealed from where I bought it . I got sick and never opened it .

 Next time , in a show venue if I can't check it , I don't buy it !

Gary, that is a shame about the hull on your Alabama. Why don't you hold on to them & if I need any I will yell. I got the Imai Pirate ship without the masts & railings, so right now I have an extra pirate hull & decks. I wonder what those 2 would look like mated. I still have that Model T ford 1/16 kit if you want it. 

   Just got back from the ear doctor & since , like 3 ear docs told me, I use a few drops of a mix of 70% alcohol & 30% white vinegar in each ear & they stay clean. Just in & out  & now I am giving medical advice. 

I meant to tell everyone that you all should put a lot of your Alabama things over on this forum that has to do with the Alabama. Either here or on Bill's when he gets it on. There are a lot of good things there that will help the Alabama people who are .

I really like the black furniture & gray gun carriages . I also painted the barrels with MM metallic gun metal, then put a light gloss on them. They do look good. It keeps them dark, but gives them some life. No one knows what color anything on the Alabama was so, just keep it a little dark.

The guns would have been painted black.

This is an early picture of an officer posing on the CSS ALABAMA besides a naval gun. The black gun does have a shine to it

Happy modeling   Crackers   

absolutely love what you are doing gene , I wish I had your ability with paint mate .

steve5

I figured they would be black, but I want it a little different from it's shelf mate, the Kearsarge. It is a dark gunmetal. I finished the skylite window with a piece of diamond shaped brass grill under the brass wires & a piece of clear under it. Looks good.

Gene,

I have been sick last week but am okay now, so I am back to my Alabama (and trying to make 1943Mike's advice for posting photos work!).  I now have cut the gun ports and scuppers on both sides of the hull, and all corrections to the deck furniture and the correct rails for the pivot guns done.  What is that buff color you used?

Bill

Hi Bill, you are doing yours right & I am doing mine for fun. The buff I used is Tamiya Buff. I like Tamiya paints the best. They don't clog up your airbrush like MM does. I will always use it over MM if I can.. MM does have some reall good colors & is great for brushing. I did the black inside with wood pn rails & steering wheel. I put on the first Cottage gun & it looks good. I have a lot of deck furniture on too. I will have more pictures soon. 
      Are you OK now? sorry to hear you are sick. I hope it wasn't serious. A lot of the artists show a buff color inside. There are no green or white or red. This thin is really looking good now.  

Gene,

I had the flu. I still do but it is better.  Anyway, yours is looking great!  I hope to be able to post photos with the help I am getting, but, not yet.

Bill

 Bill, I hope you feel better. That is tough on us old guys, but you are still a kidm to me. Do you take flu shots? we do alomg with pnuemonia shots too. I got to a point with the Alabama where I could take some more pictures, & here they are in several posts. 

The 2 ships together.

My gray gun carriages are not near that bright & do look good. All the colors are much more subdued. All the black hull touchup will disapear with a coat of Dullcote. So will my glue spots. Lots of fun & they do look good together.

Gene you display a standard of artistry almost impossible to believe, except there it is right in front of my eyes! Beautiful, amazing, jaw-dropping work. I'm VERY interested in the buff colour you painted the bulwarks, it's inspired me to do the same whenever I can get started on my own kit. Thanks for posting such clear photos.  

Gene,

I will send updates on my Alabama soon.  I wish that I could post here, but, the vagaries of technology kill me!

Bill

Robert, does everyone in Austrailia talk so nice. I love your description of my work, but I'm just a crazy old man having a lot of fun. Been doing it for over 75 years. Neither my wife or I can remember a lot of words, so I use great & super. my color on the bulwarks was Tamiya Buff. I like it because where you don't know the real color, it is neutral. My deck isTamiya Wooden Tan with a raw Umber wash & then a real light black oil wash, real light. Floquil or Tamiya gold on the stripe. I didn't have Tamiya German gray so I mixed a dark gray & black for the hull  & used Floquil Copper, but would have used Tamiya acrylic Copper if I had it. Acyrilic is better for oil washing. The inside was all Tamiya black. Most all colors are flat. 

 I used a brass diamond screen for the skylite with clear plastic under it. I used MM Gunmetal for the guns & mixed a gray/ green for the carriages. They are much darker than they look.

Bill, just for fun, look up Picasa to store your pictures. It is supposed to be closed down, but I am still loading my pictures from my camera to it. From Picasa I can send 30 or more pictures at a time to you, but I don.t know how to send them to FSM from Picasa. Google took over Picasa. There is a place on Picasa to send to Google Photos & then I post single pictures on FSM thru the little mountain marker. You don't mean to tell me that a nuclear sub man isn't a lot smarter than a worn out old air force dummy & house builder?

Gene,

It's not a question of being smarter. It's a question of postimages.org not doing that which people are telling me it should do.  I follow their guidance to the letter, only to find that the site is telling me something different than they. I really wish that all I had to do was to click into an "Attachments" icon and my photos would post, just as they do on www.papermodelers.com. It is so much easier to post there!  Oh, well . . .

Bill

Gene, looks great. Love the pic of the two together. Bill emailed me some pics of his and I hope that when I do mine, that I can get even close to what you 2 do. I tried to post using Google images, that was a failure, now using fotki as suggested by another friend and its working great.    Dale

Hi Dale, I don't understand why you can't post from Google Photos. All you have to do is right click the large picture on  copy image address & then right click it on FSM mountain picture after you have brought it up. Then paste & ok or whatever comes up last on the bottom. 

    Give me a call & come out whenever you want. It's only a half hour from Asheville. You will really enjoy the 2 ships, Kearsarge & Alabama. Mine does look better in person than in the pictures. I don't do photos well & use too much light. It changes the colors. I just about have every thing done on the deck. I will probably start the masts next week. 

 Bill, I meant to tell you that I have glued every thing on the deck with Formula 560. That is a paint to paint glueing & they are tighter than anything. I do love that stuff. I glued all the cannons down after I slightly flatened the wheels. I think trying to use CA to glue on the paint does something to the paint & weakens it. It always comes loose. 

gene

google images didn't work for me either , I could see them but no-one else . it must have something to do with the site , before google changed .

love what you are doing to this model , you seem to get a clarity , no-one else can get mate . must keep an eye out for this kit .

Gene if, as you say, those two models "look better in person than in the pictures", then all I can say is that if I were to see them my eyes would be out on stalks. So would Mr Tilley's and, I suspect, the eyes of everyone on this forum. You are quite simply a genius. I can't wait to see your Harriet Lane/Blockade Runner when you build it.  

Man, you 2 Aussie guys are something else. I love to read your compliments.Steve, you need to get both of them, the Kearsarge & Alabama. Robert, you said you have the Alabama but do you have the Kearsarge? Steve, how is your Victory coming ? That is a really beautiful model & you rig your guns right. I just can't tie some of that stuff, so i cheat.

  I hold both of them up in front of my 35 year old wood  Constitution & I like the plastic about as much as the wood. I spent about a thousand hours on it with real copper plates & I could really rig back then. I mus have been able to tie a knot too

   I meant to add Mates, instead of guys. My wife loves that mates word.

Gene I've got a Kearsarge (fourth attempt) to build as well as the Alabama (third attempt). Bill (warshipguy) very kindly sent it to me and refused to accept any repayment. What a gentleman he is! I still have my second Kearsarge, built in 1971, in its glass case and it has lasted several house moves and still looks ok though I now see how much better it could be done, especially after seeing your work. Ditto with my second Alabama, done in 1990. The third Kearsarge was done in 2008 for a friend and I think I did a better job on it compared to 1971. So both are again on the slipway. I don't have nearly as much time as I would like to give to this hobby of ours so expect both kits will take a year each to build.