Aurora USS Hartford's Scale

Kapudan - your literary accomplishments are most impressive indeed!  I'll have to seek out Mr. Sprunt; I confess I'm not familiar with him.

The movie "Cold Mountain" does indeed give a beautiful impression of the scenery of North Carolina.  Unfortunately, though, it was filmed in the former Yugoslavia.  I believe "Glory" was shot in South Carolina, but I'm not absolutely certain.  (It's my favorite Civil War movie.  One of our graduate students, a Civil War re-enactment enthusiast, got killed twice in it.)

The eastern and western parts of North Carolina are almost like different planets - in terms of scenery, climate, politics, and almost everything else.  For a good look at the real scenery of western NC, take a look at the movie "The Last of the Mohicans."  The story takes place in colonial New York, but the movie was filmed in western North Carolina.

EP:

The Hartford was definitely classed as a sloop when she was launched in 1858 - the primary differences between a sloop and a frigate at that time being that a sloop carried its armament on a single weather (or "spar") deck while frigates (such as the "Merrimack" class frigates) carried their armament on two decks.  There's a lot of confusion in this area though - the Susquehana was often referred to as a "side-wheel steam frigate" although with her armament on a single open deck, she would have been more correctly described as a sloop. 

 

I was expecting that question for sometime professor; well not especially from you to be honest but any of the community members. This wonderful little poem is written by James Sprunt and appears in his Tales of the Cape Fear Blockade. I'm a little embroiled in poetry too, I translated Cyril Tawney's Grey Funnel Line and the Scottish folksong Smugglers into Turkish and they appeared in a monthly litterature journal ; so when I first saw that little masterpiece I instantly fell in love with it. I hope to translate it too, just waiting for the right time and inspiration. Well, for NC, you know, I never was in states; but I've heard that there is really humid and hot. My sightings of the countryside in the movies Glory and Cold Mountain was very favorable though I have to see myself, I know it. Maybe the fact that I'm not a Yankee and I'm a lost cause symphatiser shall give me a diferent opinion

all my best bishes to sunny south and its people, be they dixies or not

As I now own all three of Dr. Graham's books, I can tell you that they are all well worth having. His latest on Monogram is in my humble opinion his best. Very comprehensive, and packed full of information and color photographs. His Aurora book came first and though worthwhile, isn't as comprehensive as those that followed. I'm hoping that a book on Lindberg is in the works as well, and maybe Pyro sometime down the road.

I'm a huge fan of Dr. Graham's book on Revell; I haven't bought the Aurora one yet, but it's on my wish list.  And I'll certainly buy the one on Monogram as soon as it's available.

The Revell book obviously is the product of a huge amount of research.  I suspect Dr. Graham would be the first to acknowledge, though, that there are some minor goofs in it - particularly in the ship lists.  I think the dates of the kit releases are absolutely reliable, but I've found a few mistakes regarding scales.  (Given Revell's "make the scale fit the box" philosophy, that's certainly understandable.  But there's no way the 1976 Viking ship, which is an excellent replica of the Gokstad Ship, is on 1/170 scale.)  There also are a few mistakes regarding the "family trees" of some of the ship kits.  The book, for instance, misses the fact that there were two Revell Mayflowers in different scales, and the statement that the 1977 Cutty Sark, on 1/216 scale is a reissue of the earlier Stag Hound kit is incorrect.  The 1977 Cutty Sark was a new kit - not one of Revell's most distinguished efforts, but definitely a model of the Cutty Sark.  I mention these points not in the spirit of demeaning Dr. Graham's research in any way; I'm in awe of the comprehensive work he did in the preparation of the book.  But given the hundreds of aircraft, armor, car, horse-drawn vehicle, guided missile, animal, railroad scenery, and other kits covered by the book, it was inevitable that a certain number of small errors would crop up.

It's also worth noting that the book only covers the kits issued by Revell of the U.S. (the Batavia and various other ships from Revell Germany aren't there), and the coverage stops with 1979.  Revell hasn't made any new sailing ships since then, of course, but the more recent twentieth-century warship kits obviously are missing. 

Kapudan - I wonder if you'd answer a question that I've been wondering about for some time.  Who wrote the poem in your signature line?  I've lived in eastern North Carolina for 23 years now, and I have to confess that I find it difficult to apply the term "haven of our dreams" to it.  The term I hear far more frequently is "armpit of the Southeast." 

I should in fairness acknowledge that I'm a transplanted Yankee, having been born and raised in Ohio.  (In this part of the country it's often observed that there are three kinds of Yankees:  1. Regular Yankees, who stay up there where they belong.  2. Dned Yankees, who move down here.  3.  Gddned Yankees, who move down here and don't smoke.  I fear I fit firmly in Category #3 - and 23 years' residence aren't enough to get me out of it.)

millard wrote:

Emir     When Aurora and also Revell and several others came out with kits they were considered box scale.They made the model to fit a certain size box.This cut down there production cost and also they could ship several different models in the same size box.Made for better stocking of shelves in the Department stores where most of these models were sold.Thats why the scale are so strange.and if you check alot of the parts in the kit they don't go with the scale of the hull.     Side note Jtilley has wrote alot about Dr.Tom Graham and his books on Revell and Aurora.Two weeks ago at the IPMS Nationals in KC he did seminars on his new book about Monogram.A very nice man. I got a sign copy of his new book,and also got to talk to him on the model room floor about different models and companies.Very interesting man. Rod

Hello Rod, I think I'll look for both of his books, they look like indispensable to sort out of that "box scale" quagmire and to learn what is the exact scale of each along with many other essential technical details.

EPinniger wrote:

I'd definitely be interested to see some pictures of the completed model (or "work in progress" pictures for that matter) when you build it. A question I have: Is the Hartford a sloop or a frigate? I've seen it described as both. I always assumed it was a frigate, due to the deck and armament layout. The Aurora Hartford kit is one I've been trying to find for a while. The last one I saw on eBay went for over $100, not including postage! It's a shame there isn't an equivalent of "Polar Lights" to resurrect some of Aurora's old ship kits.

EP, I think I should only dare to lay my hand on her when I will gain enough confidence and skill to tackle with such a hard to build kit. The fit of the parts is really bad and need careful trimming; detail is unacceptably lacking for a model of such a small scale. To resume shortly: underwater hull needs copper sheath detailing, gun muzzles need to be drilled, smokestack must be totally replaced, many deck details need to be created out of scratch and of course, there is no other chance than replacing spars and upper masts with birch dovels. Overall, it's a hard project that needs a good deal of time. I bought mine from a good pal in the e-bay by making a personal settlement in 75$ excluding shipping. I first saw the built model in a milanese hobby shop in Italy some 7-8 years ago and I was looking for her since then. I'd really wish there would be reissues of her along with wanderer whaler, bonhomme richard and the corsair, all difficult but magnificently large kits for further detailing or conversions. But as I know, their molds were lost in that fabled aurora trainwreck incident. Maybe I'm wrong. Who knows, someday, out of a dark corner they may reappear.

I am trying to build a Hartford at present, which I found on eBay a year ago. The kit is so old that when I tried to gently correct the warp on the masts and spars, most of them broke. One very disappointing feature is that the pin rails are molded into the bulwarks. The propeller and rudder arrangement is appalling. Also the sails are molded onto the yards. I am going to spend some very unpleasant days trying to separate them.   

I'd definitely be interested to see some pictures of the completed model (or "work in progress" pictures for that matter) when you build it.
A question I have: Is the Hartford a sloop or a frigate? I've seen it described as both. I always assumed it was a frigate, due to the deck and armament layout.

The Aurora Hartford kit is one I've been trying to find for a while. The last one I saw on eBay went for over $100, not including postage! It's a shame there isn't an equivalent of "Polar Lights" to resurrect some of Aurora's old ship kits.

Emir

    When Aurora and also Revell and several others came out with kits they were considered box scale.They made the model to fit a certain size box.This cut down there production cost and also they could ship several different models in the same size box.Made for better stocking of shelves in the Department stores where most of these models were sold.Thats why the scale are so strange.and if you check alot of the parts in the kit they don't go with the scale of the hull.

    Side note Jtilley has wrote alot about Dr.Tom Graham and his books on Revell and Aurora.Two weeks ago at the IPMS Nationals in KC he did seminars on his new book about Monogram.A very nice man. I got a sign copy of his new book,and also got to talk to him on the model room floor about different models and companies.Very interesting man.

Rod

1/100 ! Good Heavens ! I truly was not aware that Hartford was that.. small ! To be honest, I'm surprised, really.. The kit that comes out is only as big as the 1/159 Revell USS Constitiution. I plan to build her in her Battle of New Orleans form with minimal rig.

According to "The Old Steam Navy, Volume 1: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats, 1815-1885," the Hartford was 225' x 44' x 23.3' (Depth of Hold).  Armament on completion was twenty 9" Dahlgrens and by June '62 the Hartford had received two 20 pounder and one thirty pounder rifles in addition.  If I recall correctly the kit has a Parrott gun on a pivot mount on the poop deck and 9" Dahlgrens on broadside so that would put it somewhere between the onset of the war and June of 1862.

It's been thrity years since I built the kit, but I don't recall any problems other than the plastic sails that were molded as part of the spars.  If you don't want to go through the headache of cutting them off, Admiral Farrgut had most of the masts and spars removed from the ships in the fleet prior to running past the forts below New Orleans, so you could get away with very minimal sail rig.

Good luck with the kit. 

Tom Graham's "Guide to Aurora Models Kits" states the scale to be 1/115.

As per Wikipedia, the USS Hartford was 225ft long.  So it would be 2,25 ft long at 1/100 scale.