USS Susquehanna monogram/Imai 1/150

There's a great amount of info on the Susquehanna here.  Excellent.  I found the kit in a hobby shop last year and have yet to start it, but I'll be saving all this reference.

For the 1/96th scale naval figures, you can definitely get them directly through Cottage Industries.  Just email William and he can set you up with them.

 http://www.cottage-industry-models.com/

They were done in resin at one point, but the last batch I got from him are in white metal.  I used a number of them on my USS Weehawken model:

http://www.devinjpoore.com/models/weehawken_web/index.htm

 

 I finally got my hands on a 1/150 scale Imai Susquehanna. Just came in the mail 2 days ago. Nice kit. All the parts still on the sprues and originally packed in the plastic bags. Even the box is in excellent condition. I don´t think I am going to build the kit, though. I´d like to just take some measurements and convert them to 1/96 scale for a wooden model. I might resell it at a later date. For me, this kit is like a bottle of rare, expensive wine. It would be ashamed to open it. :-))  Just put it on the shelf and look at it!  Ha Ha!

 

Sky Cop, that's all I've done with my Imai Susquehanna too... I've had it for 18 months (got it on eBay from the UK) and all I've done is open it up every couple of months and look at it. I need to do something smaller and less expensive before I work up my nerve to start on this kit. I want to do it right.

That is exactly what I'm doing. I'm getting my ship building back up to speed(ref Revell Golden Hind). I guess after waiting all this time to do the Susquehanna again,I'm a little apprehensive about starting it. There should be a Susquehanna group build. It would get the kit off the shelf and make all the collectors weep :)

 I´ve seen the term "Group Build" a lot in other forums but I´m not sure exactly what that means. Can somebody explain it?

Since the Susquehanna models seem to somewhat deviate from the actual Susquehanna and a lot of builders would rather build an accurate (as far as that is possible) representation of the real thing, I was wondering if we could all put our heads together and try to come up with some kind of plans or drawings for her that everyone could go by on their build. Maybe over time, we could get a more accurate picture of the details and the changes she went through over the years. I imagine that a lot of the details would just be an educated guesswork but it could be interesting to see how it would come out.

 The problem is, who would do the technical plans? I draw but I´m a cartoonist. I can just do sketches of how something looks but not to scale. Not much mechanical drawing ability here.

I was just thinking that we all dust off and build our kits at the same time and post pics here in the thread so we can see how each other is doing. It would be good if we each build the kit representing the ship in a specific time period.

Mig,

 What I want to do is copy the hull form of the plastic kit and reproduce it in wood. I´ve never done this before but I´m going to try it anyway. I have already started making the bulkheads. It´s a slow process, sawing, sanding, test fitting, ect. but I´m interested to see how this turns out. Like I said before, I plan on making a larger version (!/96 scale) of the Susquehanna but I´m going to try this first as a test. I´m making templates of the bulkheads that I will later enlarge to 1/96 scale on a copy machine. Ahh...theoretically, it "should" work. I hope!

 I found some more info on the Susquehanna´s Armament configuration. I wrote to Mystic Seaport a while back and they sent me a bunch of info on both the Susquehanna and the Powhatan. I´ve put this info together with other scources and this is what I have come up with so far:

1850: three 8 inch shell guns, six 32 pounders.

1861: Fifteen 8 inch shell guns, two 12 pound Howitzers and one 24 Pound Howitzer

1863: two 150 Pounder Parrott Rifles, twelve 9 inch Dahlgrens, one 12 pound Howitzer

1864: add one 12 pounder Howitzer

Jan 1865: two 100 Pounder Parrott Rifles, twelve 9 inch Dahlgrens

Mar 31 1865: Two 150 Pounder Parrott Rifles, twelve 9 inch Dahlgrens, two 12           Pounder Howitzers  

December 31, 1865: two 11 inch Dahlgrens, twelve 9 inch Dahlgrens, one 30 Pounder Parrott Rifle and two 12 pounder Howitzers. 

Thanks Sky Cop, good info. I wish you all the luck on your project. You have a lot more ambition than I. I would like to get the kit built. I just want to do her as close as possible to what the kit offers and as accurate as I can. What period does the kit(at least the guns) represent?

The kit is suppose to represent the Susquehanna in 1853. At least according to the instruction sheet. I might have also found some other discrepancies on the kit. The smokestack on the Susquehanna was 65 ft tall above the grate. This would make it 5.2 inches or 132.08 mm in 1/150 scale. I don´t have my kit with me right now so I can´t measure it myself but it just seemed to be a little taller than it should be.  I´m not sure on the circumference but it had an area of 54 sq. ft. The stack is a pretty prominent feature on the model so I think it should be accurate. Is the stack on the model flared or straight. Her stack was flaired in the early years but it was later replaced by a straight stack. Can´t say exactly when this happened. Probably after her complete overhaul in 1861.

 As far as the supplied cannons go, it seems as though the model has 32 pounders. Because the carriages are molded into the deck, you´ll probably have to go with those. I´ll try and make a 1/150 scale 8 inch shell gun and see if it fits on the carriages.

Can you and anyone else interested in this ship also contact me here? I think we need to start posting pictures and it seems kinda difficult to do here.  

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=38692

The stack is flared on the model. Diameter is 1 1/2". The height looks OK. What do you mean about the carriage being molded into the deck? Mine are all seperate. They actually look like the ones out of the Constitution kit.

Ah, then there is a difference. I have the Imai Susquehanna and they have the cannon carriages molded on to the deck. they are not seperate. We´ll have to compare these two kits. I´d like to see what the Monogram kit looks like. I´ll have to find out how to post pictures here.

That's interesting since the instructions state that the Monogram kit is from the Imai molds.When I get a chance, I'll shoot some pics of the pieces and post them.

Here are the pictures of what I have in the box....

I have both kits Monogram and Imai 1/150 scale.They are the same molds.The only differents you will find is that Monogram used a different grade of plastic so Monograms details are not as crisp as Imai. Imai's plastic especially the tan was a very good grade of plastic.The wood grain on Imai kits really shows up well and to me its because of the material they used.I've never found another company that had this quality.

Rod

MIg,

 Sorry about the confusion on the carriages. I just got back to my girlfriends place where I had left my model. Yeah, they are the same. I have been looking at other models on the web a lot and studying the details of them that I guess I got everything mixed up. "I´m so confuuuused!"

Anyway, We just might be able to start this community build after all. I happened across another Imai Susquehanna and it was only the half of what the other one cost. I´m going to resell the first one and see if I can at least get most of my money back. Everything is still originally packed in plastic and the box is in really good shape. It even has the original price tag on it in German Marks and the sticker from the hobby shop it was bought in. I´d hate to part with it, though. I´m still thinking it over.

 BTW, how in the "Bleep" do you post pictures here???

I posted the pictures after printing off the article in the help section of this forum( pinned at the top of community assistance section). It did take a long time to get it to work. Set up a photobucket account. Click the choose files box. Find the pictures on your computer to load. I have to download them from the camera to IPhoto. Then to the desktop. From there,photobucket will load one at a time into you album. Once in the album, select the photo to "share" by checking the box. Then slide down with the mouse until the most bottom pop up block is illuminated. Cut and then go to FSM Forum and start a post. Paste the image into the body of the post. Check the picture by looking at the preview. For more than one picture,I hit return after each and repeat. It is a bit of a pain having to go back and forth between photobucket and the forum each time. That might not be the "best" way,but, it worked for me. I am working off a Mac, so there might be a little difference to a PC. When you first paste the image into the post, it comes up as a locator, not an image. I thought something was wrong until I checked the preview. Make sure you check the box just below the image in photobucket or it will not work. It took me some time to figure that out also. I hope that helps. I glad to hear you've got another kit. I hope to get to the Susquehanna after I finish the Golden Hind. I may do another plane as the local IPMS has a show coming up and I need to get something else finished first. I never win the top prize ,but, it helps me to see how I'm doing as compared to the real modelers out there.

I just read in another site that Aoshima will be re releasing the 1/150 scale USS Susquehanna in late May 2009.

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=5174&mode=&order=0

Sky Cop wrote:

I just read in another site that Aoshima will be re releasing the 1/150 scale USS Susquehanna in late May 2009. http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=5174&mode=&order=0

I believe Aoshima kits have been running around $150.00 per kit. Normally you can p/u either Imai or Monogram for a lot less on Ebay.

Rod

Here´s some interesting reading.

http://www.suvcw.org/mollus/warpapers/DCv1p447.htm

http://www.suvcw.org/mollus/warpapers/DCv2p185.htm

 

Those are a couple of awesome articles. I'm glad the armament was spelled out. The Susquehanna sure was a fighting ship. It was interesting to hear of the hurricane deck. Thanks for sharing those.

From Carmike a while back: 

 "On a trip into NYC I located a copy at the NY Public Library of "The Naval and Mail Steamers of the US" Charles B. Norton & Co., NY; 1853 (2^nd Printing), by Charles B. Stuart, then Engineer-in-Chief, U.S. Navy, which had a lot of information about the Susquehanna and Powhattan."

I just found that book on line. I hope the link works. It has a world of information on the Susquehanna. A literal "Gold Mine". I downloaded it on my computer. Type in "Susquehanna" in the "Search" field. Saves time. Excellent info.

Thanks for the tip Carmike!!

http://www.archive.org/details/navalmailsteamer00stuauoft

 

Hey Migmodeler,

Any chance who have the instruction manual for that Monogram Susgehanna model.

Bought ship on line but no instructions.

Would compensate you for a copy.

Thanks