Pyro Harriet Lane

A beautiful piece of work.

Thanks Robert,

 I tried to download four pics of the "Lane" but it took me an hour to figure out what the hell I was doing...the other two pics are lost in cyberspace. That's what happens when an analog man dabbles in a digital world.

 I built the model pretty much out of the box. I actually painted the kit supplied deck but it didn't look right, so I replaced it with a sheet of bass wood. I researched the paint scheme and found a color lithograph of the cutter from the 1860's, it showed the top portion of the hull painted white with the deck guns protruding from the gunports (similar to the Navy ships of the time). Professor Tilley of Maritime and  USCG research fame(and frequent poster here) suggested in one of his posts the hull may have been painted green with white paddle boxes. Since no photos of the ship exist(I could only find lithographs or paintings) I took some "liberties" with the cutters paint scheme.

A couple of simple improvements can be done that improve the overall look of this vunerable kit. The builder could sand the hull portholes down, the porthole rings look like they belong on the Queen Mary.... drilling small holes in the paddle boxes improves the overall look...I rebuilt the cannons to represent the pivot guns  the cutter carried. I also added new  gunport doors... There is not a lot of documentation regarding this ship, there's a lot of conjucture as to it's appearence.   

Adding small chain to the supports for the paddle boxes look better than the kit suggested thread. My rigging followed the kit's plan, I'm sure it's not a "ship model expert's" rigging plan but it works for me(I'm not a big fan of sailing ships). They're beautiful to look at but a pain to rig(and requires a deft touch with steady hands).  I was going to depict the ratlines but as I was building this for a museum display I chose to keep it simple. 

Overall its a neat kit, I built my first "Lane" back in the 1960's. It goes together nice and if you are a real sailing ship fan it, can still be a good basis for some upgrades. Pyro made some interesting models back in the day and they fill a gap in the ship kit market, even in today's market. Todays' manufacturers equal another Yamato, or Bismark or Fletcher class destroyer, time for them to "move on".  

Very nice work !

A shame the kits are no longer in production

I love this kit in wood or plastic. This is the most beautiful Harriet Lane I have ever seen.

That is a fantastic effort, far better than any of my seven attempts. You've given me a few ideas though, particularly the railings on the cabin roof, painting the crosstress black and the binnacle (?) in front of the foremast.  Did you chop the deck houses off the plastic deck then glue them onto the basewood deck, or did you scratch build them? I have no experience nor talent with wood but I must say that deck is the best I have ever seen. I shall try one day to post some pictures of my own models.

Robert

 The improvements to the "Lane" are really simple, otherwise I wouldn't have built it I did cut the "sky lights" off the plastic deck and superglued them to the wooden one. The railings are photoetch and the wood deck is easily made. Get a sheet of  thin model aircraft ply wood (1/8)  or something similar. Take a black draftsman ink pen with a narrow tip and make planking. My planking is a little out of scale but close. (If you are real ambitious you can individually plank the deck.)  Use the plastic deck to trace an outline on the wood sheet and rough cut it. Then, using a sanding block, finish sanding to the outline. You might have to "sand and fit" the deck with the hull before you glue it together(I use masking tape to hold the hull together as I  dry fit the hull and deck). As to the "binnacle" forward of the mast. It's actually a ship's bell mounted on a taff rail. I saw a lithograph of the deck attack on the cutter by Confederate forces and it showed a bell in this position. Give the deck a try, if I can do it anyone can!

Very groovy job and nice to hear you had done one before. Adds depth to the approach and patience too I think. Great job. Thanks, Paul V Los Angeles/Bangkok

Hello thunder1, if you send me your email address I can send you some shots of my HL attempts. I vcannot figure out how to post shots on this board. Robert

Lindberg owns the molds now.  They have released it several times as the "Civil War Blockade Runner",  which is technically correct, as the Harriet Lane was captured by the Confederates in 1863, and then used a s blockade runner.