Revell CSS Alabama 1961 kit: worth bidding on?

Thanks so much for the links GM.

I am pretty much decided at this point that I want this for my next build. I just talked to John at scale decks and he says he will be doing the correct gun tracks for the Alabama w/ his yet to be released deck. The profile plan that you steered me to looks to be a good resource for the mast rake. Shouldn't be hard to print a copy and figure out the angle, assuming the accuracy of the drawing. I may well call on you for further/future help. Thank you for offering. There will be some discrepancies that I am going to let ride, such as the hull length (11' short is only 1 3/8" difference at scale) and probably the tail, which I understand should be a clean curve. Now all I have to do is find one at a decent price.

Right, that's what I was thinking.

BTW the BJ plans of America I recently purchased have been invaluable to me on my Revell "super kit bash". All that's left of the original are the two hull halves.

I'm slowly working on 1/96 scale POB kits of KEARSARGE and ALABAMA for BlueJacket.

Al Ross

Hmm sounds like a project brewing...

If SD has a veneer out, it must match the Revell kit.

That'd mean you are bound to the geometry of the kit.

Here's the link to where I found that drawing.

http://www.lib.ua.edu/content/libraries/hoole/digital/cssala/main.htm

(sorry I can't seem to get hot links to work on this site).

Here's a good start on info.

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=34545

Here's a review of the kit and it's inaccuracies, i.e. things to fix.

http://www.steelnavy.com/Alabama&Kearsarge.htm

I have found that my best method for transferring scale to models from drawings is to establish the scale of the kit by measuring the mast centerlines from drawings (presumed to be accurate (I know, I know..)), with those of the kit. I find waterline and to a lesser extent beam dimensions to be harder to work with.

If you decide to get into this, I'd be happy to help you research things.

That is one very pronounced rake on those masts! I suppose that can be fixed w/ out too much work. I could be wrong tho. I do know that ScaleDecks has come out w/ veneer wood decking for the Alabama, I am checking w/ John to see if he has accounted for the gun tracks.  

I will start with the blunt statement that if you want a model of the Alabama that's at all accurate, do not buy this kit. Just for starters, the masts are not raked as they were on the real ship, which ends the conversation as far as I am concerned if built out of the box or even modified in deck detail. It's a doable modification, involving replacing the masts, and I have no idea what then happens to the topmasts. And so on.

But the story gets a little interesting. The Alabama is indeed a revised Kearsarge, as Tilley notes, however it's a very good basis for a Kearsarge from 1864. The Kearsarge kit, on the other hand, is based on her post 1888 refit. I won't repeat the details as they are easy to find online, but check some of the respected other ship model forums and you'll see.

One niggle either way is that the gun swivel tracks on the K kit are correct for that ship, the ones on the A are not for that ship, but they also are not correct for the proposed refit as K i.e they are not the same as the K kit. Revell simply made them up.

If memory serves, and it doesn't always, there's a set pending from one of the good US model makers of mixed media kits.

There's always a good benefit in bidding on those older kits if you like good box art and that old kit smell. I have an original of the Cutter Campbell, for which I paid a lot more money than the rebox/ rerelease, but it's a neat thing to get out and look at.

I'll wager a glass of rum that at the end of the day the old box costs much more than the RoG kit.

Hmmm....

Most helpful sir. Thank you. Now I am torn as to if I even want to get it at all. I had thought I heard something about the Kersage, except the other way round, that the Kersage was a remake of the Alabama. I guess I will watch the bidding on it and if I can get it cheap enough, it might be an interesting challenge. I know that Cottage Industry makes an AM guns set for it at a very reasonable price. For those around me that would get to see it, they wouldn't know that it had even existed, yet alone if it is accurate. If anyone else has input, I am still wavering.

They're the same kit.  Since these two examples were produced a long time apart, it's quite possible that there are differences in such things as the texture of the plastic and the instructions.  (Some years back I downloaded the instructions from the Revell Germany website.  They were really dumbed-down from the originals - and the guy who built the model in the photos didn't know where to put the sails.)  But the parts are identical.  It's hard for me to believe that any difference between the kits would justify spending more money on one than the other.  

It was a remarkable kit for its day, but the industry has moved on.  You've probably read the story behind it:  Revell started out by issuing the U.S.S. Kearsarge in conjunction with the Civil War Centennial celebrations, then, when that kit sold pretty well, modified the molds in various ways to make it into the Alabama.  One problem, for those interested in accuracy, is that a good deal more information about the Alabama has turned up in the past fifty years.  Turning that kit into a serious scale model of the real thing, as she's understood today, would be a major project.