Building a Revell 1/96 Kearsarge

Jim, I haven't any room left upstair for more models. I am really pushing my luck anyway. I have about 150 fighters from pre WW1 to new jets, 2 wood riverboats, the Constitution & a Balttimor Clipper , afull case of cars in the foyer next to the Living room & some real nice Ferraris in a case, oh & the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria & a Revell Mayflower & that is just in the Living room. Then I have at least 20 more bigger boats downstairs along with 40 1/72 fighters & another 140  1/24 cars & more. Does that show my wife loves me. I used to have a 7'x14' train layout down there too. My big 10'x18' train layout went in the living room in our other houses. 

    Jim, I will send you a bunch of pictures of each.

I have seen Gene's collection personally. It is very impressive, his house is like a model museum and the displays along with the cases are beautifully done. It is very obvious his lovely wife has had a lot to do with it. Gene if your need room, I still have room at my house   Hope to get time to visit again in the next week or so my friend... Dale

Gene,

They look great together! I wish that I could work as fast as you do. I will send pics of my Alabama before the weekend.  I am scratchbuilding all the deck furniture and gratings. It's amazing how a project can start off as a fairly straight-forward model but spiral into far more complexities than planned.

Bill

Bill, I am anxious to se the pictures.  How did you make the different deck pices? I just enjoy simple building anymore & I specially like doing the hull & all details. This reminds me of my good friend years ago. He was a really super modeler & ships & trains were his favorite. He used to go over to Palm beach ,the island & rich,& repair their antique ship models.

  I was building my first wood ships & I had about 4 hulls done & no rigging. He got after me & said it wasn't hard, just start doing it. I told him I liked the hulls & he said , rig it. So I did & started from the center out. I finally learned.

Just beautiful!

  Bill, you are a bear for wear on scratching, but I used to be too when I was building trains. I would photograph old mines & buildings out west & come home & draw them & build them . 

  Mike, thanks, but what was that French you threw at me? 

Gene,

I tried the ScaleDecks Alabam deck and I love it!  I used Gorilla glue to hold it down and it works like a charm.  The hull is together, the deck in place, and most of the subassemblies that I could use are put together. I had a problem with the Revell Bridge Stanchions and trashed them as unusable, and I ordered the BlueJacket parts instead. They should be here soon.  My new pivot gun rails are mounted on the deck and they look great.  Pictures coming . . .

Bill

That old link doesn't work anymore-   here's a new link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210228001356/http://www.steelnavy.com/Alabama&Kearsarge.htm

 

rcboater

Have you seen this writeup that compares the Revell Kearsarge and Alabama kits? http://www.steelnavy.com/Alabama&Kearsarge.htm

Interesting reading. There's no date, but I think I remember first reading it back in the early 2000s. (Back when we hadn't seen a release of the Kearsarge on the market for over 30 years!)

The author points out that the Kearsarge kit is a mix of 1864 and post-1888 refit features, while the Alabama is a modification of the Kearsarge molds to try to make it look different, but has some serious dimension and shape errors... (The Alabama was 11 feet longer than Kearsarge, for starters.)

The conclusion is that the best way to get an accurate Kearsarge model is to start with an Alabama hull!

As I said, very interesting reading. Even if you're not looking to undertake such a big conversion project, you may get some ideas about simpler changes you could make to Kearsarge to make her look more like the the 1864 version.....

 

Hi! I found out that the length isn't that much of an issue using a sacrifice hull(Glue Bomb) from either the "K"or the Bama! One whole inch midship solves the problem, grossly. It's actually 5/16". My client was very happy when he actually measured her. Holding onto the check till he was finished, I might add, he was happy, and so was my Bank account. It's a fairly straightforward build, but, I would replace all Blocks and running Sheaves with BlueJacket gear. TankerBuilder!

rcboater

That old link doesn't work anymore-   here's a new link: https://web.archive.org/web/20210228001356/http://www.steelnavy.com/Alabama&Kearsarge.htm

I had occasion to travel to the Mare Island CA shipyard when I was stationed at NAS Alameda back in the 90's and the Kearsarge's 11 in Dalgren guns were on display by the Mare Island flagpole. They had been there since the overhaul mentioned in the article you posted. When Mare Island closed, I wrote the Navy Historical center and asked if the guns were still there.  Their reply said that one of them had been moved to the Washington DC Navy Yard and was now on display there.

This thread has made interesting reading as i would like to build a model of the CSS Alabama. Looks like both the Revell kits have their own set of problems partly due to sharing the same hull mouldings I believe.

Recently I picked up a copy of Andrew Bowcock's Anatomy of a Confederate Raider at a  reasonable price. Quite a comprehensive treatise on the vessel. Some of the drawings within are 1/192nd scale. I just wish that someone would produce a kit in that scale, half the size of the Revell offerings and accurate this time. 1/96th scale is ok if you have the room for such an enormous model. The Bluejacket wooden kits are reputed to be very accurate but again enormous as still in 1/96th scale. The Mamoli Alabama kit is a bit smaller at 1/120th scale, so still quite large. Don't know how accurate it is though.

Andrew Bowcock was on a committee that proposed building a full sized replica of the Alabama to go on display in Liverpool where the original ship was built. Unfortunately it was not to be. I believe that a lot of the reasearch he made for this project went into the book.