Building a Revell 1/96 CSS Alabama

Robert, Bill gave me my Kearsarge too. He is really a super guy even if he didn't give us anything. I just finished my Alabama hull & am ready for masts. It took about 3 1/2 weeks. It has really been fun too. Here are some pictures I just took of the finished hull. I used a semi gloss on the outside & a dullcote on the inner. I might go back & hit the outside with a light dullcote. I forgot I have to edit them. Will be right back with pictures.

Here are the new pictures of my Alabama hull. I did discover that I did a lot of hull touchup with flat black paint & not my black/ gray mix. Now i will have to touch up & trfinish. Don't think there is too much. I never said I was smart.

Here are more pictures,

And a couple more. I'm looking forward to the masts & rigging.

Gene,

Again, you do beautiful work! I will send updated photos to you and anyone else who wants them of my CSS Alabama.

Bill

Please do that Bill, I want to see yours. I want to see what you have done with yours. Did you notice what I did with mine, I went crazy & cut the rear gunports in. That was really worth doing for me as the guns & chains wouldn't fit together  in the front. I know the chains were wrong on the kit.

   Did you see Tom Freemans picture of the battle. It is the best & has the colors we chose. The picture is $250 tho so I won't get that. Look at the  article  High Seas Duel.   It is great.

Gene,

I will do so. Thanks for that reference!

Bill

Bill, the name of the picture is  Sunday Showdown   by Tom Freeman. It is the most detailed I have seen. 

Bill, I fit my Alabama masts to the deck today & got them at an 8 degree slant. The pin or nub that goes into the deck I filed the rear top on an angle & the front bottom to match. Those darn things even without doing that are hard to fit. I did that first then did my angle filing. I got my big 8" protractor & taped a light 12" aluminum ruler to it at 8 degrees off 90 & used that as a guage.

     Then I took the piece that fits on the deck & cut the little pin off & marked the front & angle filed that too. Then I CA glued the mast into that piece & checked it with my guage. Now I will paint them & do other work on them & glue them tightly into the deck using the guage. The guage is important to get it close. A final adjustmant can be done with the rigging. I think it will work fine, because as I said before, the kit masts are already at about a 4 o5 degree slant.

Gene, I can't wait to come over and see this build up close and personal. I will have my camera with me to take reference pics for my Alabama and Kearsage builds.  I will bring my Constitution with me, so you can give me some more pointers.  Dale

Gene,

It sounds great!  I will do the same on mine.  I just sent you an email updating another modification that I made to mine last night.  After all the work that I did to modify the hull to more accurately depict the ship, I noticed that the molded-on gunport lids detracted from the effect I wanted, so I sanded them off. I will make new lids tonight and close that forward port for the pivot gun that was never mounted. Then, I will retouch the hull. I will send photos this weekend.

Bill

Boy, that is sure looking nice!

I'm looking forward to it Dale & I really want to see your Constitution. I don't know what I can tell you , but I am real good at figureing out different ways to do something. The Alabama really looks good , but Bills wil look a lot better.

Got my Alabama kit yesterday, fellow member here helped me out and was nice enough to drop it off on his way through this area. Now to get my AM goodies and I can do some work on it, when rigging my Consltitution gets me &%$#!!! .....

Gene, Bill has been nice enough to email me some pics of his build and it is very nice. Yours is just as nice, definitely 2 very impressive somewhat different ways to build this ship. Both are Museum quality to me and I am sure many others.... Dale

Hi Dale, I answered this a day or 2 ago & I probably forgot to hit send or as it does , I hit it & it doesn't go. I have the masts all glued in at -8% & have the rr-standing rigging main lines in but not fastened. One big problem with the Alabama over the kearsarge is the blocks to tie your shrouds to are way to small. I have added extra tie down s on the channels but the blocks are too small to drill a hole in. I do have it worked out tho

I am working the miz mast first to be able to tie back to. I will glue the line to the entire block & rope castings. I figured it out this morning. I have also made all the shrouds & ratlines . I made them to fit the castings on the ship. The kit shrouds do not line up & are too small.

  Definetly buy the Cottage cannons as they are nice. I got mine shipped for $33.75. That is the cheapest I saw. The deck is nice & I have used them before, but $100 or $120 s an awful lot. I have another Alabama coming & I could get the deck for that. My panted deck does look good. Gotta go build now.

   By the way I have a lot of new rigging ideas if you are interested. I leave one end loose but taped to get the masts straight & raked if needed . I do the same thing with the mast brace lines too.When you have them right I put on the shrouds to fix them tight.  I will tell you more when i see you. 

Here are some new pictures showing my 8 degree rake on the masts. My shrouds didn't fit as good as they should because a made them for the spacing on the ship. The front ones were the worst. The kit shrouds were no good at all. they were not spaced right & were to small on the thread.

  I had too much sun on the pictures, but I will post the last 2 anyway. I also showed my guage for the mast rake.

Gene, you have actually outdone yourself. That's some fine craftsmanship.

     I know you have another Alabama kit somewhere so if you decide to do a diorama of sorts, be advised that sometimes the Alabama would drop the funnel or add a second funnel (made of cloth I understand) as a means of disguise.

   It is great fun watching your builds.  You must get Bill onboard with posting his Alabama.

    Jim.

Gene,

It's a beautiful job so far! I am most impressed!  Please be patient for my update; I had a painting mishap that I am fixing. I will send photos soon.

Bill

Gene, thats beautiful. Those shrouds look great. I like your ingenuity in making your rake gauge.

I was shopping around on ebay and was hoping to find a deal on a Kearsage and possibly a 1/100 or larger ship of the line plastic model. I was shocked when I seen people asking $200-$300 for Kearsage and Alabama kits. 

Bill & Dale, You both should think about how you are going to do your shrouds & how to tie them in. The different rake changes the angle of the shrouds & slants the ratlines forward. Also there is really nothing to tie the shrouds too in the kit. The top block is way too small & I had to glue mine to the whole upright piece. I would think about getting a larger top block & drilling in the block to thread your shroud into. It would probably be easier than what I had to do. I did use the Airfix rigging tool again to make my own shrouds off of a pattern I made. It relaay is not hard. 

   Bill & maybe you too Dale will probably rig & tie your own ratlines. I am tooooo old for that. I am going down now to do the spars & predrill them for all the rigging & to run a wire thru the spar to attach it to the mast. That plastic pin & loop will last about 30 seconds. 

   What I did on the Kearsarge was to AC glue little brass rings to each top block & drill a thread hole in each one & run my own premade shrouds thru it. Worked great, better than the Alabama.

Gene, I am going to tie my own on the Connie build. My first attempt at this. GMorrison posted some great suggestions on how to do it right. My BlueJacket Constitution build manual will be here tomorrow, plus I ordered another book on how to rig model ships. Forget who it is bye but it is one that is highly suggested to get. Both of them should be a big help for me.

Gene,

I have already planned around that issue. You are right; I will rig my own shrouds and ratlines.  But, that is far ahead of where I am with the model.  But, I have that painting mishap pretty much corrected and can now proceed. Pics will follow soon.

Bill

Bill, will you move the shroud tables/ channels , or just aim the tiedowns a little more? I am really looking forward to seeing your pictures .I am still working on the spars & running rigging. 

   I put a picture of my wood Constitution on a Conny thread yesterday to show my hammock netting. I had all kinds of parts & pieces when I had Orange Blossom Hobbies to get things from. I had this fine netting that I could use for that. I still have a very small amount of it. I don't know what it was for.. 

Gene,

Sorry for the delayed response, but, yes, I will have to move them aft.  I have already filled the mounting holes of their original locations and will drill new ones as soon as I am ready.  Also, I tried the "560" glue on my rails for the pivot guns. It worked great! Thank you for recommending this glue!

I have been continuing work on the hull. I fixed the painting fiasco on my bulwarks, but it took awhile sanding them down for another attempt. I have replaced detail that was inevitably lost after sanding off those molded-on gun port lids. And, I filled in that forward-most long gun port on both sides for the pivot gun that was never carried.  Two gunport lids from an incomplete USS Constitution kit did the trick on each side with much sanding and filling.  I know that it's taking awhile, but I am really enjoying making the corrections necessary for a reasonably accurate model of the Alabama! This is fun!

Also, did you see the article in this issue of FSM about making sails for plastic ships?

Bill

No Bill, I didn't see the article on sails. I will have to look at it. That 560 glue is super for more things than I even realized . I just glued all my small copper eyebolts inside the bulwarks of my new USS United states. I am going to do an article on it. I also have nearly final pictures of my Alabama that I will post now.

 I have some more I will add on my next post.

I did some of my Kearsarg & Alabama together. They get a little confusing with all the rigging, but you can compare them.

The way Gene and I have spread the word on the 560 you would think we owned stock or maybe we should of.

I visited with Gene last week and got to see his builds up close. These pictures really do not do it justice.  I hope when I grow up  I can achieve his level of building.

Dale, that is nice & now you can be one of my kids. I do have several kids older than you. I have one son in law over 70 & I call him one of the kiddies.  I get a feeling he doesn't like me.

  I am going to put on a build on my new Imai/ Monogram USS United States. You have to get one of them to go along with your big Connie. They are beautiful & easy to build & a lot of fun. They go together like a Snap Tite kit, but then you get the rigging that is a little harder.