NoelSmith

Mike Y made a comment about Proxxon not developing new tools over the last few years. They have quite a big range already, so I guess it would be difficult to design something entirely new that there would be a reasonable sized market for to get a return on such an investment.

Geoff. I think that Proxxon make thicknesser sanders that can be sourced here in the UK. Have a look at Squires located down in Bognor Regis. They carry a number of power tools aimed at the model maker. HTH.

I believe the CSS Shenandoah has now been kitted in wood by a company in Australia. News of the Confederacy's surrender reached the ship whilst still at sea about 6 months after the American Civil War had ended, so as a result the ship became the Confederacy's last operational military unit. Upon learning the news, the ship made way to Liverpool and handed over to the British authorities. Possibly this model may be in a scale similar to the Bluejacket Alabama kit? Has anyone bought the CSS Shenandoah kit? And what impressions?

The Byrnes machines have an enviable reputation and hopefully after the loss of their founder the family will be able to sustain the business in the near future. Alternatively, there is a European company named Proxxon who makes a variety of small machines aimed at the model maker. They manufacture machines for machining wood, metal and a variety of other materials and built to a high standard. A look at their website will reveal the extent of their ranges. The Emco Unimats were very popular little lathes offering a variety of accessories to also be able to use them for drilling, milling and sawing etc. I have a little Unimat 4. It is a nice machine, but understand that the Unimats are now no longer in production. At one time they were the most popular small machine tool for model makers being so versatile. The little Unimats up to the Unimat 3 were made in Austria. but mine (the Unimat 4) was made in Taiwan. Some say that the quality of the later machine was not as good as those up to the 3. Having borrowed a 3 for some time before buying my 4, I have to say that I did not really notice any real difference. Unsure as to why the Unimats dropped out of favour over the years and eventually got discontinued. Maybe someone reading this knows why?

In the UK there is a company named De Luxe Materials who make an adhesive named Super Phatic glue. Not tried it on a wood model yet but used it for sticking wood mouldings to the edges of model bases. It goes off very fast and is quite tenacious as far as I can make out judging by what I used it for. De Luxe Materials make a large range of various modelling adhesives and other sundries so their website is well worth a look.

A question of colour being correct. I have seen a number of builds of the Alabama where the models have the inner bulwarks painted white. Very noticeable to see on this model and on a picture of the Bluejacket kit built up that the inner bulwarks were painted in a shade of green. I wondered if this was the correct colour as in Andrew Bowcock's book the inner bulwark colour was described as being 'drab'. When I read that, the colour Olive Drab came to mind. So I would guess that the green colour is therefore historically correct as Jonathan also mentioned that he has been in touch with someone who is an acclaimed expert on this particular vessel in his Alabama research. Andrew Bowcock who wrote the Anatomy book on the Alabama was on a steering committee to have a full sized replica built of the ship to be placed on display in the dock in Birkenhead, Liverpool where it was built. I would guess that a lot of his research for this project carried over into his book. Unfortunately the project did not get off the ground as it would have made a brilliant tourist attraction. If someone like Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott or Spielberg ever made a movie about Semmes and the Alabama, Liverpool might just get that replica built in the original dock that 290 was built in. Talking of full sized replicas, I believe that plans are afoot to build a full sized replica of one of Brunel's other ships, the PS Great Western in Bristol to compliment the Great Britain.

If the wire is to be painted anyway, maybe copper wire being more malleable might be a good alternative to brass. Richard's suggestion about using craft wire for jewellery is good too. I think you can obtain it pre coloured as well, so there may be a black option that will save painting or blackening.

This thread seems to have ground to a halt way back in 2015. Did Kris ever get his model finished?

Glad to hear that you are feeling better Frank.

Frank. My apologies. I got the book title I have wrong. The Lloyd McCaffery book I have is Ships In Miniature a New Manual for Model Makers. Published in 1988 by Conway Maritime Press I didn't know that he had written another book.

The best plans of Cutty Sark are the George Campbell plans available from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK. Look in their Cutty Sark Collection in the on line shop. They are very reasonably priced too compared with other possibly less accurate model makers plans. Anyone looking to build Thermopylae from the big Revell kit needs to be aware that they used the Cutty Sark hull mouldings on it as well as their Pedro Nunes Training ship that was Thermopylae before being sold to the Portugese Navy. Not sure if Revell did a similar thing with their smaller Thermopylae kit too. I believe the big Kearsarge and Alabama used the same hull mouldings as did the Bounty and Beagle kits from Revell.

Lloyd McCafferey's book Shipbuilding in Miniature is a really good treatise on the subject. He goes into really good detail about different woods and their inherent qualities for various model ship parts and spars. It was interesting to read how he makes fine scale rope and ratlnes from very fine copper wire. Although aimed at the modeller who would be working in wood from scratch, there is much to be gained from his book by adapting some of Lloyd's techniques to improve models from plastic kits. HIs book is a Conway Maritime Press publication.

Frank, have you looked on Kingkit's website? Might be worth a weekly look for an Airfix Discovery kit, but not sure if they would ship to the USA. Thinking about it, another research ship that was done in plastic was a French vessel from the same era, Chacot's ship Purquoi Pas that was originally made by Heller, and the moulds eventually went to an East European company. I don't know the scale but size wise similar to the Airfix Discovery I think. Heller also made a miniature Purqoi Pas in their Cadets series. They made some nice little kits of ships in that range. Some of them I remember would lend themselves well for those guys who like to make ships in bottles as they are so small, like some of the old Airfix miniature ships.

This fantastic model build of the Alabama by Jonathan is absolutely superb, but boy is it big ! I just wish that someone would produce an accurate plastic kit of the ship but half the size of the Revell one. There are drawings in Bowcock's book in 192nd scale that would be an ideal size for a kit. Not huge, but still big enough to make a highly detailed impressive model a bit more compatible to display in the average living room.

Airfix had the Discovery in their Classic Ships range way back. EBay might be worth looking at to locate one. If old research ships interest you, Occre make a kit of Ernest Shackleton's shop Endurance. I believe that the sunken wreck has recently been discovered.

This has been a very interesting thread to follow as I am interested in the CSS Alabama and contemplating building a model of the ship having recently acquired Andrew Bowcock's book CSS Alabama The Anatomy of a Confederate Raider. I understand that Bluejacket has issued a limited edition of 150 kits of the ship in 1/96th scale. Besides the kits they sell sets of plans as separate items too. Their kit is reckoned to be the most accurate to date of all the kits of this ship. A short time ago I contacted Occre about making a kit of the Alabama and got a quick response thanking me for approaching them with the suggestion. Whether they take it further or not, who knows?

Grandpa Phil.....It's not a kit and it's not the Alabama! That book you refer to about the CSS Hope sounds very interesting. I will have to look it up now that you have piqued my interest. I recently acquired Andrew Bowcock's book CSS Alabama, The Anatomy of a Confederate Raider. A very comprehensive treatise on the ship with lots of plans inside and loads of information about the build of the ship. Gregory........A 1/192nd scale Alabama half the length of the 1/96th scale Revell kit would still be quite a reasonable sized model to detail up, and probably about the length of a PC keyboard I would guess.

Probably a misprint. On another tack, regarding this particular ship. I wish that someone would make a good accurate plastic kit of the CSS Alabama but half the size of the huge Revell kit. Big enough to super detail it, but not too big to take over the living room!

The National Maritime Museum in London sells copies of George Campbell's plans of the Cutty Sark. Have a look on their Cutty Sark Collection. Probably the very best set of plans available of the ship and also the most reasonably priced too when compared to commercial model makers plans from other sources. Also, the long out of print book by Noel C L Hackney published by Patrick Stephens in the UK was an Airfix Special book. Although aimed at building the smaller Airfix kit, the book contains a wealth of information about rigging the ship and lots of details with regard to painting the model. Mr. Hackney wrote two other Airfix specials for The Mayflower and HMS Victory by the same publisher.

The Great Western has reappeared for this year from Airfix. They reissued it a few years back for an anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The irony is that this ship and the Great Eastern no longer exist but have had kits made by Airfix and Revell, but the Great Britain, preserved in Bristol never had a plastic kit made of it. As far as I am aware no wooden kits of any of Brunel's ships has ever been made either. Occre have recently been making kits of sail steam ships like the Endurance, so it would be interesting to see if any of Brunel's ships ever get model kits from them. I suggested the CSS Alabama the well known Confederate Commerce Raider to Occre recently, and also to Airfix when I was the IPMS Scalemodelworld Show at Telford last year. I know that Bluejacket have released the Alabama, and is reputed to be the most accurate kit of the vessel, but a huge model at 1/96th scale like the big Revell one. I just wish that someone would do a kit at half that size. Big enough to super detail without dominating the house!

Revell has used the same hull mouldings for different ships. An example being the Bounty hull for Beagle, the Kearsarge and Alabama kits and the Cutty Sark's hull for both the Thermopylae and Pedro Nunes. So do check these out if you want an accurate model. Possibly Heller might have done the some with some of their sailing ship kits. Airfix (bless them) have not been tempted to use such practices on their Classic Ships range and generally are quite good representations of the ships they have made kits for. Many have not been re released for many years, but the Victory, Cutty Sark, Vasa and Golden Hind appear to stay in their catalogue year on year.

Thanks for the very interesting feed back Johnny about the Cutty Sark kits. The late Professor John Tilley spoke highly of the Imai kit and reckoned it to be the best. I have Noel Hackney's Cutty Sark book and his Victory and Mayflower ones. Really good references for builders of any of those particular models and other ships from those periods too. A company in the UK named Scale Warship does photo etched sets of detailing parts for the Academy Cutty Dark kit.

Broadside's superb detailing on those three (now quite elderly) Airfix kits is absolutely outstanding. Abbot's Jolly Roger pirate ship is a bit of a caricature. It's actually based on Hook's Pirate ship from the Disney theme park attraction. Seeing his model reminded me that I have some photos of Hook's Pirate Ship attraction taken at Disneyworld Paris that would make a nice little diorama, as the attraction was looking a bit weather beaten and some of the lower hull timbers had rotted out. Reading about household cleaning events sending some models to Davey Jones's Locker makes me wonder why the investment in a dedicated display case was not made to keep the dust off the models that would have afforded them some form of protection.

Scale Warship makes sets of photo etched for the Academy Cutty Sark kit. Also Revell's Vasa, Airfix Victory and even for the little Airfix Mary Rose kit. It would be nice if someone did a set of photo etched for the Airfix Cutty Sark kit as it must be the most readily available appearing in their catalogue year on year. Thinking about it Revell's Vasa appears to have been taken out of production, but the Airfix one still shows in their current catalogue. The Revell one is 1/150th scale and the Airfix Vasa is 1/144th scale. Little between them so wondered if the Scale Warship Revell photo etched sets could be used on the Airfix kit too?

The St Louis, Royal Louis thing. OK, I appreciate that you have moved on from looking Shipman. But for the benefit of others who might be looking for a St. Louis kit to make, Airfix issued it once as far as I can remember. Heller also issued a kit of the St. Louis. Same ship but not the Airfix kit. The Heller one was in a slightly smaller scale I think and may be easier to source than the Airfix kit second hand. Just to add to the confusion, Heller also issued a kit of a ship named the Royal Louis that was from a later era altogether.