coxswain

Update on this one, working on the foremast

Gauging update: Working to see the placement of the yard on the fore mast along with the placement of the boom yard to make sure all the parts are going to function and placement is exact for sail mounting; I have imaged a few to give everyone the eye view of how this is coming together after all the tedious length measurements along with multiple plan usage to gauge the building for these additional detail parts.
 
Looks like it has paid off and the rigging so far with sail placement will be non-interfering with each other along with tie down locations. Once the rigging and sail placement does commence after I have all of these yards done for prep, it will be a very careful installation. This rascal is so fragile I cannot make a mistake as it would be a disaster. 18 blocks are on the lower yard for the fore mast and the main mast, e-gads I have only one completed....  
 
Lower yard temporarily placed on fore mast: 



Boom yard extended for placement gauging:


Looking down for lineup of both yards:

Now I know how a crew member would feel being at the top of the mast ... yikes ... what a ride!  
 
Slowly she's starting to look like a ship of the 1860's. I also do encourage others to tackle this ship. There are many excellent kits available to choose from out on the market. There are a couple older wooden kits out of production which can be had on ebay, just have to watch for them. I have noticed that the Revell plastic kit always sells when they do pop up and seems I have seen at least two to three sell each month for the past year. Hope to see a couple more builds here at MSW using the same kit in the future. The "BlueJacket" Kit is the best I feel out there and highly recommend it. I couldn't afford the price for it, if I could have it would be being built.
 
My build is showing what can be done on a budget to produce a high quality CSS Alabama representation as other members are doing here at MSW. Bash baby bash! Your only limitations is your imagination in creativity. Thanks for all the likes and interest!!
 

 
 

Cheers Guys,  now a bit of a set back.
Post 33
Pawl Bitt pins (Bowsprit Step)
I have been working on the Bowsprit Step but have hit a problem regarding the dimensions of the Bowsprit which I need to resolve before I can move on.
You can’t really consider the Bowsprit Step without looking at the fit of the Bowsprit.
There is a simplification on the kit part in that the iron fids used to fix and retain the Bowsprit heel are represented by solid wood top and bottom, formed by the square cut-out for the Bowsprit heel.
There is a fid hole and fid indicated in the Bowsprit but this sits forward of the Bitt pins, which makes little sense.

3410(2)
I removed the top bar and drilled thro’ to take the ‘iron’ fid. A hole below this was drilled to take the retaining fid for the Bowsprit heel which has a corresponding hole drilled.
The inboard squared end of the Bowsprit is shown as 6mm, reduced and squared from some 8mm ø dowel.
My own preference is to use square stock, and round the outboard section on the lathe.
 
Now I come to the problem:
 6mm square stock will not fit between the step uprights whereas 5mm as shown in the above photo is a good fit.
However, the dimensions given in the Alert Book are 18½” which equates to 7.3mm at scale, whereas 6mm is a perfect fit for the Alert book drawings.

3429
6mm stock laid over Alert book drawing at 1:64 scale
Note:
The Alert book quotes dimensions as relating to the cutter Pheasant which was slightly shorter than Alert and some 34 tons lighter. Her Bowsprit is given as 56’6” L x 18½” ø
Pheasant capsized in the Channel in 1781, perhaps she was over sparred.
 
When in doubt I always refer to Steel;
For a 200-ton cutter (Alert was 183 tons) Steel gives a Bowsprit length of 64’ (304.8mm) with a 20” ø (7.93mm)
By comparison the kit dimensions are a scale 275mm in length and 6mm at the heel
(57¾’ and 15” diameter).

3418

3420

3422
The photo’s above show the 5mm square stock in place.
Below I compare 6mm square stock.

3428
Without either thinning down the uprights or the 6mm stuff it just won’t fit.
 I am reluctant to thin down the bitts which look good for scale.
However, the evidence of Steel is that the Bowsprit may have been even longer and certainly heavier at the heel.
 
To thin down the 6mm stuff so it fits between the uprights, but leaving the depth the same, effectively makes it a rectangle rather than a square.

3432
Thinned down 6mm stuff to fit between the uprights

3433

3431
I can’t clearly see from the instruction photo’s what Chris did on the prototype to get the fit, whether he modified the mortise or reduced the heel or a combination of both.
I can’t settle my mind on how to proceed so I have decided to make a Bowsprit using 6mm square stock using the taper formula given in Steel, the heel will then be reduced to fit between the bitts.
I will then let my eye be the judge.
 
B.E
08/11/2019
 

I can't say if it is documented practice, but a fid forward of the bitts might provide support in helping to keep the bowsprit from being pushed aft by the tension of bobstays or other rigging..
There appears to be a fid forward of the bitts on this contemporary model.
 

Gentleman, to the sewing machines! My premiere with the sails (luckily the sails are pre-sawn in the kit with the Bolt rope in place and they are very nice). I just wanted bolt rope to correspond with other running rigging so I cut the original off and replaced it with my own rope. I also did not like the eyes on the original. I think I made it more real, I hope. 
Reef points: first row in place (I still need tu cut it to the lenght and shape it) but I have to say that I found something to be as annoying as ratlines! 🧐
I guess the only way to get it done is sit down and work! 2 more rows are waiting. 

On the right is sail with kit bolt rope and eyes. 

@popeye the sailor, thanks. Hopefully she will be finished soon. Also appreciate all the likes, Here's the last for the image files except the historical deck images which I'm sure everyone who has interest has seen, so I won't post those.
 
I have quite a lot of extra parts and material inbound so bear with me as they should start arriving by Friday. I have sail material and other items along with "BlueJackets" customer service help to get her done. Were down I feel to a month or two for completion.
 



Excellent plans for helping in the build:



Really appreciate the interest and hope in the future that my other builds will be as educational and inspiring. This is a really nice kit to do extreme detailing on. I do look forward to someone doing the USS Kearsarge in extreme detail also.

@captain_hook, thanks. Here's the second set of Alabama images:
 
















I'll have a few more in the third post.
 

 
 

Now I fitted the crank pins to all the larger wheels. I've glued them in with PVA, so I cut a groove in the pin with a Xacto knife. This stops the brass pin from slipping :


I fitted the six axles. They are all a nice tight "push-in" fit and shouldn't move again. However I filed out the hole for the Driving wheel axle so it COULD turn - once the cranks are installed both sides will then turn in unison :

Now it's on to the main brakes, quite a big job. Here are the parts for one of the 12 brake shoes. I've glued the inner pads on, but I may have to remove them again later (easily done with a single-edge razor blade) if there isn't enough clearance to the wheel flange. I had to do this on the bogie's brakes, and Stephan also found out that it was necessary on his model. We'll see :

I used a 1mm wire to keep everything aligned while gluing the pieces together :

All done. The contact surfaces will be cleaned up as I fit each assembly, they will need to be sanded to get clearance to the wheel rim :

On to the brake control arms. All the parts are prepared ready for fitting together :



Once again a simple jig made accurate assembly easier :
 

 


That's it for now. I'll move on to fitting the brake assemblies to the main frame next.
 
Cheers, Danny

Hi all, thanks to all those who have commented and "liked" my build so far. My eyesight has been deteriorating lately, hopefully it's just a result of the chemotherapy I've been on and it will return to "normal" after it's over. I can still see well enough with my 8x Optivisor so the build can continue.
 
The wheels. These took me a week to make. Some time ago I bought one of these Circle Cutters, but never had any success with it at the time I tried it. I decided to give it another go and see if I could work out how to actually use it, because there are a LOT of circles to cut - something like 8 or 10 for each of the 12 wheels 

I worked out the technique to make not only a success of it but to cut circles that were better than I could do by hand in MUCH less time. I'll put up a topic in "Tips and Tricks" a bit later to explain my method. Here's the result, and a pic of most of the parts needed :


To assemble a wheel I made this simple jig. It's probably THE most useful jig I've ever made, turning out excellent results consistently :


There are three different types of the main wheels - two Driving wheels (top), two middle wheels without flanges (left) and 8 of the rest (right) :

I'm using the laser cut reinforcements as you can see. These are a bit different to the two wheels I made earlier, so I decided to scrap them and start over. The rim is 1mm narrower than the centre, and the spokes need to be sloped for them to fit properly. I achieved this by carefully cutting the rim off one disc and shaving the spokes down to zero thickness at the outer end. The wheel in the pic is one of the smaller ones which I made last. The large wheels have 12 spokes on most of them :




Once all the discs were glued together I sanded the edge flat using a sanding stick with 150 grit paper :

Then I glued the main edging on, followed by the rear flange on those that had one. There was no edging for the thinner flange, so I printed up some matching grey colour, cut it into 1.5mm strips and glued them on. It looks better than just painting them :


All the large wheels completed :


I modified my jig for the smaller wheels, as they only had a centre hole :

Last job was to clean up the centre hole so that they turned freely on the axles. I used a small diamond coated round file :

All the wheels. Most of them still need a spacer and wire for the crank :

Danny

Hello everybody, I made som progress with the stern sanding and adding some parts to the hull. The sanding is a bit free style anf I am not shure, if it is good like it is. I will propably recognise the problems once I start planking.
Matthias

a few pics of Unicorn. I bought this kit for about £15.00. Took a chance because it is very old but it appears to be ok. Had to buy some new instructions because they had seen better days and in a day I had got the frame and keel under way.

Good morning.

Thanks for looking in Guy, and for your kind appreciation.
 
Post 31
Bulwark attachments
This is a good point in the build to deal with the iron work along the bulwarks and other stuff where the centre line fittings would get in the way.
 
Ringbolts and eyebolts for the gun tackle.
The kit provides brass pe etch items for the breeching rope ring bolts. All that is necessary is to fit the ring over the open bolt and close it up.
However, the kit makes no reference to rigging the guns and if you use the kit tackle and intend rigging, it is wise to check that the intended Breeching rope fits thro’ the provided etch rings.

3381(2)
My preferred option is to use Amati fine rings and eyebolts as per the centre example.
 
I think it is appropriate and certainly more authentic at 1:64 scale to rig the guns with breeching ropes and side tackles, and I intend to do so. The main concern is to get the combination and blocks looking right with the carriage.
The Breeching rope is 4¼” circ; equating to 0.54mm ø at scale
I will use Syren 0.6mm ø line which provides the right visual contrast to the finer tackle lines. I tend to use slightly undersized tackle lines blocks and hooks.
There should also be eyebolts to take the side tackle hooks; in the Alert book drawings these are secured to the face of the shot garlands fitted to the bulwark.
Shot Garlands
These are neat laser cut items and the shot (2mm ø) is also provided. My immediate thought was that the provided shot looked at tad overscale.
Naturally I couldn’t resist trying the ball for fit in the muzzle and not surprisingly it doesn’t.
 
The bore for a six pounder is given as 3.675” (how did they measure that close with the technology they had at the time) with a 3½” ø ball.
At scale the bore works out at 1.46 mm.  and the model gun is 1.56mm; 1.50mm ø shot it is then.

3380(2)
This did mean I had to modify the Garlands to take the smaller shot.
 On the left, 2mm shot; on the right, 1.5mm shot.

3384
Tricky little items to fit I used a guide to get the right height.

3399
The ring bolts  for the Breeching ropes are not fixed at this time, they will be attached to the ropes before  gluing to the bulwarks.
While I was looking at the shot garlands and their position along the bulwarks, I became aware of differences between the kit and the Alert book drawings. There is a much greater  spacing between the third and fourth ports from aft on the book drawings, (C2/1) which appears between the fourth and fifth from aft in the kit.

The kit follows the arrangement on the Admiralty drawings.
 The book deck plan drawing(C2/1) shows a longer garland accommodating 11 balls. On the Admiralty plan there are two smaller garlands which seems more logical as a continuous rack would be over eight feet in length.
The kit provided garland sits centrally within the greater space which is relevant because as noted earlier the side tackle eyebolts are fixed to the garlands.

3395
I added two shorter Garlands within the space which maintains the continuity of the side tackle arrangements.

3392(2)
Not sorry to see the end of this fiddley little exercise.
Movin’ on.
 
B.E.
06/11/2019
 
 

I'm uploading my research artists image file of the CSS Alabama for others to have if they decide to tackle building her in the future. It's a bunch of images from many different sources and so far seems to be all of the Alabama images out there until others are found or presented. Total 29 megs so I might have to split this up in three posts. So I'll start with this one and add others in the next few days.
 















There's the first set gentlemen, after I get all of them loaded if anyone has any which i don't have please post them.

 
 

Quick update, crew is finished and will be set aside till all the other work is done on the sails and rigging.
 

Had to do a little surgery on the stern - when glueing the stern counter patterns on the instructions said to glue the outer patterns tilted slightly inward.  I was test fitting the balcony deck which sits on top of the counter patterns & could see that I tilted them in way too far.  I was able to pop them loose without damaging anything & re-glued them with a little extra bracing To keep them in place.  I will probably add a couple of braces to the inner patterns also.  Gotta love re-do`s!
 

 
Mark
 
 

I`ve decided to add a little extra to the capstans.  First,I added some "teeth" to the bottom of the capstans & made some pawls along with the raised platforms.  Second,since a small portion of the lower deck can be seen I added an extension plus a base to the bottom of the capstan. This was only done to the forward one as the aft opening is blocked by a portion of the keel former - it would not be visible anyway.  Sorry about the not so perfect pictures.
 

 

 

 

 
cheers,Mark

I posted the pics of Arethusa because I thought they may be of interest to you guys on here. I do plan to develop this, and, as with a lot of future developments, I try and get as much information on each subject wherever and whenever I can. For Arethusa, it was a chance email to the museum that has the model, asking if I could have access to it. I was given a date and time to visit. I figured it would be a shame to keep the pics to myself.
 
I need to start small as the larger subjects cost a lot more to develop, although the smaller ones are not cheap to develop and get into production, not when ordering 100 sets of everything. More so for something like Speedy, which is a .'No holds barred' kit, with so many brass and copper PE sheets, resin cannon etc. If the smaller kits sell, I will be confident enough to move onto the bigger fish, and also invest in a proper laser machine which would give me a lot more freedom.
 
 

Testing some copper foil for simulateing the steel hull plates,
I also simulere the rivits from the back of the teip/foil
you can jugde for your self...😊
 
Svein.erik 

Thank you guys!! 
Some more additions. I have finished footropes for spreadsail yard. 

And start to adding ropes to the mast. Already There are backstays, 4 pairs of shrouds and spreadsail jackstay. I have also added the iron belts with eyes for blocks. Ropes are served in areas where interfere with mast. 

 

All of the standing rigging is now done (see below), and I have about 1 1/3 masts worth of ratlines left to do.  I can now start working on the mainmast yards.
 
Regards,
David

Thanks, Nils and Dirk,  once they've been adorned with Chuck's little Royal monograms, and blackened I think they'll look spot on. 🙂
 
Post 30 - Bits and pieces.
The Rudder coat
If I am to fit one of these it is best done whilst I can still invert the hull free of all the deck fittings.
I fitted one to Pegasus and I thought one would be appropriate for Alert. I am thinking of water constantly entering the space below the platform deck that would be inevitable without one.
These are tricky little additions to visualise and there is an element of trial and error involved in their making.

This is a shot of the Rudder coat on Victory.
Not of a particularly aesthetic appearance they attach around the rudder head below the counter, and spread out to cover the rudder port, whilst retaining an element of bagginess to allow the rudder movement.
I make mine from fine handkerchief cotton, the initial pattern is sort of light bulb shaped and having drawn out the pattern the edges are sealed with pva to avoid fraying when cutting out.
The difficult part is building in an element of ‘bag’, as the natural inclination is for the coat to cling too tightly to the counter.
I try to get around this by using cotton wool to fill out the coat before I seal it down.
I remember thinking when I was building Cheerful that those little fibre Horseshoe plates supplied by Chuck may come in useful when fitting a rudder coat to secure the edges to the counter.
Now is the time to find out.

3321
Stage one is to glue the horseshoe to the outer edges of the coat, whilst pulling up the centre to provide some bag.
Stage two is to use strands of cotton wool to partly fill out the bag.

3323
Stage three is to glue the assembly thus far to the counter. Once set one side of the bag is glued to the rudder head.

3326(2)
The bag is then carefully manipulated adding further strands of cotton wool, before gluing the other side to the rudder head.
 Any excess of cotton is painted with diluted pva, and when dried a scalpel blade is used to trim the edges on the rudder head.

3337

3333

3329
The coat can then be painted with diluted black paint to represent the tarred surface.
 
Where there’s a rudder coat there is a helm coat, I made mine using microporous tape, useful stuff where small areas of tarred canvas are required.

3357
The photo also shows the Transom Knees, and Mizen Mast Steps. The kit provides these together with brass etched brackets.
 
The items are well shaped and represent a combined step to the counter deck and support for the Mizen Mast.

3354(2)
I slightly modified the bracket to suit a 3mm ø Mizen mast. According to the detail in the Alert Book, the mast is given as  37’ 2” height with an 8”ø
This equates to a scale 177mm length with a 3.1mm ø
I will make the mast and store it on the deck.
 
Scuppers.
To scupper or not to scupper
No scuppers are shown on any of the drawings in the Alert book, and there is only a passing mention of them in the narrative relating to the deck pumps.
Likewise, they are not included as a feature in the kit.
The only model I have seen showing Alert with scuppers is a beautiful 1:48 scale scratch-built version completed by Daveyjones back in 2014; that really is a very fine model, check it out in the Gallery.
I think I will defer the decision for while even tho’ logic tells me that even a low freeboard boat such As Alert would have them.
 
 
B.E.
03/11/2019
 

Now that takes it to the next level  - adds an edge of realism  about it  - love it.
 
OC.

CSS Alabama has a captain and officers. Slow and precise work for the crew painting with as much detail as possible to enhance the model. I figure a couple more days and the crew will be done and I will mothball them in individual packets so not to destroy the delicate paint work and keep that pesky dust off.
 
Getting great practice for the Vasa pieces when all of those have to be historically painted. For the Vasa pieces it will probably be three or four months to complete them as I have been going over the coloring detail for the build. Wow! What a colorful ornate ship she was. Some members here have done such exquisite work on the Vasa builds that it's like having your own private tutor to produce the model. I compliment all of them for sharing the builds and technics in producing such artistic representations with many thanks for reference material to work from.
 
If I can get the sail making down pat; by George the Vasa will have them too. I guess you can tell I'm itching to get her started as I am hoping for a couple needed saws and sanding equipment to work on her. (Christmas presents) Hint, hint  Santa Claus (Sweetie??) He he he .....
 

 

Working on boom assemblies and finished with lining the bases with walnut, the bases will have to dry for awhile and then I'll add the tung oil and post them when they dry. Will be a couple of days for them to dry. Be working also on painting the miniature men for the ship and hopefully I have them done in a couple of days. Thanks for all the likes and appreciation with compliments. 
 
Bunch of parts have been ordered and will probably be here this week and can start on the sails and rigging of them, so I'm new at the sail making with model span and hopefully will turn out ok.