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I am resuming a build of the Mantua Albatros "Goleta tipica di Baltimora" - a Baltimore clipper, fitted out as a revenue cutter. I started the kit back in the mid 1980s and finished planking the hull. Then other things came along (buying a house, getting married, etc.) that left little time for ship modeling. The partially completed hull has resided on my bookshelf for about 30 years. I really like the lines of these ships so I decided to resume the build, but I am not sure what it will end up being. I am building it to get experience with a few new techniques. This is the 1980s kit, and it is different from the latest Mantua Albatros kit description on line. The new kit has a false deck, apparently of thin plywood, and the 1980s kit does not. The newer kit seems to have mahogany hull planking, and the older kit used tiglio or lime wood. The older kit came with two drawing sheets, hull construction and sail plan, plus brief instructions. The Mantua web site says the new kit has three drawings, and at least one appears to be the same as the 1980s kit. The 1980s "instructions" are a joke - one page saying to assemble the hull frames, plank the hull, assemble the base, build the masts and finish the rigging - just about that brief! For me this isn't a problem. I have been researching and scratch building plank on bulkhead models since I was a kid. I have searched and found no record of a Baltimore clipper named "Albatros." The kit name suggests Mantua's "famous" ship is just "typical" of a Baltimore clipper. Looking at the plans for the model and plans for actual Baltimore clippers I can see quite a few differences. This raises several questions, and I would appreciate any help you can offer. 1. Scale. The 1980s kit plans and instructions give no scale. Comparing with other ships I guessed it was about 1:64 scale. Some sites say the Mantua model is 1:55 scale, and the latest Mantua web site says it is 1:40 scale. The model is about 27" long (tip of bowsprit to end of the spanker boom), and this is what Mantua says is the length of their latest Albatros model. The waterline (length between perpendiculars) is about 17 inches. This would give a full scale hull length between perpendiculars of: 1:40 - 56' 4" and about 70 tons 1:55 - 78' and about 100 tons 1:64 - 90' 8" and about 180 tons Baltimore clippers were constructed in approximately all of these sizes between 1800 and 1820. Since the model has only six cannons plus one larger gun on the centerline, I assume the 1:40 scale is close. There were several 60 foot ships built. Any thoughts? 2. Mast angles. The Mantua plans show the rake of the fore mast to be 2-3 degrees and the main mast to be 5 degrees relative to the water line. I examined plans and drawings for 17 Baltimore clippers and found the mast rakes to be: Fore mast - 11.5 degrees average, with a range of 7-16 degrees Main mast - 13.75 degree average, with a range of 8-22 degrees The rake of the masts is one of the outstanding characteristics of these ships, and none were as boring as 3-5 degrees! I plan to build it with 11.5 and 14 degree rakes. 3. Deck fittings. The Mantua kit has four hatches with gratings and one flat solid hatch on the deck. Looking through Chapelle's books I see that almost all of the revenue cutters had some form of low deck house and companionway, even the small 30 ton ships. I think I will build deck fittings similar to an actual 70-80 ton revenue cutter. 4. Stern. Most Baltimore clippers had either round tuck or square tuck transoms. A few appear to have had curved transoms. The kit plans seem to show an odd flat stepped square tuck like nothing I see in any of the Baltimore clipper plans. In any case, when I started the kit in the '80s I constructed a curved transom faired into the hull lines, more like some of the later schooners I have seen. It may not be accurate for an 1815 revenue cutter, but I am not going to deconstruct the hull and start over again! 5. Colors. The hull was painted with white lead below the waterline. Chapelle says American schooners after the Revolution were painted yellow topside with black trim. In the early 1800s they were painted yellow topside with a broad black stripe along the gun ports. Deck houses were white or light gray, and bulwarks could be red, brown, green, blue, white or varnished. The kit box cover shows a broad yellow stripe along the gun ports with brown/black trim, and yellow bulwarks with brown/black trim. I am inclined to use the broad black stripe along the gun ports (between the main deck and cap rail) with yellow trim above and white below the waterline. The bulwarks will be white or yellow, and the deck furniture white. 6. Deck planking. I am familiar with nibbing, but this didn't come into practice until the mid 1800s. Before that planking was tapered and hooked. I have thought about this, and read the few tutorials on hooked deck planking, and I just don't understand the procedure. If you start planking at the center line and work outwards, you apparently have to curve the outermost plank while laying it and then cut into the previously laid plank to create the hook. Nibbing is a lot simpler! By the 1850s planking on revenue cutters was nibbed, so I guess I could build the ship as a mid 1800s revenue cutter. But I need the practice with the hooking technique for the next build I am planning to make (Rattlesnake). I guess I will create a CAD plan of the deck and practice making the hooked deck planking. I'll post some pictures of the 1980s hull and current modifications later. Phil -
Hey there fellow builders! So I finally had a chance to start cataloging all the work I have been doing on my revenue cutters alongside Sultana. Sultana is proceeding slowly but surely as will soon be updated, however as some of you may know at the last ship model convention in Connecticut I won a kit of Bluejacket's 31 ton revenue cutter. From the moment I got it I couldn't help but start tinkering with it. The reason why I put this in the scratch section is because I plan on building all my ship models (at least for the moment) in 1/64th scale since I like to be able to make size comparisons. Therefore this log will be an exercise in how to properly resize a kit to a preferred scale. So what of the kit itself? Fortunately the ship comes in 3 sizes and at 1/64th scale the 51 ton falls in a similar size to the 31 ton at 1/48 scale. So in addition to a smaller 31 ton I am going to scratch build, I will also use the wood hull and some of the kit materials to also build the 51 ton ship. The wood block and plans must be modified but let's go over the details and I will show you how I have been proceeding Also if for whatever reason this log should be moved to the kit section then by all means as I wasn't sure which section to put it. -
(Image via Model-Expo, from whom I bought the kit). This kit is meant to represent one of many ships built in the early nineteenth century for the US Revenue Marine (fore-runner of today’s Coast Guard). However, no “Ranger” was ever built for that service during this time period, so the model only approximates a real prototype. The closest real vessels, according to my research, seem to be the two Alabama-class topsail schooners built in 1819 (Alabama and Louisiana). This conclusion is based on several factors: Recommendation of the Coast Guard Modeling website Comparison to plans available from the USCG website Dimensions given by USCG fact sheet for USRC Louisiana My own calculations. The resources above list the Alabama-class cutters as having a 52’ keel and 18’-6” beam, while Wikipedia also lists a length on deck of 56’-10”. The table below shows the kit’s measurements (taken from the plans), the kit’s size at full scale converted to feet, the actual dimensions from the sources above in feet, and the difference between the two scaled back down to kit size, in cm. Deck: kit(cm) 28, kit(feet) 62.6, real (feet) 57.0, diffrence (cm) 2.5 Beam: kit(cm) 9, kit(feet) 20.1, real (feet) 18.5, diffrence (cm) 0.7 Keel: kit(cm) 22.5, kit(feet) 50.2, real (feet) 52.0, diffrence (cm) -0.8 The kit does not perfectly match the Alabama-class cutters, most notably in deck length, but it’s closer to those than the other options (the 56’ Surprise class or the 60’ Search class). At this scale, only a true historian of the Revenue Marine will notice that the model is a few centimeters off; as I intend to build it as a fictional ship rather than as Alabama or Louisiana, this will matter even less. The overall hull shape, sail plan, and deck layout seem reasonably similar, and I will probably use the USCG drawing of Louisiana as a guide when the kit plans are uncertain or I prefer the former’s appearance. For example, the USCG drawing shows two swivel-based carronades of different calibers, which I find intriguing, and overall it’s more crisply drawn than the poor-quality photocopy in the kit. I could only find a few previous build logs for this kit, which are listed here for future reference (if I’ve missed one, please inform me): Ranger by matt s.s.: heavy kit-bash of the model into a glorious pirate ship. Ranger by trippwj: unfinished log, not updated since 2014, progress as far as beginning planking; intended to follow plans for the larger Search class vessels. Ranger by Small Stuff: unfinished log, not updated since 2014, many photos missing, progress as far as bulkheads. Ranger by Woodmiester12: unfinished log, not updated since 2015, progress as far as first hull & deck planking. So it looks like I’ll embarking on a fairly new adventure here, the most challenging model I’ve tackled to date, especially with the rather poor instructions in hideous English translation. Some may ask why I’m attempting this somewhat problematic kit when BlueJacket just released what is, by all accounts, a high quality kit of a similar revenue cutter. The answer is quite simple: I purchased this kit before learning of the BlueJacket release. Both I and Mrs Cathead love the look of topsail schooners, and I thought the challenge of working with a foreign kit would be good for developing my skills. Now that I’ve bought it, I’m going to build it. And for those of you wondering why I’m not tackling another steamboat, there is a twofold answer: one, the previous sentence, and two, it’s going to take me significant time to do the research and design necessary for a new scratchbuild. I’d like to do something that doesn’t have plans, like the Missouri River sidewheeler Arabia, and that’s a long-term project. So I’ll work on this revenue cutter in the meantime to keep my hands busy and my skills developing, and work on my steamboat plans in the background. -
#2 build in progress by matt.s.s. AKA The Squirrel Whisperer -
Hi All; Finally have a bit (a little bit) of time on my hands. I am still working on another build, need to post photos. but this one is going to be a gift for a friend. I purchased this excited to see Bluejacket had done a new kit of a revenue cutter based on William Doughty's design for a 31 ton cutter. There is much discussion on these cutters and this kit should be fun. IT is an "Ensign" build. I purchased the "Ensign Kit" curious as to the paints and tools they provided. It is a small ship.. and picked specially for a small area. Here's the Box: Here's what was in the Box: Here are the Tools that were included in the Ensign package: All tools from Excel 1. Swivel Head pin vise 3 x #75 bits 1 x #67 bit 1 x #55 bit 2. 5" Needle Nose Plier with Cutter 3. K18 Grip-On Knife (with blades) 4. Sharp Point Tweezers 5. SIG SCS643 White Super Stripe tape 6. 4 sheets P60 Grit 4.5x5.5 7. 5 sheets 220 Grit " I Ordered the Paint Kit as well Here are the Wood Parts for the Ship and the Britannia Parts which look great Here is the Rough Hull: And the First Page of the Manual I did not have the two books referenced on the first page. They will be here later this week (used). I have most of the other books from Chapelle and have been reading them for years now. The prints that came with the model are very basic. 1. 17 page booklet + 4 pages of parts listing 2. General Arrangement 1/4"=1' 3. Standing Rigging 4. Running Rigging 5. Hull Templates There are no sheer or profile plans (these are what I ordered the books for). I will also be looking for full sheet plans elsewhere as well. There are details that I will be wanting to add to this model. I think that this cutter may have been copper platted as well. I am also VERY interested in solid hull models. Especially very detailed ones that can go in smaller spaces. Not much room on the home front. More later! Guy (Tom's my Alter-Ego!) Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! -
Hello friends of the hullmodel scratchbuilding... Due to the fact I could build a hullmodel of the schooner here my collection of pictures - that will be elaborate during the next days. And the better detail of the bow part with a pencil to compare. The beauty will be 900 m/m or nearly 35 1/2 inches long. and Yours, Stan Edit: Adding the last two pictures showing the tremendous size of this hullmmodel and the cutting of the bowsprit. -
Hello friends. As I restarted my life in a new flat as a single in may of this year I restarted my hobby also - but my right eye got so bad during the last few month that I was forced to stop car driving. So I crashed the Ranger and got mad of being unable to built anything intelligent until today. I got a book at ebay and found the old Krick kit of the Alert! And I got mindsick and bought it spontaniously - due to the fact that 1/25 might be an intelligent way to outwit my eye. W'ht'n'heaven hav' I done? I first decided to bash the kit, and had to figure out that it was easier to rebuilt it scratch. Then I got the information to have copied the wrong plan. So I decided to make use of the 1829 30tons one due the rectangular hull lines. Because of this I changed the titel and set in this small statement for you to show the development of the buildingstory. So I'm awaiting the pacel and started looking for some literature and background information: https://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Alert1818.pdf But in there is an intersing group of words: She was constructed of live oak, red cedar, and locust, with four ports per side. Does this text mean square formed ports with lids? ...and is the Alert of 1818 of the 57ft-Class with 75tons (without fractional number XY/95 ? I couldn't belief! ) the wrong prototype? And do I have to buy the AotS Book of Alert 1777? Perhaps you can help - during I'm rummage around in my issiue of Chapelle's book The History of the American Sailing Navy to find further answers... and start reading here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/6400-alert-by-riverboat-krick-125th-scale/ Yours, Small Stuff
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USRC Ranger by trippwj - Corel - 1:64 scale
trippwj posted a topic in Build Logs for SHIP MODEL KITS
The United States Coast Guard's official history began on 4 August 1790 when President George Washington signed the Tariff Act that authorized the construction of ten vessels, referred to as "cutters," to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling. Known variously through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the "revenue cutters," the "system of cutters," and finally the Revenue Cutter Service, it expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew. The United States Revenue Cutter Service was originally established as the Revenue-Marine, and so named for over one hundred years, by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1790, to serve as an armed maritime law enforcement service. Throughout its entire existence, the service operated under the authority of the United States Department of the Treasury. Between 1790 and 1798, the Revenue-Marine was the only armed maritime service of the United States, as the Navy had been disbanded. Each cutter captain was answerable to and received his sailing orders directly from the Collector of Customs of the port to which his ship was assigned. Good records on many of the earliest Revenue Cutters are hard to find. I am using information provided on the USCG Historian's website as well as in Howard Chapelle The History of American Sailing Ships and Donald Canney's U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935 as primary historical resources, and will mention other references as I move through the build. I originally started this build last summer and have gotten to the stage of planking the hull. I do not have any early photo's unfortunately. One of the earliest challenges was deciding upon the scale - the plans indicate that they are at 1:64 scale, while the instruction book is listed as 1:50 scale. Hmmm...first disconnect was figuring out which scale to use! If I converted the length on deck at each scale, the 1:50 was far smaller than the known cutters of the time period built to the Doughty plans. The dimension checked out at 1:64, so first decision point passed. Now I just need to be careful when i use any of the instruction drawings that are, supposedly, to scale for the build! Next was deciding on the actual cutter to build. There was no 1823 USRC Ranger (the kit name). I had a choice of several similar topsail schooners, but opted for the Detector. The Detector was built in 1825 by Fisher & Webster of North Yarmouth, Maine. She was stationed in Portland Maine for her career. I like the USRC Detector - my Admiral was an instructor for several years on Radiation Detectors, so thought it would be a good way to pay her some honors. Here, then, is my progress to date on the Detector. i work on her a little at a time when I hit a roadblock on the Harriet Lane. Enjoy! I had to re-plank the aft section as the original planking started to converge following the deck shape not straight from the foreward planking. -
Dear friends, am I "on a completly wrong steamer"? My thread is a little bit surrealistic because the kit is standing before my feet. But I have stifle the wish to start to built imediatly, because of a row of unfinished work/unanswered questions.. So I have forced myself to put her in the signature as "shelfware" as we call it in the IT: U.S.C.G. "Ranger" 1852 Corel-Kit No. SM 55 1/64 vel 1/48 L.: mm - 465 W.: 390 mm - H.: 220 mm Name & Authencity questionable The last line is most important for me. These doubts come from these few lines: USRC Ranger (1852) Corel Only Ranger was an early 1800s unarmed LHS schooner Corel's model has the lines of an early 1800s cutter, but the name is wrong Available coming out of the following source: www.coastguardmodeling.com/10_Questionable-Authenticity.html I have consulted these article in here: modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/801-usrc-ranger-by-trippwj-corel-164-scale/ I bought the kit as an 1:50 one with the idea to change it "up" to 1/48 - but now I've to do a much longer step 1/64 to 1/48. I want to use the moulded GK boat kit as a ship's boat for the revenue cutter - so this tww discussions are interwoven to each other. So I think about two ways to scale the cutter: Wayne took the kit as a 1/64 and is going this path with good progress - I could follow his way. Life will be fine! So I'm unhappy because I'd like to go to the bigger scale. But I think I might built these cutter in 1/48 as a smaller one and have to change the ergonomic details as stairs, doors, hatches, stancions, &c. And so I have consulted my Chapelle books and have till now no conclusion if I may be right. So what du YOU think abeut my idea - am I "on a completly wrong steamer" (that's German idiom for thinking in(-to?) a outright wrong direction)? And I also think aboiut the two ways to build them: I prefere the Alert stile - as a realistic used ship - on the othrhand the lines may stand out better to a clear background. What is your answer to this question how to show the attractive lines of the hull.. (Oh - this may be a questions to the girls aboard.) I allready know it's just a wooden kit and definitly not an oviparus fleece-giving and UHT-milk-producing fattening-sow of European Conformity (see bootom picture.) But I'll try to get most of my money. So thanks for reading and your intrest.
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Dear friends, living at Mathias and Anke friends of my wife's house he was interested into a shipmodel for his staircase's big window. Due to the size of the window I decided to change the scale from 1/48 up to 1/32 - to give the ship a proper appereance in the window from outside the house - where the spectateres will be. Due to this fact I offered the possibility to "deliver" the ship faster by reducing the amount of detail. So this is more a threedimensional scetch for viewers kept on distance by the possibility of viewing the model only from outside the house from the yard looking up to the first floor's level 4 1/2 meter some 5 yards over the ground... "What is impssible to be seen by the viewers should not be added into the model." is a ruel from the German professional shipmodelbuilder W. Zimmermann - so I could follow this idea and do not have a distance from usulally 30cm/ a foot in a museum between model and visitor but working with a distance of 7 to 9 yards between viewer and "Louisiana" so Chapelle thought the may be called. But he gave us no absolute security to this fact. Here the main fixing topics of the model: I. The colouring sheme was a discussion between Mathias and me - and the result is a coppered underwater part (perhaps painted alu or cradboard) with light wooden drop keels clearly showing under the false keels. But real cupper cladding might be the best option due to the stability against sunlight. II Above the hull's black sides teak/mahaghony rail is added. III. The rigging is wished to be with canvas - due to the intestingly long squar rigged sail on the mainmast. The rigging will come out of my libary's books. The Reveneu Marine's flag is awaited mostly interested due to the confusion of the public. IIII. No pacifistic ideals keep me away from opening the gundports lids showing the ordonance aboard. V. The shipsstand is made from below for this some 600mm long model. I told him to turn the ship arround regulary to avaoid a "sun-burnt-out-side-on starboard" to the yards side especialy in the summer. So there will be pipelines joining into eachother. So the model can simply be liftef ad turnd around to be pit onto the pipes again. Being an architeckt he could get somthing welded as a solid/massive stand I could never deliver. VI. A framed text behind glass with the ships datas will be added on the stand. Here the pictures of the drawings of H. I. Chapelle: http://modelshipworld.com/uploads/monthly_12_2013/post-8257-0-06586100-1387136439.jpg http://modelshipworld.com/uploads/monthly_12_2013/post-8257-0-85704300-1387136451.jpg http://modelshipworld.com/uploads/monthly_12_2013/post-8257-0-72640700-1387136458.jpg I've made a picture of the !/48 scaled plan in the window (this'll follow soon) : please look beloe Greetings from Leipzig (Saxonia) to all of you, Stan
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USRC Alert by Dubz - FINISHED - Revenue Cutter
Dubz posted a topic in Build Logs for SHIP MODEL KITS
Can't even remember if I had a buildlog up here for this baby, but anyway Teaser Pictures But as it might be interesting for someone you can check at least the build images here: Revenue Cutter Alert Build Images Part 1: https://picasaweb.google.com/112214601525161753861/ZollkutterAlertBaubilder?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMDJmoPsx8ns0wE&feat=directlink Revenue Cutter Alert Build Images Part 2: https://picasaweb.google.com/112214601525161753861/ZollkutterAlertBaubilderTeil2?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOjy96Lq77b35wE&feat=directlink Cheers, Dirk
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