CSS Alabama by J11 - Revell - 1/96 scale - PLASTIC - kit bash 90% historical accuracy

[Dart]

On 1/29/2021 at 11:50 PM, J11 said:

Can you tell me how large she is? Thirty six inch's long? Scale?

If I remember correctly, 1/36.

Do you have these books? I recommend buying it.

 

[J11]

Yep I  have them both. Plus a couple more for reference. 

 

I'll have more images soon as tweezer work is still ongoing and slow. I'm wanting to show more completion on the model instead of a couple of rigged lines. I had worked on her yesterday for five hours and got two lines completed, Today I'll work on her and hopefully have the main mast completed for all the boom rigging; but I'm not going to rush as rigging between all the obstacles makes me feel like a brain surgeon.   Make a mistake and my ship gets destroyed, then back track to fix.

 

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned.

 

[J11]

Another quick update, I am waiting on some specialized tools and parts to help in finishing her. Will post images in a few days of progress, these are the specialized tweezers I am waiting on:

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4W522C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Have to have these as the shorter tweezers just aren't helping and difficult to use.  These longer ones will gives me more room and precise placement without fingers in the way. They are 12" in length.

 

Plus their a great addition to my modeling tools. 

 

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, J11 said:

These longer ones will gives me more room and precise placement without fingers in the way. They are 12" in length.

Those longer tweezers will enable those tiny bits to be flung to even further recesses. 

[J11]

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Those longer tweezers will enable those tiny bits to be flung to even further recesses. 

 i forgot about that! Ok I'll put two sided tape on the ends, see how that works with the smallest items. Hmm, plus a tent around my workbench and chair.   Geez see what I mean about one step forward and three steps back with this rascal. But it's going to get finished! 

[wayne Galea]

Dear friends is there available for sale and how much would it be to By a Revell C.S.S Alabama 1/96 ,your build inspired my friend to build one .

Wayne

Edited March 3, 2021 by wayne Galea

[J11]

On 3/3/2021 at 1:20 PM, wayne Galea said:

Dear friends is there available for sale and how much would it be to By a Revell C.S.S Alabama 1/96 ,your build inspired my friend to build one .

Wayne

@wayne Galea, your best bet is Ebay. You'll have to surf the site for a month or so to find a quality kit which is complete. They will run anywhere from 150 to 250 depending on the quality or budget. Hope this helps.

[J11]

Here's some updated images from the progress during the past month. Very slow in install so not to snap any parts off, and pleased with the results. I'll have more images in a few more days and progress shows up in multiple work images completed. My extra long tweezers work very well and have been a big help in holding line and blocks for rigging threw. All the lines are tight and mounted just not coil installs on all of them yet.

 

The sails will be billowed some to show wind detail along with a better natural look besides being so static looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and will update soon again. 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

The rig looks really crisp, J11!

[J11]

On 3/14/2021 at 12:18 PM, Hubac's Historian said:

The rig looks really crisp, J11!

Thanks HH, been cleaning on her every day to keep dust bunnies at bay as I rig her. With it being so fragile I have to work gently and tug just enough to tighten them down without breaking any mast parts. As I work on her I have had to add more blocks for rigging and tying then in the proper place is very time consuming. As I said before I feel I'll have eighty to eighty-five percent of BL Jackets rigging plans completed, which considering some of the problems I ran into isn't to shabby for a realistic looking model.

 

I'll have a couple more images of ongoing work soon, thanks for all the likes and appreciation.

 

[Gahm]

Beautiful rigging job! She looks great!

 

Thomas

[J11]

On 3/18/2021 at 6:15 AM, Gahm said:

Beautiful rigging job! She looks great!

 

Thomas

Thanks @Gahm, slow but steady.

 

Here's updated images and the booms are coming out! Still have a couple of more lines to install on the fore mast upper spars which will be done hopefully

today and can start making the custom size boom sails for each spar size to attach on the main mast booms. 

 

I won't present the construction details for the boom sails as it's the same procedure earlier in this blog when I built all the the other sails but will update when I have one section of booms completed. So figure a couple of weeks per side with sails made and rigged, this way I'll complete as I go and won't backtrack into the other booms.

 

Amazing as I have bought more Syren blocks to finish her out, somewhere around 225 blocks installed when she's totally completed. I think ..... lost count...... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again for stopping by and will have more updates in a couple of weeks. She has taken a tremendous amount of time installing the rigging as not to damage her anymore during installation. As you can see it has paid off and I am working at the same pace for the boom sails installation, so bear with me as this will also be slow because of the internal rigging placements and other lines to work around.

 

I did have a couple masts break on me again as I was gently tightening some rigging and a couple spar broke also, but the damage was repairable with added glue then sanding down for detailing processes. Touch up paint is also a item which will be done in the final touch's. 

 

The main bottom boom spars had to be moved also back about a inch as the sails and boom were going to have major conflicts with the back launch boats. They are glued, sanded and painted, complete. Ready for the boom sails and rigging. the Revell model doesn't match exactly up with B Jackets model prints was the reason for the discrepancy in placement and repair.

 

Thanks for all the likes and appreciation!

J11

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2021 by J11

[Keith Black]

 Jonathan, she's looking so nice. Just last night I was wondering about a update from you on your Alabama build. Steady on, you've rounded third and are almost home.  

[J11]

14 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Jonathan, she's looking so nice. Just last night I was wondering about a update from you on your Alabama build. Steady on, you've rounded third and are almost home.  

Thanks Keith, been slow I know; but have had to really be careful rigging as not to completely destroy her in installations. Rascal is so damn fragile!!

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nicely done!

[NoelSmith]

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.

 

[Frank Burroughs]

I am so glad this came to the top of the forum!  This is the model in production in my plastic shipyard.  Just painting the parts now.  Love the hammocks.  You did a superb job.

 

I bought the accessories  from Hismodel.  Was wondering if you stained all the blocks the same?  Or, did you stain them differently?

Have not read the whole post yet, I will.  How hard was it to put the bulkhead in for the hammocks?

 

great job

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, Frank Burroughs said:

Was wondering if you stained all the blocks the same?  Or, did you stain them differently

 Frank,  Jonathan replaced the plastic blocks that came with the kit to Syren wood blocks and it doesn't appear that he stained them. You should seriously think about replacing the plastic blocks that came with the kit to wood blocks as they look every so much better.  

[Frank Burroughs]

4 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

seriously think about replacing the plastic blocks

 

Hismodel has several hundred dollars of my money for CSS Alabama parts.  The unstained blocks from him look good enough to go.  Just wondering if I took it a step forward to stain a few, hundred.  My build is for learning new ideas.  The hammocks are defiantly getting added.

[Keith Black]

21 minutes ago, Frank Burroughs said:

Just wondering if I took it a step forward to stain a few, hundred.

 Are using the plastic blocks or are you going to replace them with wood blocks? If you're going to use wood blocks then it's what you want to see in your model. In real life blocks wore unevenly as some were used more than others and some faded out more than others. Do you want to depict a ship during the course of its career or as she looked right after being built pulling away from the dock?

 

 I stained all the wood blocks I used for the entire build at the same time, all the same walnut color. I figured it was hard enough graduating the sizes correctly let alone trying to depict which blocks would appear more wore and faded.  

[Frank Burroughs]

Revell CSS Alabama 1:96 - set of 434pcs CNC walnut blocks and Clamp of Deadeyes

this replaced plastic blocks

 

4 hours ago, Keith Black said:

built pulling away from the dock

 

Thought about weathering the model.  Trying enough new things that I'll save that for the USS Constitution. 

[NoelSmith]

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.

Edited August 10 by NoelSmith