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

[popeye the sailor]

can you convert it to a downloadable file?

[CDW]

Awesome!

[CDW]

36 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

can you convert it to a downloadable file?

right click on each image, then 'save as', then save in a folder of your choice. Easy peasy

[popeye the sailor]

downloaded    thanks!

[CDW]

Mighty nice of you to go through the effort to post this article for all of us sea urchins...Thanks Jonathan! 

[J11]

My pleasure Y'all, research is always to be shared. Many a fine gents have given me a huge amount of data for many ships, just passing along.

[kurtvd19]

Sorry but the articles from the Nautical Research Journal are copyrighted and posting them and downloading them is against long standing MSW policy.  They have been deleted from the thread.

Posting in their entirety is way beyond the fair use provisions.

Articles from the Journals are available for personal or research use direct from the NRG for a nominal charge.  We provide CDs with the entire run of Journals up to 2015 from the NRG Store.  Individual articles can be obtained as PDFs.

Kurt

[J11]

Kurt,

Didn't know thought they were free use.  Won't happen again.

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

We are all works in progress all of the time.  Good lesson to learn for us all.  I appreciate the intent of research and the willingness to share what you have learned.  Great build, and I am enjoying your progress very much.

[J11]

11 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

We are all works in progress all of the time.  Good lesson to learn for us all.  I appreciate the intent of research and the willingness to share what you have learned.  Great build, and I am enjoying your progress very much.

Thanks, I hope to have some more updates later today.

[J11]

Got tied up with life responsibilities but here's a short update. Been working on the extension boom masts from scratch building work. Their a little time consuming but turning out ok. I have 4 more to go and then the mast work will almost be completed. Will add the wooden booms and the eight secondary extension parts also. I'll show a couple when finished with them completely.

 

I'll paint them black as they are aluminum and probably have to prime them first. Might just leave them silver for extra contrast...what do you guys think? 

 

Also "Happy Forth of July" for my American modeler friends. May we always remember those whom sacrificed all to give us our blessings of American life and liberty!

Edited June 28, 2019 by Jonathan11

[popeye the sailor]

you should paint them.  I've never worked with aluminum.......I have an abundance of thin wood dowel,  so I make them in wood.

[CDW]

For future reference...

 

Mr. Metal Primer is a very good bare metal primer. It has the consistency of water, it's clear, self leveling, and is an "etching" primer for metal. IE: it attains a very good bond to metal that does not flake off. It is very slow drying, about 24 hours drying time required. The bottle comes with it's own brush in the bottle cap and you just brush it on your bare metal parts, paint with a color coat of your choice after the primer is dry. I've had the same bottle for a few years. A little goes a long way. Sells for less than $7 per bottle.

[J11]

1 hour ago, CDW said:

For future reference...

 

Mr. Metal Primer is a very good bare metal primer. It has the consistency of water, it's clear, self leveling, and is an "etching" primer for metal. IE: it attains a very good bond to metal that does not flake off. It is very slow drying, about 24 hours drying time required. The bottle comes with it's own brush in the bottle cap and you just brush it on your bare metal parts, paint with a color coat of your choice after the primer is dry. I've had the same bottle for a few years. A little goes a long way. Sells for less than $7 per bottle.

I'll pick some up, many thanks for the info.

[RBohlman]

Looks Great!  You are doing a very nice job on her!

 

I just finished reading a book about her voyages written by Captain Raphael Semmes.

 

I built the model back in 1966 when in High School but it was not as well done as you are doing now!

Edited June 29, 2019 by RBohlman
Add more information

[J11]

On 6/29/2019 at 5:55 AM, RBohlman said:

Looks Great!  You are doing a very nice job on her!

 

I just finished reading a book about her voyages written by Captain Raphael Semmes.

 

I built the model back in 1966 when in High School but it was not as well done as you are doing now!

Thanks, wondering if you might have any images of your model you built? Semmes was an honorable gentleman as he tried very hard as to not kill any of the occupants during his ship raids. From my research very few were killed during the Alabama's life, excluding her last battle with the Kearsarge. 

[J11]

Small update for the fore and main top sail studding booms and the fore and main top gallant studding sail booms also, touch up painting will need to be done on all of them along with added mounting hardware from BJ. All of the studding boom mast hardware are scratch built and all are completed for the associated masts. Then all the rigging blocks which will be awhile as research has some problems on placement and types. Plus scratch built gaffs imaged also.

 

Early model of CSS Alabama made from one of the crew during her history.

 

 

 

 

 

[RBohlman]

On 6/30/2019 at 10:56 AM, Jonathan11 said:

Thanks, wondering if you might have any images of your model you built? Semmes was an honorable gentleman as he tried very hard as to not kill any of the occupants during his ship raids. From my research very few were killed during the Alabama's life, excluding her last battle with the Kearsarge. 

Nope, sorry no photos available from the 1966 build. 

Edited July 1, 2019 by RBohlman
typo

[J11]

Does anyone have historical information on attaching this smaller mast ( See image)

 

Diagrams would be appreciated as I would like it to be historical accurate.  Thanks!

Edited July 2, 2019 by Jonathan11

[J11]

Here's a great 4th of July historical video. Enjoy ... Happy Interdependence day!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=YaxGNQE5ZLA

[CDW]

10 minutes ago, Jonathan11 said:

Here's a great 4th of July historical video. Enjoy ... Happy Interdependence day!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=YaxGNQE5ZLA

My grandfathers (great greats of course) made that sacrifice and fought the British for our freedom. More fought and died since then for our freedoms, here as well as on foreign shores. As long as I draw breath, I swear to never surrender our freedoms to any enemy foreign or domestic so that my children and grandchildren may remain free.

[Barryc]

40 minutes ago, CDW said:

My grandfathers (great greats of course) made that sacrifice and fought the British for our freedom. More fought and died since then for our freedoms, here as well as on foreign shores. As long as I draw breath, I swear to never surrender our freedoms to any enemy foreign or domestic so that my children and grandchildren may remain free.

Well said!

 

"Give me Liberty or give me Death"

 

Barry

[lmagna]

On 6/20/2019 at 6:17 PM, popeye the sailor said:

I did find a place that make the sails from cloth,  although they don't include the studding sails. 

Denis

 

Go to page 2 on your link and you will see the full suit of sails, for the Connie and US including the studding sails. HiS is a fantastic company to deal with and can pretty much supply anything you may want. Wish he was here in the US. Shipping times can sometimes take a while, at least they seem to.

[J11]

Thanks to all the responses and likes, here's a current update as work continue's on this build.

 

Plans, plans , plans ......  going over multiple plans for blocks and tackles along with rigging possibilities I have a consensus of historical lines for the masts and ship rigging. I will be adding multiple lines for her as to really accent the rigging work along with multiple colors and sizes to bring the definitions out. Here's some of the plans which will be incorporated:

Also utilizing the Blue Jacket prints, a total of 11 plans along with Syren blocks and tackles. 

The preliminary mast yards are complete and will be adding the blocks to each one with extra blocks for the sails to be mounted to also. I have been going threw the sail installation plans and will probably be adding them as some will be custom made which will take some time and adds a couple of months to the build but will look nice with all the sails and the boom sails added. I have been going threw the sail building procedures here at MSW which are very informative but I am going to subcontract out the added sails. They will run about $200.00 completed but will be detailed out and done from a professional sail maker.

 

Here's a couple mast work images for comparisons:

 

 I have gotten a generic representation of the top mast yard mounting for the main mast which you can see in the upper left corner of the bottom image represented. Also another painting of the Alabama giving chase.

 

[popeye the sailor]

in the last photo of plans,  I see that they have the main and mizzen confused......should be the other way around    before you go any further,  make sure that the studding sail booms are toward the front of the yard,  rather than on top.   the studding sails when rigged will over lap the central sail.

    toward the front,  angled slightly upward.........most ship that have these sails are positioned this way.  I also notice that extra yard or gaff you referring to on the Bluejacket plans.........I believe it's wrong.   there is no gaff that high up on the mizzen mast......if there is an upper sail from the spanker,  it won't need one anyway.   there are no yards on the mizzen either.......at least,  not that I'm aware of.  the problem with a yard that high on the Mizzen,  would meant that there would also be a lower topsail yard,  to secure the lower corners of the sail.  I believe you can see this sail rigging on a sloop or a barque.   I like your picture there.........good depiction of what she looked like  

[J11]

Been busy with life's responsibilities, Popeye you are correct on the mistakes from the prints. There's a bunch of discrepancies in all the prints and I do reference what they say as to show the problems with them if someone else decided to build an Alabama for reference. With the copyright problem I won't be able to show all of them.

 

This plan does come from the CSS Alabama Builders, Captian, and plans: Charles Grayson Summersell book:

 

The upper small studding boom on the aft mast is what i was talking about for mounting. These are the only plans that show this small studding boom.

 

I'll have some images soon for continued work and thanks for all the great comments and likes. 

[Old Collingwood]

Good to see you back.

 

OC.

[CapnMac82]

On 7/2/2019 at 11:16 AM, Jonathan11 said:

Does anyone have historical information on attaching this smaller mast ( See image)

 

Diagrams would be appreciated as I would like it to be historical accurate.  Thanks!

That would be a "club" spar.  It's bent to the sail, not to the mast.  it will have a halyard near its mid point (as a bet, the spar will have an eye, and the halyard will be bent to that eye with an appropriate hitch).  I want to recall that that a line was passed around the mast to act as a parrel.  The whole thing has to be lowered to change tack, and the parrel rope (if I'm remembering right) helps you fetch the club back up to the mast on the correct side of the mast on the new tack.

 

"Club headed" topsails are a way to increase the sail area beyond the limits of the mast. 

[J11]

Many thanks CapnMac82 for the information on the club spar. I had searched for many a nights trying to find out what it was called along with how to mount it properly. I'll have to use the small rope representation as shown in this image. (upper left corner) 

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by Jonathan11

[J11]

Thanks Old Collingwood !