CSS Alabama plastic model build 2018-2019 (Revell 1/96)

The cannons look great!!! Very meticulous work. Just wait till you rig the rest of the ship once the main masts are in place!!! ARRRGGGHHH!!!! You're right about the various different builds/ models of the Alabama. There doesn't seem to be a defined "this is the correct one" version. I'm sure yours will rate right up there as "TOPS" once completed. Plastic is a little easier to work with vs. the resin stuff. That's a big help....
Thanks JP, eager to get into the rigging man..oh yea!! I'll be using real wooden dead eyes also.
 
You have too much patience .
@nitrofd , it definitely takes that! You'll love these little anchor locks, scratch built. Each one took me about 2 hrs from 5mm dead eyes and other small parts I have to work with. Wanted to match the 1st image from the Bluejackets model which is the best representation of the CSS Alabama. If anyone is interested their plans are $70.00.

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Painted:

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Here's more pictures of work in progress, bow deck and stern deck. Many hours of painting and very careful detailed parts assembly has gone into this so far and a bunch more to go. She should look great for a CSS Alabama model as the Bluejacket plans are coming for more reference to build her as close as possible to the real ship. The rigging will be very complex as there will be multiple added rigs per the Bluejacket plans.

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Couple more...moving on down the deck. I'll be adding cannon balls and barrels along with buckets also. Chain is being installed soon, I'll have to be a little creative to get past the bow cannons.

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As i said before,you have too much free time on your hands,any chance you are retired like a lot of us.
 
As i said before,you have too much free time on your hands,any chance you are retired like a lot of us.

I'll never tell. I do enjoy creativity with my hands along with learning about the historical ships I work on and build. I appreciate those whom enjoy my work also and help in my research to provide a good model of the ships. The CSS Alabama is a prime example of CW raider with so much history about her that it is a honor to be able to bring the ship back to life for future generations to enjoy. Thanks to CWT and @JPChurch for letting me know about this old large Revell kit, I wouldn't have found one to build. Didn't know about the ship history either, so you could say JP is to blame for this one. :eek:

I do have a very old kit of the La Couronne, emblematic flagship of the French Navy built in 1636. It is a monster at 42" in length which has 8 cannons on the stern of the ship along with the other 68 cannons. Project time is two years once I start her, all wood of course. They don't make this kit any more as it was a museum designed and limited edition back in the 60's, no kits today have the actual true plans as this one is a true model of the actual ship. Been getting extra parts for her and will start her in a couple of months. So I do have a little time to work with for sleeping and eating. :wink:

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Thanks for the compliments aimed my way Tut, but you sparked my interest with the 1/96th Arkansas model you constructed. I had to chime in with the vintage Revell kit in the same scale, with the thought that you might want to add the Revell Alabama to your collection. I've got so many model kits here. Some are real oldies but goodies. Like the Jupiter 2. And all of the Aurora monster models. My vision is not what it used to be back in the 90's when I built my Alabama. One thing I'd like to do is to finally finish my Jupiter 2. If I ever
build another sailing ship, it would be the Mayflower. JP Church's ancestor, Richard Church, married the daughter of Richard Warren, one of the members of the voyage and signers of the Mayflower Compact.
 
Thanks for the compliments aimed my way Tut, but you sparked my interest with the 1/96th Arkansas model you constructed. I had to chime in with the vintage Revell kit in the same scale, with the thought that you might want to add the Revell Alabama to your collection. I've got so many model kits here. Some are real oldies but goodies. Like the Jupiter 2. And all of the Aurora monster models. My vision is not what it used to be back in the 90's when I built my Alabama. One thing I'd like to do is to finally finish my Jupiter 2. If I ever
build another sailing ship, it would be the Mayflower. JP Church's ancestor, Richard Church, married the daughter of Richard Warren, one of the members of the voyage and signers of the Mayflower Compact.

My pleasure, very cool on the other models. That old Jupiter 2 is probably a large one, from what I remember of that kit was a nice one with the clear domes and inside pieces. That's not a cheap model either, now! Revell has a good Mayflower model and not expensive, take a look at the Ebay offers you will be surprised.

Here's some more on the deck work, moving along.....

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Pics look awesome, too bad when this website got revamped a while back, they changed quite a few aspects. You can click on the images now and they will enlarge, but you can't scroll them L to R or up and down any longer. Or maybe it's just me and this this new desktop monitor I had to replace a few weeks ago. The chain work done up in the bow end oughta be interesting, can't wait to see how you do it, i.e., the forward guns and the 2 anchors on each side. I followed Revell's original instructions as best as I could. Your work looks great so far. As I mentioned before, I didn't give enough tilt sternwards on all three main masts. You've got the correct angle with all of your plans. Looks very nice so far....
 
Pics look awesome, too bad when this website got revamped a while back, they changed quite a few aspects. You can click on the images now and they will enlarge, but you can't scroll them L to R or up and down any longer. Or maybe it's just me and this this new desktop monitor I had to replace a few weeks ago. The chain work done up in the bow end oughta be interesting, can't wait to see how you do it, i.e., the forward guns and the 2 anchors on each side. I followed Revell's original instructions as best as I could. Your work looks great so far. As I mentioned before, I didn't give enough tilt sternwards on all three main masts. You've got the correct angle with all of your plans. Looks very nice so far....

Thanks JP, I'll watch the angle for the masts, instead of full sail I'm probably going to do rolls as I want the rigging to stand out better. The chain is a problem, but I've got it figured out with a couple added bollards, which you have to ask yourself how did they get the chain around those bow cannons? I installed small ones up front also so they must have had bollards they could remove and place when they needed them. I doubt the cannons were in place when they needed the anchors though. Cannon stow had to rigged up front away from the chains...no book mentions this either along with any plans so I will assume they did it like the older man of war ships of the past and tied them down at a exact location. I might add a couple like that on the deck as there is plenty of room for extras on this one.
 
You might wanna try reading through Semme's book that he wrote. But he was a lot like Jno. Mosby in respect with his memoirs. I'm not fully aware how many times the bow guns were actually used during the Alabama's lifetime at sea. I would think all that chain up front in the bow had to be managed in some fashion for either forward gun to operate with a successful accurate shot. For instance, when the Alabama faced off with a Union whaling vessel, which approach was best and with which guns? Same with cargo ships known to be carrying civilians?? Guns like those in the bow were more prone to inaccurate fire when you consider the pitched movement of the bow up and down when it crested waves. What does Rebelatsea think??
 
You might wanna try reading through Semme's book that he wrote. But he was a lot like Jno. Mosby in respect with his memoirs. I'm not fully aware how many times the bow guns were actually used during the Alabama's lifetime at sea. I would think all that chain up front in the bow had to be managed in some fashion for either forward gun to operate with a successful accurate shot. For instance, when the Alabama faced off with a Union whaling vessel, which approach was best and with which guns? Same with cargo ships known to be carrying civilians?? Guns like those in the bow were more prone to inaccurate fire when you consider the pitched movement of the bow up and down when it crested waves. What does Rebelatsea think??

Amazing what models do bring out for actual working mechanics of the ships. @rebelatsea , your thoughts on the bow cannon's usage with the anchor chains in the way?
 
Deck work almost completed, little more touch up painting and some added extras along with crew. Here's how she looks, not to shabby for a color contrasting and the chain worked out fine. Dead eye work coming up with the custom stromps I'll make by hand. Will be awhile as the order will be coming in for 150 5 mm and 150 2.5 mm dead eyes. Rigging and mast setups will be working on also, I'll post them soon. Rigging will be complicated as I am working with the Blue jacket plans for them and also correct ties for all the rigging so the model is first class when she's done.

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Looks great!!!! I like the wooden barrels/stacks of cannon balls and the rudder chain detail. The cannon rigging and chain work on the fore deck is tops. Well, now that you got all the easy stuff done...…….I have the utmost confidence you'll get all the masts and sails/rigging done with the same detail. What type of fabric are you gonna use for the rolled up sails???
 
Looks great!!!! I like the wooden barrels/stacks of cannon balls and the rudder chain detail. The cannon rigging and chain work on the fore deck is tops. Well, now that you got all the easy stuff done...…….I have the utmost confidence you'll get all the masts and sails/rigging done with the same detail. What type of fabric are you gonna use for the rolled up sails???

Thanks JP, William (CI) is sending some more special parts for the deck so I can get better detail for the semi cluttered deck as the historic picture of her show. I was going to get the wooden deck for her which is the historically correct version but I kinda liked the deck that Revell had done. The cannons fore and aft also had tracks which I was going to paint on the deck and then realized it would not look right along with not even being seen under all the cannons, so I skipped it and glad I did as it looks good, considering this is a model made back in the 60's I'm trying to keep the kit close to actual build but with some enhancements for detailing.

The sails are going to be These:

Material of Sailcloth: cloth – Batiste – 100% cotton, grammage is 88 g/m2. Cloth is prewashed.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338579798&icep_item=223275877998

These are missing two more sails for the top 4th mast, and 1 more fore the center mast. I'll get another three probably custom made of the same material.

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I'm really undecided as to full sails or roll ups..man it's a hard decision. Full sails sure looks nice. Might have a poll from CWT members which to do.
I also have found some interesting details in the historical images which I'm at a loss to why they had a bell attached to the cannon's, you can see it here in this image:

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So I might add a couple of those too. Rigging is the most time consuming part of the model as you know and since I have rigged a few before this one, so I have the experience and books to reference the period rigging along with the Bluejacket plans and the original main rigging plans. The problem with plastic kits is you have to be very careful as not to break the masts when tightening your rigging as wooden mast parts are much stronger and you have better play with them. So a few masts might be made out of wood for this one also. You won't notice because they will be painted. It's getting the proper tackle which is the problem and that is solved with these:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338579798&icep_item=223333041449

So you can see it's a little pricey for a nice representation of her but that what makes these ships family heirlooms and one of a kind. :wink:
 
Thanks JP, William (CI) is sending some more special parts for the deck so I can get better detail for the semi cluttered deck as the historic picture of her show. I was going to get the wooden deck for her which is the historically correct version but I kinda liked the deck that Revell had done. The cannons fore and aft also had tracks which I was going to paint on the deck and then realized it would not look right along with not even being seen under all the cannons, so I skipped it and glad I did as it looks good, considering this is a model made back in the 60's I'm trying to keep the kit close to actual build but with some enhancements for detailing.

The sails are going to be These:

Material of Sailcloth: cloth – Batiste – 100% cotton, grammage is 88 g/m2. Cloth is prewashed.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-CSS...h=item33fc47866e:g:TJwAAOSw76lcC8NT:rk:7:pf:0

These are missing two more sails for the top 4th mast, and 1 more fore the center mast. I'll get another three probably custom made of the same material.

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I'm really undecided as to full sails or roll ups..man it's a hard decision. Full sails sure looks nice. Might have a poll from CWT members which to do.
I also have found some interesting details in the historical images which I'm at a loss to why they had a bell attached to the cannon's, you can see it here in this image:

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So I might add a couple of those too. Rigging is the most time consuming part of the model as you know and since I have rigged a few before this one, so I have the experience and books to reference the period rigging along with the Bluejacket plans and the original main rigging plans. The problem with plastic kits is you have to be very careful as not to break the masts when tightening your rigging as wooden mast parts are much stronger and you have better play with them. So a few masts might be made out of wood for this one also. You won't notice because they will be painted. It's getting the proper tackle which is the problem and that is solved with these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-CSS...9:g:oOUAAOSwCNlcQz5o:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true

So you can see it's a little pricey for a nice representation of her but that what makes these ships family heirlooms and one of a kind. :wink:
Don't think that's a bell. It's either a powder flask or to hold a quantity of water for some purpose. I'm s peechless about the model though, I can't find words.
 
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