CSS Arkansas 1/96th scale resin model build (2018)

Very nicely done!!!

Thanks, JP. I had found this site for the CSS Alabama which is a plank on hull build. It's not in English but thought you would be interested for information on the ship model style. http://maquetas.mforos.com/480463/11523937-css-alabama-de-mamoli/

Also I had forgotten to mention on the glass cases, start with clear silicone to put the glass together then use lightly the cyan to finish once the whole case once assembled. This way it gives it more strength but allows you to move the glass first to make all joints even without it drying out to fast. But it takes a couple of days for assembly.
 
Tut, I read through that entire link you provided. My Spanish is pretty good so I was able to understand most of it. Looks like a really nice kit. Too bad this guy over did it with the flags. Wrong size and too many. He did a great job with the rigging but no folded up sails?? I'm not sure about the yellow paint he used either!!?? I have a really good book on the Alabama that has three large fold outs of the original plans (and they are really big) that are included in the back sleeve. "CSS Alabama Builder, Captain and Plans." by Charles Grayson Summersell, mine is the first edition, University of Alabama Press published in 1985. I found this book at a CW show years ago. If you wanna tackle building the Alabama, I would highly recommend finding a copy of Summersell's book, making sure the fold out plans come with it.
 
Tut, I read through that entire link you provided. My Spanish is pretty good so I was able to understand most of it. Looks like a really nice kit. Too bad this guy over did it with the flags. Wrong size and too many. He did a great job with the rigging but no folded up sails?? I'm not sure about the yellow paint he used either!!?? I have a really good book on the Alabama that has three large fold outs of the original plans (and they are really big) that are included in the back sleeve. "CSS Alabama Builder, Captain and Plans." by Charles Grayson Summersell, mine is the first edition, University of Alabama Press published in 1985. I found this book at a CW show years ago. If you wanna tackle building the Alabama, I would highly recommend finding a copy of Summersell's book, making sure the fold out plans come with it.

JP, glad you liked it. Yep them colors were kinda crazy and the flags but looked like he did a good job on the kit. Many thanks for the info on the plans, didn't know about those and will look into them. I love quality plans and I'm on the hunt. :smile:
 
You're the KING, Tut11. :bounce:

Here's a update for the Arkansas, painting away as the holder shows and the cannons for front and back interior with the case mate being planked in American cherry strips for definition when the roof of the case mate is removed for interior detail.

I have found the the BSI extra thick maxi-sure cyanoacrylate, is the best for planking because it takes about 5 seconds to set and leaves no residue when it drys. Excellent product. Will post the case mate when it's finished for painting and planking.

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Been a little busy, here's a update for the wooden plank work being done. Wanted to show this for comparison of the planked deck with just the resin deck at bow of the ship. These are oak planks for the deck and will oil them in final touch's of the model before it goes into glass case. Cannon work will be posted next for the sequence later on this week. Also finally found some excellent flags for the 1/600 scale Confederate batteries and added them. @shipmodeler has them for sale at his web site which has quality representations also for civil war ships and other items. I'll post the 1/600's with the name plates and glass case later next month, waiting on the name plates to be engraved.

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1/600 Batteries:

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Nice work on the planking!! These 1/600 scale flags shown (Confederate battle, First, Second and Third National), are they cloth or paper? Can you modify them so they aren't flat, but rather in a semi furled appearance???
 
Nice work on the planking!! These 1/600 scale flags shown (Confederate battle, First, Second and Third National), are they cloth or paper? Can you modify them so they aren't flat, but rather in a semi furled appearance???

JP, I had tried to make one furled but since they are paper and double sided it didn't work very well and tore. So I'll have to be content with them being static. Maybe... @shipmodeler has a suggestion to do them, they are very small and difficult to cut. The print is a excellent job for these miniature historical flags and glad he offers them. http://www.flagshipmodels.com/zenca...Path=4&zenid=9632ec86ee6b0312a3af4e2afe9d491c

Glad you like the planking, Thanks. Nice contrast with real wood. But very easy to split these as they are paper thin for this decking as to not raise the case-mate to high for assembling the finished model.
 
Been a little busy, here's a update for the wooden plank work being done. Wanted to show this for comparison of the planked deck with just the resin deck at bow of the ship. These are oak planks for the deck and will oil them in final touch's of the model before it goes into glass case. Cannon work will be posted next for the sequence later on this week. Also finally found some excellent flags for the 1/600 scale Confederate batteries and added them. @shipmodeler has them for sale at his web site which has quality representations also for civil war ships and other items. I'll post the 1/600's with the name plates and glass case later next month, waiting on the name plates to be engraved.

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1/600 Batteries:

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They are museum quality. I can't wait to see the completed Arkansas. I tried rippling my paper flags, but it's not altogether convincing.
 
I must confess to a very wicked thing about building these models. When I was a teen (circa late 1950's) I must have built a hundred models like this. Many were of armor and aircraft of WW II, mostly 1/48 scale. But I also built many ships, some of them Civil War ships like the Monitor and the Merrimac, the Harriet B Lane, the Hartford, CSS Alabama and its nemesis the Kersarge, the later cruiser Olympia, and the battleship, the Oregon, and virtually every navy's WW II carriers, battleships cruisers, destroyers and subs. With the ships on shelves, armor on land dioramas and planes hanging from the ceiling, our suburban recreation room was a military museum the Pentagon would have been proud to have had. The only damage they might suffer came from the occasional indignity of being dusted off by my mother who never did understand that models were not designed to withstand the storms of feather dusting.

But then disaster struck. We had to move from our spacious suburban home back to the city and a small apartment. The model collection had to go. My father also told me to get rid of the BB gun that I employed in keeping down the local starling population. I suppose I could have donated the collection to my high school or the local neighborhood kids (heaven forfend) but the other kids did not seem worthy of my achievements. There was no problem finding kids who wanted my BB rifle, though. I decided to spitefully terminate the model collection with the BB gun. I lined up everything in the back yard. I would take out the aircraft as though it were a sneak attack and blast them, auf dem Boden, on the ground. From every angle I bored in and shot aircraft and dirt runway alike. The ships went into a shallow wading pool. Too shallow to sink, but good enough for some realistic capsizing. Lastly the armor. And for that came not just those .177 brass BB's but the ultimate in firepower, those wooden kitchen matches, definitely not the later safety ones. I discovered that they were .177 caliber and when fired out of a BB gun barrel they hit with enough velocity to cause the match heads to go off. Within 15 minutes the backyard looked like the Kursk Salient with flaming T-34's and PK IV's, even a few Sherman's (undoubtedly Lend Lease). When it was all over I smashed the BB gun over a rock so that both weapons and the destroyed ended their lives in a splendid Gotterdammerung in 1/48 scale. At last peace returned to the neighborhood and I chortled in glee at the thought that no neighborhood kid was going to get any of my stuff.

Fortunately nobody around where I lived had yet heard of child psychology or Children's Protective Services or Dr. Spock (no, not the Star Trek one) and the advice columnists were still limiting their advice to bored house wives so no counselling or intervention for me to reorient my predilections came about. My father thought I might do well in the military (so did they) but as I said above, it was a wicked thing that I did and I crave the forgiveness of modeller's everywhere who must be horrified at the wanton destruction wrought by a teen ager with a BB gun. But I am still glad none of those kids got a thing from my collection.
 
Tut, yeah the little paper flags in 1/600 scale are daunting for sure. The ones I put on the 1/700 scale model of the USS Whipple came from a supplier that had various scales of flags on a big sheet so I had to eyeball/ponder what I thought would be correct for my application. You gotta put on your high power granny glasses and fine cut them out with a pristine #11 Xacto blade then fold them over with tweezers (hoping they don't fly off somewhere) and THEN try to fasten them onto the flagpoles with the correct glue. Arrrggghhhhh! Very meticulous. I applaud your work!!! Keep us updated!!!!
 
Tut, yeah the little paper flags in 1/600 scale are daunting for sure. The ones I put on the 1/700 scale model of the USS Whipple came from a supplier that had various scales of flags on a big sheet so I had to eyeball/ponder what I thought would be correct for my application. You gotta put on your high power granny glasses and fine cut them out with a pristine #11 Xacto blade then fold them over with tweezers (hoping they don't fly off somewhere) and THEN try to fasten them onto the flagpoles with the correct glue. Arrrggghhhhh! Very meticulous. I applaud your work!!! Keep us updated!!!!

JP, I'll give that a try. Back to the model table I go.
 
I must confess to a very wicked thing about building these models. When I was a teen (circa late 1950's) I must have built a hundred models like this. Many were of armor and aircraft of WW II, mostly 1/48 scale. But I also built many ships, some of them Civil War ships like the Monitor and the Merrimac, the Harriet B Lane, the Hartford, CSS Alabama and its nemesis the Kersarge, the later cruiser Olympia, and the battleship, the Oregon, and virtually every navy's WW II carriers, battleships cruisers, destroyers and subs. With the ships on shelves, armor on land dioramas and planes hanging from the ceiling, our suburban recreation room was a military museum the Pentagon would have been proud to have had. The only damage they might suffer came from the occasional indignity of being dusted off by my mother who never did understand that models were not designed to withstand the storms of feather dusting.

But then disaster struck. We had to move from our spacious suburban home back to the city and a small apartment. The model collection had to go. My father also told me to get rid of the BB gun that I employed in keeping down the local starling population. I suppose I could have donated the collection to my high school or the local neighborhood kids (heaven forfend) but the other kids did not seem worthy of my achievements. There was no problem finding kids who wanted my BB rifle, though. I decided to spitefully terminate the model collection with the BB gun. I lined up everything in the back yard. I would take out the aircraft as though it were a sneak attack and blast them, auf dem Boden, on the ground. From every angle I bored in and shot aircraft and dirt runway alike. The ships went into a shallow wading pool. Too shallow to sink, but good enough for some realistic capsizing. Lastly the armor. And for that came not just those .177 brass BB's but the ultimate in firepower, those wooden kitchen matches, definitely not the later safety ones. I discovered that they were .177 caliber and when fired out of a BB gun barrel they hit with enough velocity to cause the match heads to go off. Within 15 minutes the backyard looked like the Kursk Salient with flaming T-34's and PK IV's, even a few Sherman's (undoubtedly Lend Lease). When it was all over I smashed the BB gun over a rock so that both weapons and the destroyed ended their lives in a splendid Gotterdammerung in 1/48 scale. At last peace returned to the neighborhood and I chortled in glee at the thought that no neighborhood kid was going to get any of my stuff.

Fortunately nobody around where I lived had yet heard of child psychology or Children's Protective Services or Dr. Spock (no, not the Star Trek one) and the advice columnists were still limiting their advice to bored house wives so no counselling or intervention for me to reorient my predilections came about. My father thought I might do well in the military (so did they) but as I said above, it was a wicked thing that I did and I crave the forgiveness of modeller's everywhere who must be horrified at the wanton destruction wrought by a teen ager with a BB gun. But I am still glad none of those kids got a thing from my collection.

I won't be shooting a bb gun at the CSS Arkansas or my other models.....now I'm going to have nightmares!!! I'm putting my "KILLER ATTACK Dachshund" on guard!! :smile:

I can imagine how much those models are worth today, to bad you never got any pictures.
 
After I grew up and got a place of my own I was able to go back and build many of those same models and I still have many of those. I used them in teaching my history classes and the kids seemed to like examining them. The one I could never find again, though, was the Heller model of the Russian Cruiser Aurora. It would not do any good now if I did fine one. My eye and hand coordination is not what it used to be. Heck I probably could not hit any of them with a BB gun at ten feet.
 
Here's a cannon and the finished deck planking update. Not looking to shabby, the trick will be placing all of the detailed parts inside the case-mate between those rafters and tying the cannons to the inside of the case-mate as per historical mounting for the rope adjustments and firing sequence. Been painting away on all the hand tools for the cannons also and will post those when I have them all finished. There's like thirty of them for the inside.

Can anyone verify for me that the cannon tools were racked above the cannons for accessibility? I have information that they were but just from a couple of old woodcuts.

JP, the flag furled ripped again, but I have a idea with a light Elmers glue I'm going to try. Let you know if it's successful.

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After I grew up and got a place of my own I was able to go back and build many of those same models and I still have many of those. I used them in teaching my history classes and the kids seemed to like examining them. The one I could never find again, though, was the Heller model of the Russian Cruiser Aurora. It would not do any good now if I did fine one. My eye and hand coordination is not what it used to be. Heck I probably could not hit any of them with a BB gun at ten feet.

Would love to see some images of them if you could take them. Always enjoy others work on ship models. Bet they were great teaching aids for the youngsters! Understand about the eye and hand coordination, we're not getting any younger. My old hands sometimes cramp up right in the middle of meticulous work and makes me mad as $%#!!. But, I'll work on models for as long as I can for the enjoyment and craftsmanship.
 
Here's a cannon and the finished deck planking update. Not looking to shabby, the trick will be placing all of the detailed parts inside the case-mate between those rafters and tying the cannons to the inside of the case-mate as per historical mounting for the rope adjustments and firing sequence. Been painting away on all the hand tools for the cannons also and will post those when I have them all finished. There's like thirty of them for the inside.

Can anyone verify for me that the cannon tools were racked above the cannons for accessibility? I have information that they were but just from a couple of old woodcuts.

JP, the flag furled ripped again, but I have a idea with a light Elmers glue I'm going to try. Let you know if it's successful.

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Seeing that makes me wonder how the bow & stern gun and nos 1 & 3 gun crews on each side kept from falling over each other.
 
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