WIP USS Alarm 1874 a small update

Rene

Private
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Hi there,


From this moment on the whole thing has changed significantly. Until now, the model had an almost toy-like appearance most of all because of the lack of any details. So my main objective for the rest of the entire project is simply “details nothing but details”. Since this ship has no real superstructure to speak of, only 2 small cabins a few skylights and a smokestack and of course a rather big gun in the front, I have to concentrate on these small parts to bring in as much details as possible. So here we go, now we start the really serious model –building.

One of the first such small details I had to build was that propeller. It may have ruined the entire career of this ship but it certainly is much more interesting than an ordinary screw. Fortunately I found a very good and clear photo which was obviously taken when the vessel was still under construction. This photo showed all I needed to know, what more could I ask for. Anyhow it took me 2 attempts to get the whole thing correct but finally I had a partly functional miniature of that “Fowler Wheel” which consists of no less than 71 pcs! Sure I could have made it much easier but as I already said I want as much details as possible even when this means to completely overdo. The only reason which kept me from building a fully functional propeller was the fact that no one would ever notice and definitely would I never, ever allow someone else to try if that thing spins and that the blades are changing their deflection too.



One of the first details I had to build for the main deck was the small wheelhouse in the front of the smokestack. I made a small structure out of plastic sheet, which was completely covered with real wooden veneer in two different colors. I had to add 3 windows in the front and 2 more to the sides. Now in some photos of a cardboard model one can see that someone build town ordinary hinged doors to the side of this wheel house. I’m in doubt if this is correct. Since such ships are serving under harsh conditions which include strong winds, you have to consider that opening a door like this in a heavy weather with the wind coming from the front could easily become impossible. Put the hinges to the rear of the door and even the attempt to open that door under the same condition could become suicidal. So I opted for sliding doors and that’s what I’ve build as you can see. Inside the little cabin is the steering wheel, a machine telegraph, some speaking tubes and since the wall looked a bit too empty for me, I added a large map to it. Even the ceiling received some wood too and a lamp too. Door handles and similar things were made from brass wire and after a whole day of fiddling around that cabin is finally finished.

Onto the smokestack, the largest piece to be builds, with the exception of the hull. It may be big but it’s fairly simple, just a few parts made from plastic sheet, the stack itself is rolled from thick lead-foil. A few more details like grab handles, a steam pipe and so on and within a few hours to whole thing was ready to be attached to the rest of the ship.

Did I say I wanted to put as much details in this model as possible?, well here we go: I had to build 2 of those hatchways which when not in use, are closed with canvas, which is attached to the frame with the help of some rope. That’s exactly what I wanted to recreate, literally! I built the hatchway out of plastic sheet and a small wooden frame at its base. So far so good, but then came the tricky part, I had to insert 24 pins around the frame where that rope is being wrapped. After that was done I made the “canvas” out of some tin foil from a bottle of wine, unfortunately I could not taste the wine, or otherwise I would not been able to do what I did next: I stitched a fine rope through the canvas and around those pins. That lasted about 30 minutes and I cannot remember if I dared to breathe during that work, but boy was I exhausted when I was finished!

Here are the pics of what I have done so far...

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Cheers

René
 
It's looking very nice so far; I hope you will keep us updated on your progress!
 
One of the first such small details I had to build was that propeller. It may have ruined the entire career of this ship but it certainly is much more interesting than an ordinary screw. Fortunately I found a very good and clear photo which was obviously taken when the vessel was still under construction. This photo showed all I needed to know, what more could I ask for.

Where did you find this photo?
 
Where did you find this photo?

Google is your friend, just type in "USS Alarm 1874" and you should find the picture of the vessel in drydock, the bulwarks are still missing and you can clearly see the Fowler wheel
 
Great work and very interesting ship! Quite unique with her Fowler wheel as mean of propulsion. Basically they solved the problem of maneuvering the long ram-ship, but... at the cost of speed.
 
Hi there,

A few weeks have passed since my last update so here some new pictures that I have taken today to show you all what I have done recently.

The entire model is becoming more and more complete. Quite a few small things were built like the 2 cabins and the smokestack but also those even smaller parts like the skylights, air vents, davits and so on. Once again it’s all about the details, the more the happier you could say and that’s what I really like.

So during the last weeks I have concentrated purely on all those tiny things which take such a long time to create but which also make the difference, at least for me. The aft cabin is such a piece, on first look it’s nothing special but on further inspection you will notice it is for whatever reason oval. This is something which makes its construction a bit more difficult but the most challenging part as the roof of that cabin, which is not only oval too but has this significant “wave-form” The problem as how to create such a part. At the end I used a piece of aluminium sheet which was cut in the right form and then by using the rounded back end of a small brush to bring it in its final 3 dimensional from, Quite tricky to do but to my surprise I got it right on my first try.

Those 2 lifeboats are small kits themselves, which were in both cases enhanced and modified with the help of several self-made parts. Last weekend I decided to start with the work on those 4 Gatling guns, since I could not find any reasonable kit for this I have to do them by myself. So what you can see on these pictures is my very first attempt. You be my judge, since there were several versions of this type of gun there might be some errors in this actual version. Some of them will be corrected and of course the color is still missing, so please let me know what you think about it, I really would like to hear your opinion.

But please be patient with me there are still several more details missing, like the anchor winch and of course the big Dahlgreen gun and its carriage. But this will be part of the next update

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Cheers

René
 
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