Sloops CSS Alabama and USS Kearsarge (1/700, scratch)

[maxim]

The two famous sloops CSS Alabama und USS Kearsarge, which fought in the American Civil War, are since a long time on my list of potential projects.

Now I have started with the hull of Alabama.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CSSAlabama.jpg

Alabama was built in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy by Laird in Birkenhead, UK. She captured 65 Union vessels and sunk in 1863 the gunboat USS Hatteras. On 19th of June 1864 she was sunk by the sloop USS Kearsarge.

I am using CSS Alabama Anatomy of a Confederate Raider von Andrew Bowcock as my main reference. I scaled the drawings to 1/700.



I divided the hull in four 0.5 mm and one 0.25 mm plastic sheet. On the bow two additional 0.5 mm sheets and at the stern one 0.5 mm sheet will be used to generate the sheer.

Here the lower four 0.5 mm plates:


and after assembly:



After the addition of the upper deck - an additional plate - the form of the hull will be generated by sanding.

[PetrolGator]

I like this a lot. My father in law has a great-something grandfather that served on the CSS Alabama.

Will you be going full on battle diorama?

[maxim]

No, probably no diorama, but only the two ships.

I will depict Kearsarge in her 1864 fit, but I am not so sure about Alabama. At least for the rig I will not depict her in the fit during the battle, but an earlier one, for which much better references are available.

[dafi]

Wonderful project!!!

Looking forward for it.

Cheers, Daniel

[LE BOSCO]

Good luck for your project maxim
cheers
Nicolas

[Stefano Salesi]

Love it! i'm getting day by day more interested in sailing ships and ironclads, so this is a project that i'll look with attention!

keep the good work!!!!!!!!!!

[MichelB]

You beat me to it! (languishing in modeller's block) I will follow with keen interest!

[maxim]

Next is the Sloop USS Kearsarge:


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... uselang=de

Kearsarge was one of 11 sloops built after 1858, which should have light draft, great speed and heavy guns. The were designed as steamer with only auxiliary sailing rig (later in her career in the Dark Ages of the US Navy she was converted to a sailing ship with an auxiliary steam engine). Seven of these sloops were built in 1859 using seven (!) different designs: Mohican, Wyoming, Iroquois, Dacotah, Pawnee, Seminole and Narragansett. After the start of the American Civil war four additional ships were ordered: to the design of Iroquois Oneida and Wachusett, to the design of Wyoming Tuscarora and using the plans of Mohican Kearsarge.

Kearsarge was built in 1861-62 in Portsmouth Naval Yard and she is famous for sinking CSS Alabama on 19th of June 1864 in the Battle of Cherbourg. Kearsarge was destroyed after she run aground on Roncador Cay on 2nd of February 1894.

I am using mainly Reconstructing USS Kearsarge, 1864 by Arthur C. Roberts in Naval Research Journal (December 1999 to September 2000, thank you Jorit!) as reference:



Here lines, which added to measure the length of the plates to make the hull:


The drawing of the stern next was used to determine the level of the water line - not drawn on the other plan.

The hull is made of three 0,5 mm and one 0,25 mm plates. The sheer will be depicted using two 0,5 mm and one 0,25 mm plate at the stern and three 0,5 mm plates at the bow. On these a 0,64 mm plate (V groove) will be glued to depict the deck and its planking.

Here are the first three plates:

[maxim]

Here the progress with Alabama:





This part is still not finished.

Does someone has an idea how to make the bulwarks at the bow and stern? They are at the top c. 0,4 mm thick, the lower part can be a little bit thicker. The problem is the flare and the curve of it.

[DariusP]

I'm following this project maxim. Good luck!

[dafi]

Wonderful work maxim!

Cheers, DAniel

[maxim]

Some progress with Kearsarge:

As mentioned in the last posting about that model, I added plates to depict the sheer:


Afterwards I glued on them a 0,64 mm plate (V-Grooves), which depicts the planks:



The gaps between the plates were closed with filler and I started to sand the hull to its form.

The next step was the bulwark. I used a piece of plastic to measure the width of gun ports of the 32-pounders:





I still have to sand a lot to get to a hull form, which is similar to the real ship...

[Pieter]

Hi Maxim,
A nice way to get the flare and curve right for the bulwarks is to sand the hull below the bulwark to a flare and simply continue the flare upward by "planking" styrene sheet up from the hull. You can cut off excess styrne using scissors. You can blend in the sheet to the lower hull after this by careful sanding though you should strenghten the bulwarks with styrene strip before you do that. Getting a good sheer and flare easily is one of the reasons I'm using balsa for the core of my hulls as it takes filing and sanding much better than a massive layer of styrene sheet.
A good example (a bit more complicated by having to work with a rolled stem) can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=120655
Very nice work on Kearsarge BTW.

Here the progress with Alabama:

This part is still not finished.

Does someone has an idea how to make the bulwarks at the bow and stern? They are at the top c. 0,4 mm thick, the lower part can be a little bit thicker. The problem is the flare and the curve of it.

[mabmanu]

Bonjour

J'aime beaucoup ...

[maxim]

@ Maarten: nice advice, unfortunately not applicable for these models. But I will try it with a later one.

I have added the forecastle to Kearsarge and continued with the bulwarks:







The surfaces are not yet smooth, but now the shape of the hull is more recognisable.

I have also started the bulwarks of Alabama with a 0,5 x 0,5 mm plastic sheet. On this a 0,3 mm x 1,1 mm sheet will be glued:



Here a comparison of the sloop models in their current condition:

[maxim]

I have continued to work on the bulwarks of Alabama. I added on the 0.5 x 0.5 mm stripe 0.3 mm x 1.1 mm sheet leaving space for the gun ports. The problem was the bow and stern. I have used 0.4 mm sheet, which I tried to design to fit to the shape of the bulwark there. I had do sand the upper end, because they did not fit perfectly.

On the top of the bulwark I added a 0.75 x 0.75 mm stripe:





Alabama had gun ports at the bow for chase guns - Kearsarge had here chase gun on the forecastle:



At the stern Alabama had no gun ports, because the lifting equipment for the propeller was in the way (which I have added later):



Here a comparison of both ships (Kearsarge on the top, Alabama below):



Afterwards I added the stuff on the deck of Alabama (skylights, toilettes, hatches etc.)



The same for Kearsarge:







The next steps were the funnels. I wanted to made them from brass tubes, but found none with a fitting diameter. I tried 0.125 mm plastic sheet, but I failed to bent it into the round shape. Therefore I have used normal 80 g paper, which worked perfectly.

Here is the funnel of Alabama:


and of Kearsarge:


You can see also the already added bowsprit made of 0.8 mm brass.

[Stefano Salesi]

phabuolus work!!!!!!!!!

Waiting to see more...eagerly waiting!!!!!!!!!!

[MichelB]

Nice.....

[kylewoody]

Excellent! Those are looking fantastic, kudos on the scratchbuilding. It takes a lot of skill and patience to do that. On a side note, I always found it interesting that years later (granted totally different ships) the Kearsarge met with Alabama again, only to help build her this time.

http://navsource.org/archives/01/060/016085b.jpg

Kyle

[Pieter]

Very nice...