Finished Photos of Revell’s 1/96 Scale C.S.S. Alabama Civil War Merchant Raider Sailing Ship

[Phillip1]

Fellow Modelers,

Below are photos of Revell’s 1/96 scale (36” length) C.S.S. Alabama, a Civil War commerce raider built by England and sold to the Confederate States. From 1862 to 1864 the Alabama was able to destroy or capture 65 merchant vessels (and 1 warship) before being sunk by the U.S.S. Kearsage off the coast of France on June 19, 1864.

I built this kit in 2000. It was built straight from the box and I pretty much followed the kit’s instructions concerning painting. This was my first sailing ship model, and found working with the rigging much harder than I thought it would be. It is a beautiful model, but a great deal of sanding and parts clean-up was required due to the kit’s age. Based on Andrew Bowcock’s 2002 book “Anatomy of a Confederate raider”, just about everything on the deck should have been painted black (lifeboats, cannons, etc.) instead of the colors given in the kit instructions. The sails used are the vac-form parts from the kit. First, I painted them flat white. Next, medium brown pastel powder was applied with a soft, flat brush on each side. A very soft t-shirt was used to burnish the pastel powder into the sails. Doing this produced a multi-color effect, and also highlight all of the recesses and indentations on the sails. Care was taken to not rub on the parts too hard and damage the white paint or the part itself. To get a specific area darker I applied a little more pastel powder. Finally, each sail was airbrushed with Testors Dullcote (50/50 mixture of Dullcote and thinner). This was required since buffing the parts produced a semi-gloss finish.

Revell first issued the Alabama and Kearsarge kits in 1961. Both kits were made from the same basic mold with just a few alterations in the details. According to expert ship modelers on the internet, it appears the Kearsarge kit was modeled after what she looked like when she sank in 1894, which is really different from what she looked like in 1864. Also, the Alabama kit has many inaccuracies and requires a significant number of modifications to correct them.

Facts About the Actual Ship:
>The ship was manned by Confederate navy officers but a lot of the crew were not from the Confederacy. In fact, it was common for sailors of captured ships to become part of the Alabama's crew.
>During its time at sea the Alabama never seemed to have the required full crew compliment of 145 men, which created more work for the existing crew.
>At the time of its sinking the ship was in terrible mechanical condition. Its boilers had not been overhauled since it was launched, and the hull below the waterline was in bad shape, making it no match to do battle with the Kearsarge. According to an Alabama officer, the day before the battle the ship was cleaned and polished to where it looked brand new, even though it was in very poor condition. The captain of the Alabama (Semmes) knew the Alabama was no match for the Kearsarge, but he was determined the ship would end its career in battle as opposed to being surrendered intact. During the battle, after it became clear the Alabama was losing, Semmes attempted to run along-side the Kearsarge so the two ships could be lashed together and hand-to-hand combat would determine the winner. However, the Kearsarge anticipated this and maintained a safe distance. The actual battle lasted about an hour. I hope you enjoy the photos.















Until next time...

Phillip1

[aur0ra145]

Very interesting subject, didn't know the CSA ventured to Europe.

[Phillip1]

aur0ra145-When the Civil War began in 1861 the South had an Agricultural based Economy, with almost no factories, foundries or decent ship building facilities. Money was available so they approached Great Britain about building warships for them to purchase. At the time it was in Great Britain's interest to help the South since they were one of the biggest customers of the South's greatest export material-cotton. Great Britain did eventually pay dearly for providing this help. See the paragraph below from Wikipedia:

The Alabama Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by the government of the United States from the United Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks upon Union merchant ships by Confederate Navy commerce raiders built in British shipyards during the American Civil War. The claims focused chiefly on the most famous of these raiders, the CSS Alabama, which took more than sixty prizes before she was sunk off the French coast in 1864. After international arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled the matter by paying the United States $15.5 million, ending the dispute and leading to a treaty that restored friendly relations between Britain and the United States. That international arbitration established a precedent, and the case aroused interest in codifying public international law. The case too resulted in the warming of relations between Britain and the US, which had begun the 1800s as rivals, and ended the century, as something of partners.

Phillip1

[Twokidsnosleep]

Superb.
Look how clean the build is, wow

[Phillip1]

Twokidsnosleep-Thanks!

Phillip1

[DRUMS01]

Thats a nice build, but considering it started as a basic Reveal kit, this is actually an excellent build! Wonderful color variations throughout and nice history behind the ship too. Thanks for sharing

Ben

[Phillip1]

Ben-Thanks!

Phillip1

[Tomcat64]

Beautiful clean build - it looks stunning

Do you have any plans to try and get the U.S.S. Kearsage kit as well?

[Phillip1]

Tomcat64-Thank you for the great compliment! I do not have any plans to build the Revell U.S.S. Kearsage. Even though I built this kit a long time ago, I still remember the extra effort and time spent on every single part to remove surface flaws and improve the poor fit. I believe all of the classic Revell sailing ships (i.e., Constitution, Cutty Sark, Kearsage, etc.) are all about the same quality and I have never had the desire to do all that work again.

Phillip1

[NoelSmith]

Very nice model of this famous (infamous) ship depending on how you look at it.
Looks like you have done a lot of work on it referring to Andrew Bowcock's book The Anatomy of a Confederate Raider.
I recently bought a copy and it must rate as the 'bible' about this ship's construction.
Many of the crew were English, signed on when the ship was handed over to the Confederacy off the Azores Islands.

Andrew Bowcock was on a committee trying to raise capital to build a full size replica of the CSS Alabama to be moored at Birkenhead. Unfortunately the venture did not get off the ground. It would have made a fabulous tourist attraction for Liverpool.