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.
Interesting 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.
Phillip1
