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

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





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more photos…





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final photos…



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Very nice and tidy.
Those sails really came out nice.

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Looks fantastic. Very well done.

Jim

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Very cool model. Love all the intricate rigging and little details. Surprising how few guns it carries.

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Great job .

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Nice work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-k4eUV6Ejg&list=RDQ-k4eUV6Ejg&start_radio=1

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Beautiful.

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Super work! It is not easy to make a convincing plastic model of a wooden ship, but you have proved it can be done!

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Uncle-Heavy/jimb/Damraska/Robert_Goldman/sluff/Taffy3/TimReynaga-Thanks for the great compliments! They are appreciated!

Phillip1

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Your build report is very appreciated (it caused me to buy the kit through
a Swedish auction site).
:+1:

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These are pretty old molds - 60 - 70 yrs. I assume these are not OOB builds. How much extra work, and changes did you have to make. Really excellent job! :+1: :+1: You didn’t use the crappy vacu-formed sails! I’m working intermittently on Heller Santa Maria, and I’ve got the Revell Beagle which looks like a real challenge!
:smiley: :canada:

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I do believe Phillip1 did indeed use the crappy vac-formed sails
and made a very good job of it, sows ears to silk purse sort of thing …
The fact that many of us actually think they are cloth sails says a LOT
about the amazing work done on those sails.

OOB too …

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Philip1,your CSS Alabama looks fantastic! I really like how your sails look and the base also looks nice with your build. I have this kit in my stash and I’m still looking for the USS Kearsage.

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Uncle-Heavy-Good luck with your Alabama build! Be sure and post photos.

Biggles-Thanks for the compliment! As Uncle-Heavy noted I did build this model out of the box. I remember spending a lot of time sanding away the mold lines and injection pin marks from almost every single part. Not fun but worth it when the model was finished!

Phillip1

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tomschry-Thanks! I put most of the model ships/submarines I build on a wooden base, as it helps protect them and makes them look more professional. You will find the Revell Alabama and Kearsage kits are very similar.

Phillip1

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