Revell HMS Beagle

[Kes]

This is a charity shop purchase for a tiny amount of cash! I bought it out of nostalgia as much as anything?

The instruction sheet dates it as 1966, I've read Revell HMS Beagle has little commonality with the real thing? also there were two Revell issues, another in a different scale? a Heller issue maybe? anyone know which one i have here?

. . . Kes (feeling nostalgic, although that could be fifty year old paint fumes?)

[Darby]

Remember those Revell paint jars well. Please enlighten me on what those fumes will be like.

[Kes]

The nearest I can compare the solvent smell in these paints is similar to good old fashioned 'Cherry Blossom' or 'Kiwi' shoe polish?? not the modern stuff but the stuff from years ago before the H&S decided it just might be harmful if you ate it everyday day for a year or some such thing??

. . . Kes

[JP Steve]

I haven't heard of a Heller Beagle. The only ones I've encountered are the 1/96 Revell and the 1/64 Mamoli (which faithfully copied all the errors of the Revell kit.) The Revell kit does get some things right, deck furniture is more or less in the right places (though somewhat out of proportion) and they have hinted at the twin compasses forward of the wheel. Their big error is in modeling her after an 18th century merchantman instead of a 19th c. Man-o-war which gives her a more bluff outline, open bulwarks instead of gun ports and no hammock netting, all of which significantly alter her appearance.

When I built my Mamoli Beagle I tried to correct as many of the mistakes as I could, a wooden model is so much more forgiving than plastic. Someday I might get up the nerve to post some photos of her, but what I see in the "Ready for Inspection" forum is so bloomin' marvelous I'm just not in the same league!

[JP Steve]

In reviewing this post I came across this remarkable re-working of the Revell kit http://modelwork.pl/viewtopic.php?p=655650 ( He seems to have worked around most of the more glaring errors. (Though he still keeps the wheel out on the quarterdeck instead of tucked under the break of the poop where it belongs!)

Edited January 23, 2016 by JP Steve

[GrantGoodale]

Looks like a fun build. I built their Victory, warts and all. The moulds were dated 1959 but it was still fun.

FWIW

[Killingholme]

Fun kit, but it ain't HMS Beagle. The kit was a reworking of the Revell HMS Bounty. Needless to say an 18th century collier and a 10 gun brig of the 1820s are very different vessels, so an accurate Beagle is out of the question using this kit. What makes me laugh is that Mamoli copied the Revell kit and therefore perpetuated this fiction in to the realms of seriously expensive wooden 'craftsman' models.

Still, it's a neat little kit and well worth building. Good luck!

Will

[Noel Smith]

Revell unfortunately keep doing that sort of thing, especially with old historic ships.

Using the 1/96th scale Cutty Sark hull for the Thermopylae and Padro Nunes, and the CSS Alabama Hull for the Kearsarge as well.

The Cutty Sark and the Alabama are not bad representations.

Thermopylae (that became Pedro Nunes) had different hull lines to the Cutty Sark altogether and the Alabama hull, I believe was 12 feet longer than the Kearsarge.

Using the old Bounty hull for the Beagle is inexcusable as they do not even look anything like one another.

Occre have recently issued a wooden kit of the Beagle I believe.

[Chewbacca]

I can't remember the last time I saw those Revell paint jars - got to be at least 50 years - but I do remember they had a distinctive smell.

 

I think it's fair to say that back in the 60s we were all much more forgiving about the accuracy of the kits.  I remember most of the aircraft kits I bought in the late 60s/early 70s had a cockpit that simply comprised a spike coming out from either side to which to cement the pilot and when the only reference I had for HMS COSSACK was a single grainy photo in a book, the Airfix representation didn't look too bad!  Research was much harder without the internet and the ready access to the level of information we have nowadays and I find one of the challenges of modelling is taking an old kit, throwing away all of the inaccurate parts and then scratchbuilding accuracy back into it.   That said I agree that there is no excuse for one manufacturer to simply copy another manufacturer's mistakes.  That is how those errors become truths over the years.

 

I'll follow this one with interest.

[Noel Smith]

The Revell Beagle ( if you could call it that) is actually a fairly recent kit, so using the Bounty hill is really inexcusable and could be deemed a bit of a con. Revell's thinking must be that the average punter who builds a sailing ship model just wants a nice interior decorator type object instead of an accurate representation and can get away with such practices.

Maybe one day someone will report them to Trading Standards about such malpractices.

[Killingholme]

On 2/18/2021 at 5:41 PM, Noel Smith said:

CSS Alabama Hull for the Kearsarge as well.

 

 

It's the other way round! Revell used the Kearsarge hull for the CSS Alabama kit, making the Alabama almost 12 scale feet too short. It's also worth pointing out that the Kearsage kit most closely represents what the ship looked like in 1880s, with some basic attempts to backdate it to an 1864 appearance (mainly removing the quarterdeck and replacing the armament). So neither is really an accurate representation, but the Kearsage is the better of the two and probably the easiest to make accurate. Some have actually suggested that it would be easier to make an 1864-era Kearsage using the Alabama kit, rather than attempting to backdate the 1880s configuration!

 

But it's a fair point- imagine what would happen if Revell tried to sell us a Mk.I spitfire with a Griffon engine....

 

Will

[Noel Smith]

Will,   Thanks for correcting my mistake regarding the Revell Kearsarge and Alabama kits. Noel

[Noel Smith]

9 hours ago, Noel Smith said:

Will,   Thanks for correcting my mistake regarding the Revell Kearsarge and Alabama kits.  I was convinced in my own mind that the Alabama was issued first.      Cheers Noel

 

[Hepster]

Nice one Kes, just enjoy the build! 

 

Coincidentally, I picked up a copy of the same kit at my local charity shop for all of £1.50.  In view of the useful comments, I guess I'll just build it as a generic merchant ship of the period.

 

 

[Noel Smith]

Double checked the Alabama and Kearsarge hull lengths, and it appears that the Alabama is the longer it the two as first thought.

I believe that Revell brought out the Alabama first and used the same hull mouldings for the Kearsarge.I

 

I just wish that someone would bring out an accurate CSS Alabama in a smaller scale like 1/150 th or1/144th.

[RC Boater Bill]

On 11/5/2021 at 5:49 AM, Noel Smith said:

Double checked the Alabama and Kearsarge hull lengths, and it appears that the Alabama is the longer it the two as first thought.

I believe that Revell brought out the Alabama first and used the same hull mouldings for the Kearsarge.I

 

I just wish that someone would bring out an accurate CSS Alabama in a smaller scale like 1/150 th or1/144th.

 

The Kearsarge came first, then Alabama was released as a “as close as we can get to Alabama with the constraints of the existing Kearsarge kit as a starting point” model kit…..

 

Here’s a link to the definitive comparative review of the Revell Kearsarge/Alabama kits:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20210228001356/http://www.steelnavy.com/Alabama&Kearsarge.htm

Edited December 24, 2022 by RC Boater Bill
fixed typos to make room for new ones…

[Noel Smith]

Thanks for the further heads up Bill.

In view of the information you have shared it looks like an accurate plastic kit of the Alabama may always just be a pipe dream. I read somewhere that the wooden Model Shipways kit is the most accurate one available at present.

Does anyone know where an accurate set of plans may be available from of the CSS Alabama?

Edited December 25, 2022 by Noel Smith

[Lothian man]

On 2/25/2021 at 8:27 AM, Noel Smith said:

The Revell Beagle ( if you could call it that) is actually a fairly recent kit, so using the Bounty hill is really inexcusable and could be deemed a bit of a con. Revell's thinking must be that the average punter who builds a sailing ship model just wants a nice interior decorator type object instead of an accurate representation and can get away with such practices.

Maybe one day someone will report them to Trading Standards about such malpractices.

In fairness the "Beagle" kit was definitely available much longer ago. I saw a made up one in a museum display about Darwin and evolution and that must have been by 1983 at the latest. And I'm sure it was in my childhood Revell catalogues before then. Much to my relief this confirms my memory - though I didn't know Heller also reissued it, or that Revell repopped it as late as 2005. Shame, when there is the Anatomy fo the Ship book to be had (and the other kind of book, the kind with lots more words then pictures, by Keith Thomson which I have not read for some time but remember enjoying).

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-h328-98-hms-beagle--1161077

[Noel Smith]

Looks like the Revell so called Beagle kit is a lot older than I thought but does not alter anything if it was using the Bounty hull.

[Killingholme]

On 12/25/2022 at 9:08 AM, Noel Smith said:

Does anyone know where an accurate set of plans may be available from of the CSS Alabama?

 

Due to the nature she was commissioned, fitted out and operated, there's no such thing as a definitive set of plans for the ship. However Andrew Bowcock's CSS "Alabama": Anatomy of a Confederate Raider is the best attempt at reconstructing her. It's the book you need and widely available secondhand.

 

Will 

[Noel Smith]

Thanks for the info about the book Will. I would imagine it being similar to the Anatomy of the Ship books that Conway used to publish a few years back. I have a few and they are very good. I will certainly try to find a copy.

I would imagine if any drawings of the vessel exist they will be the ship builders drawings of the vessel when originally built before going to the Azores to be fitted out with armaments and named by the Confederacy.

I have a book that is a fascinating read named Shark of the Confederacy that is a history of the Alabama voyages. The Alabama never entered a home port in all the time whilst in commission and was in a poor state when engaged by Kearsarge off Cherbourg.

The big Revell kit is the only one in plastic so the book you recommend would be a very useful source of information as the ship never had any refits whilst in service. I think there is someone offering after market items for the kit like wooden decking etc.

[RC Boater Bill]

A post on the “Seaways Ships in Scale” site 20+ years ago recommended this book:   “CSS Alabama  Builder, Captain, and Plans” by Charles Grayson Summersell. Published by the University of Alabama Press, 1985.   I found one fairly easily back then, it wasn’t very expensive.

 

It is a well researched, thoroughly documented work.  It includes info on the construction specs for the builder.  It has a sleeve with plans inside the back cover- printed on heavy, high quality paper.

 

Can be found on the secondary market, but try to find one that still has the plans.

[Noel Smith]

During late 2023 I managed at last to obtain a copy of Andrew Bowcock's  book  CSS Alabama The Anatomy of a Confederate Raider on Ebay at a sensible price having kept looking at the very inflated prices that most other sellers wanted for it.

Overall it is an excellent treatise on the vessel with plenty of plans to refer to. Andrew Bowcock I believe was an ex Cammell Laird employee and his research into the ship is quite comprehensive.

He was on a committee trying to fund the building of a full sized replica of the ship to be displayed at Birkenhead where the original was built. Unfortunately the venture did not get off the ground, but as I understand it, a lot of Andrew Bowcock's research was done with this venture in mind.

Summersell's book looks like being the other main recommended source of information about the Alabama although I have never seen a copy myself.   It sounds like an extremely  good alternative reference on the ship according to Boater Bill.