March 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. BlueJackets Introduces Models of ALABAMA & KEARSARGE
SEARSPORT – For me one of the most dangerous places to stop on the coast is Blue- Jacket Shipcrafters in Searsport, dangerous in the respect of buying another model to add to the others still in their box. I am in there at least once a month and every time I walk through the showroom looking at all the fi nished models I see another I want. It does not make any difference if you like sailing vessels, warships, lobster boats, lightships, or small craft, simple or complicated, they have a model for everyone. Over the last year I have been watching Nic Damuck and Al Ross develop the models of the Confederate raider ALABAMA and the Union warship KEARSARGE. They have fi nished the AL- ABAMA kit and are now working on the kit for KEARSARGE.
and Susie Marger, had made the decision to produce these two kits for the 150th
The former owners of BlueJackets, Jeff anniver-
sary of engagement between KEASARGE and ALABAMA off the French coast in 1864, in which ALABAMA was sent to the bottom. Nic, the new owner of BlueJackets, added “When I took over it seemed like a real good idea, so we pursued it. I was a little naïve as to how long it takes to develop a kit and we missed the 2014 mark just by a little bit.”
Al explained, “The primary reference
for the ALABAMA included a book by Andrew Bowcock entitled “C. S. S. ALA- BAMA, Anatomy of the Confederate Raid- er,” some National Archives drawings and photographs. The model itself is a composite of all of those. None of them agreed with each other, which is typical. It is nothing like grabbing a set of plans and going at it, because everything is right there. But with sailing ships, especially the older ones, you kind of have to look at what you have, given
known dimensions and then just extrapo- lating to come up with something that is reasonable.”
“I started in 2012, but I got taken off for other jobs,” continued Al. “It took at least a year to develop everything. In this case it was a standard approach: laid out all the laser cut stuff fi rst and test fi tted it, made the masters for the castings, did the artwork for the photo etch, drew the plans later, because I wanted to make sure everything worked, and wrote and did the sketches for the instruction book. It is a joint effort getting a kit together. Without those other guys it ain’t going to happen.”
As the development of the model pro- ceeded, Nic was looking to do something different. He explained, “In the book on the ALABAMA there was a beautiful drawing of the construction of the hull, one of them that I thought was interesting showed the diagonal bracing that was behind the ribs. It is not uncommon in models to have reveals of rib structure. We were able to do that and then add the coal bunker. We ended up doing the cross bracing as a single laser cut piece. As a laser cut piece goes it is a complicated piece, but for the modeler it is very easy: you soak it in water, bend it in place and glue it. It looks a lot more complex than it is. So it is actually a three layer deep reveal, which makes the kit very unique.”
Al can do rigging, but if he does not have to he is much happier and on ALA- BAMA Nic did the rigging. He said, “The book, as good as it was on the mechanics of the ALABAMA, was very sketchy as far as the rigging goes. When you don’t have documentation, and you don’t have photo- graphs, you rely on contemporary pieces and standard procedures for that time period to
Continuned on Page 19. Newly Released
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