Nautical Research Journal 231


10. Superstructure showing white-painted hammock lockers.


and that is the way I wanted to depict the ship. I was also fortunate to obtain copies of the original builder’s plans from my friend John McGann. T ese were essential in making the changes I desired and provided the details that I felt it needed.


T e Olympia model is at the scale of 1:128 (3/32-inch equals 1 foot). With many changes to the kit and some scratch-built items, such as the guns, this model represents the spirit of the “Great White Fleet” at its peak. In this article, I will describe the construction process and the various modifi cations made to the kit, as well as the reasons for the changes.


T e Kit


Right out of the box, this kit from BlueJacket is great. Al Ross did another masterful job rendering the ship as a kit. I used most of the resin cast parts but was


worried about the photo-etched brass. It turned out that this all was really well done. I did not use the Britannia metal guns but did use the gun mounts and blocks. I used the rest of the parts from the kit that were Britannia metal as patterns either for turning or carving. T e hull was bread and butter laminated on the buttock lines and carved to the general shape, but the carving was on a bias and I had quite a time getting the centerline to conform. Once I fi gured that out, the rest was easy going. I also bought the supplemental kit for detailing the inside of the superstructure, but though it was fun to do, the construction pictures are all that can be shown and the interior is unseen in the fi nished model. (Figure 2)


I used a variety of tools for the hull shaping work, including a GREX pneumatic sander, and a set of riffl er fi les to shape the stern. T e white area in


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