Carl Smoot (@clipper)
This is going to be an excellent one to follow. It looks as if you have all of your parts in order as well. These ships have a magical place in my heart. I'll tell you a little story about one I "restored" as a kid. It actually made a TV appearance about 12 years ago on the History Channel TV show "American Pickers".

Everyone in our neighborhood knew that I built models as a kid. One day, one of our neighbors came over and told me they had an elderly uncle who served in the US Navy during WW2. He had recently sold his house and was moving everything. He had a HUGE homemade wooden model of a Cruiser that he had served on during the War.

This thing was about 6 feet long, constructed of wood planks and a metal soldered structure for the top side.

It was also very heavy... He no longer had room to keep it, so he told me I could have it if I came and picked it up.

Dad and I drove over to his house, and there it was ! She looked a bit worse for wear, but was mostly complete. The wooden planks had split apart where they were joined together on the sides of the hull. It was loaded with years of dust and dirt.

Once we got it home, I started cleaning it up and during that summer I restored her back to it's former glory, I even polished the brass hand made props by hand. The first order of business was to fill in all of the cracks in the hull. I used good old "Bondo" auto body filler...Then I had to sand off all of the old paint because it was peeling off everywhere. There were thousands of small brad nails that held the trim and gunnels onto the wooden hull. Most of these had to come out so I could clean up the metal behind them.

Needless to say, it took me all summer to do...

When it was done, it remained on top of our old piano for years that followed. When mom and Dad finally got rid of the piano, and sold their house, it was placed outside along the road, for someone to pick up if they wanted,

I REALLY wish they would have asked me about this... I would have taken it in an instant. But they didn't.

One of our neighbors eventually stopped by after it sat outside for about a month and asked if he could have it. Dad gave it to him. He took it home and placed it on his fireplace mantle. I'm glad that he took good care of her like was deserved.

He is a really cool "big tall biker dude" name Steve Coe. He has all kinds of antique Harley Davidsons, and he successfully raced them for years.

Anyhow, Mike and Frank from the American Pickers show absolutely love anything that is Harley Davidson related. They made a a stop by Steve's house, (who lived right around the corner from mom and dad where I grew up).

They ended up buying it from Steve. It was the "star" of one episode. I was never mentioned, but that's OK. If you ever get the chance to watch this episode, check it out. BTW, Mr. Coe doesn't normally wear a hat like that. It's something the TV producers wanted him to do. They staged it to make him look a bit more interesting... That's Hollywood for you.

Coe has a bunch of neat old cars too. Most of his Harley collection is on display at the various local HD dealerships.

Here is a screen shot of the ship model.

The last I heard it was on display at a restaurant called the "Fish House" in Pensacola, FL. I contacted the owners and told them the story behind it. They now have it on display behind a glass case mounted on the wall. They invited me to stop by if I ever get over that way. If I do, I'll make a stop at the Naval Aviation Museum while I'm in the area.


There are several pictures of the model on various places like Trip Advisor and so on. These are a few of them.

I'm very pleased they are taking good care of her... Now I can see that my restoration work is starting to show it's age too... The paint I applied all those years ago is chipping off now. But hey, it's close to 50 years old now! I used a roll of thin metal wire for the rigging. Just like the original builder did.

His name was Bob Emerson. He's the one who should get the full credit for this amazing bit of scratch building. I think it was supposed to be one of the Atlanta Class Cruisers. Like the Juneau where the 4 Sullivan brothers were killed.

In all sincerity, I am very glad this worked out like it has. Now the ship is on display in an area where many people can enjoy it, instead of only a few. Things could not have turned out better.

Can't wait for the build, Carl (@clipper). I have a conversion that I have been wanting to do for a while, so I am trying to gather the references I need. I hope to jump in at some point.

An awesome start, my friend @clipper! Yes, sometimes you have to change the instructions steps sequence. Good decision here! Looking forward to your progress!

So you do your workouts with a little less weight now?
Just kidding, wonderful start.

The weights were probably excessive, but I wanted to make sure the upper and lower hulls were firmly glued together.

I started filling and sanding this seam. It's being difficult. I have done two rounds on this and will need to do another.

To give myself a break from sanding, I started looking into what needs to be done on the deck. I've more to say on the detail set in a moment, but for the fore deck, there is a PE plate to glue down that requires some molded details to be removed. These molded details will be replaced later with other detail parts, some of which are excruciatingly tiny! 🙂

To ensure I know where the detail parts need to be added back in, I am temporarily marking their position on the hull.

The foredeck of course is where the anchor chain will eventually be placed. That chain will need to pass through two holes in the deck and out holes in the bow sides. The plan is to place some milliput (or similar epoxy putty) in the bow below the deck openings, and then shape it to represent the tunnel for the chains out the side holes. I'll cover that more in the future.

Additionally, there is the photoetched plate with improved detailing. My example of this was curved somewhat so annealing was necessary in order to get it to lay flat.

One last thing. I am using the Flyhawk detail set for this build. It has a wealth of PE , resin, and metal details, however, the instructions are pretty bad. They have virtually no text to explain things, the photos are somewhat small and hard to use for reference, and the real kicker, they do not cover every detail part. So some of these details, I do not know what they are for or where they go on the ship.

Annealing? Now there is a term that you don't hear very much now that PE has become so sophisticated, Carl (@clipper). Back in the caveman days of PE you would have to anneal to get the stuff to bend. Lots of small parts, at least it isn't 1/700. I am thinking about doing a waterline model for mine.

Superb job so far, my friend @clipper! Regarding the weights, you did a good "better safe than sorry" job.