My Workbench

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Langton 28 Gun Frigate USS Adams



I was able to make some time amid all of the holiday activity to knock out another ship. This time I chose to add to my growing American fleet with Langton's 28 gun frigate USS Adams. This is a very nice hull and very easy to put together, taking almost no work at all to complete. Most of the work went into the base! For some bonehead reason I grabbed the wrong sized pre-cut base card and got all the way through sculpting, painting and mounting the ship before I realized I had the wrong size for a 28 gun sixth rate. I had to carefully remove the ship from the base and start over with the correct size base card.

Some Historical data: USS Adams laid down July 30, 1798 in New York. Launched August 6, 1799. Commissioned September 1799. Dimensions at launch: Length 113 ft.; Breadth 34 ft.; Depth of Hold 10 ft. 9 in.; Displacement 530 tons. Standard Compliment 480.
Initial armament: 24 x 12 lb long guns and 6 x 24 lb carronades.

Adams was the smallest frigate built for the US Navy under contract. Adams made two cruises in the Quasi-War with France, recapturing a dozen American or British ships from French prize crews, and capturing two French privateers and five French merchant vessels. During the Barbary wars she made one cruise to the Mediterranean in June 1802 with Commodore Richard Morris' squadron and participated in action against Tripoli. From 1805 to 1806 Adams patrolled the Atlantic coast of the United States. In 1809 she took commission to enforce the Embargo Act. After 1809 she was laid up at the Washington Navy Yard and served as a receiving ship.

In June of 1812 Adams was cut in half amidships and lengthened 15 feet. The purpose was to re-rate the ship as a 36 gun frigate, but the rebuild proved unsatisfactory so Adams was razeed to a 24 gun sloop of war. Blockaded in the Chesapeake, Adams finally escaped to sea in January 1814. On her first cruise she captured five British merchantmen. A second cruise in May covered the Newfoundland Banks to Ireland, during which she took five more British Merchant prizes. On her return she was trapped in the Penobscot River and was burned on 3 September 1814 during the Battle of Hampden to prevent capture by the British. (All of the above historical data paraphrased from "American Light and Medium Frigates 1794-1836" by Mark Lardas.

Dimensions after 1812 rebuild: Length 128 ft.; Breadth 34 ft.; Depth of Hold 10 ft. 9 in.; Compliment 220; Armament: 26 x 18 pdr Columbiads on the gun deck and 1 x 12 pdr long gun on the quarterdeck. (From Wikipedia).

So I am not exactly sure which Adams this Langton model is supposed to be since there are only 22 gun ports and only 4 guns on the quarterdeck, which doesn't match either historical configuration. Oh well, not uncommon with Langton models. Beautiful hulls for sure, but not that accurate.










Monday, December 24, 2018

Christmas Score

Merry Christmas all! I hope everyone has a great holiday with family and friends as it should be.

Check out what my lovely wife got me for Christmas, awesome!


These books are full of plans and pictures. It has always been so hard to find anything on French ships. Everything is about British ships. So cool!


Monday, December 17, 2018

Navwar Swedish 70 Gun SOL Konung Adolph Frederik

This is the Navwar 70 gun ship of the line Konung Adolph Frederik, launched from Karlskrona in 1775. She appears to have had a long run of service and was finally broken up in 1825. I was unable to find out anything more about this ship's history.

Dimensions:
    Length 174 ft; Breadth 46 ft; Depth of Hold 21 ft

Armament: Broadside weight = 628 Swedish pounds or 588.4 lbs
Lower gun deck = 26 x 24 pounders
Upper gun deck = 26 x 18 pounders
Quarterdeck and Forecastle = 18 x 6 pounders

As with most of the Navwar ships I build, everything is scratch built except the hull.












Wednesday, December 5, 2018

My Navwar Fleet

I have been working on another Navwar ship, this time a Swedish 70 gun. I got up to the part I hate, making the ratlines and decided to take a break....for a few days! watched a few movies, the new Vikings episodes, and a couple more from the new season of Last Kingdom. I started looking at my other Navwar ships. Picking them out of the fleets they belong with, I gathered them up together and took a few photos. Here are all 17 ships completed so far.







American Cutter
14 gun felucca xebec
British cutter

Spanish 22 gun corvette Diligencia
Dutch 64 gun Revolutie

French Corvette L'Mars
French Corvette L'Republicaine
Swedish 40 gun Frigate Venus
Two Dutch 32 gun frigates

Two Dutch 50 gun ships
Two Dutch 64 gun ships
Ottoman 122 gun Selimiye

Spanish Reina Louisa 114

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Advent Beer Christmas

Wow! I am just blown away by my girls! My oldest daughter just gave my wife and I the most thoughtful gift, a beer advent calendar with a different German, Bavarian and Austrian beer for each day from December 1 through December 24. She packed them in two nicely wrapped boxes with 12 beers in each box. She hand picked every beer and researched each one in order to write a short review for the beers on sticky notes placed above each bottle or can in the box. On top of that is another note with the date the beer is to be consumed. Many are pints so there's plenty to split with the wife. All my daughter asked in return was for both of us to write down what we think of each one and send it to her.









My wife taped the bottle cap over December 1 on our kitchen calendar. By Christmas eve there will be a cap for every day except the days there is a can.
My review of the first beer, a Dortmunder:
I didn't taste any cooky, but malty yes definitely, with an aftertaste like just eating a slice of sourdough bread. Very nice! My wife liked it too.