Glory of the Seas, medium clipper in 1/96 by rwiederrich

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Before I found this particular build site I had already begun my scratch build of Donald McKay's last clipper.

I will be entering this log during the rigging and sail installation.

I will, when applicable, add images of her as she was being built.

One key note to this build: I had the great fortune to actually go to the Glory of the Seas resting site and actually excavate and retrieve artifacts of this beautiful and history laden clipper ship.

I will begin by including some original b/w images to illustrate and identify the vessel I am attempting to replicate.
46087515_2105024879542622_4373814077986701312_o.jpg
 
During the period in which I began this model....about 9 years ago, I had adopted a technique of using 1/96 Revell Cutty Sark hulls as starting points for my extreme modifications into Donald McKay creations. I knew this was going to be quite some feat, since the Cutty Sark had and extreme clipper bow with a very extreme rake and cutwater. So I heavily altered her to, as accurately as I could, replicate the Glory bow.
As you can imagine the modifications took most of the hull. I had to also add taller bulwarks and completely redo the forecastle. Not to mention hand creating the new figurehead. More to follow as I go back and forth from her current state and that of early construction.

Rob
 
At every build there is a beginning...so I must first take us back to that beginning. Being a slothful builder..one who prefers to find a way to get things done the fastest and my using items already engineered. I decided to use the hull of a discarded 1/96 Cutty Sark as my canvas. Why waist a good thing...when I can modify it enough to make it believable.

So this is what I began with....here are a couple images of the mods.post-2739-0-50649200-1379029015_thumb.jpgpost-2739-0-61500200-1379029273_thumb.jpg
 
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The head gear and figurehead were a challenge...because, apart from the modified hull halves...I scratch built everything else on the model.
There is a famous image of the figurehead of the Glory in New York during the turn of the century.......
I wanted to mimic the image the best I could.post-2739-0-99791700-1379125302_thumb.jpg1085017_140569529484566_1510892642_o.jpg
 
Since the Glory had endured so many modifications during her lifetime...I opted to depict her later in life..after many mods had been removed and her age was showing. Her gilded paint warn thin and grey tones of heavy weather beating left her for better days.004.JPG.cddd018ec5c1c80c33d765476dd40d5d.jpg977222_122831337925052_364869143_o.jpg966014_122833274591525_1782718802_o.jpg
 
I want to depict here in a similar fashion as she was photographed here in this image. This is the only image of her under sale...and it was probably when she was relinquished to coastal trading of coal and lumber...shortly there after she lost her open ocean carrier licence. I will be less harsh to her sails, but the over all short sail configuration is my goal.004_zpsyukqntye.jpg

I'm depicting her around this time...before she was sold as a salmon processing plant to a Tacoma Fish Co. She was a work horse and I want to depict her as such.
 
Beautiful work, and excellent research. I'm contemplating scratch building the Thermopylae in 1/64 scale, but not a lot of plans out there.

cheers Brian.
 
Beautiful work, and excellent research. I'm contemplating scratch building the Thermopylae in 1/64 scale, but not a lot of plans out there.

cheers Brian.
Thanks Brian. Research research research . There’s a couple of hull drawings of the Thermopylae that one could build a good scale hull out of. , but the rest is scratchy . I have some great pictures of a masterfully created model of her I’ll post later.
 
A very interesting project (and vessel) - Many Thanks for sharing with us -> I hope to see as often as possible some progress reports :cool:
 
One thing I failed to mention, concerning these models....is.... the dark aged looking one is the much older model and if you notice she is sporting exterior/outboard chain plates and channels... not to mention her forecastle is different. Contemporary plans show that she had iron internal and external straps securing her deadeyes. Not to mention the forecastle windless and pump mech. These models show significant differences, so it causes me to think that there needs to be significant *License* applied, when modeling her.

Rob
 
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