I’ve seen Mike’s model of the 36500 and can attest that it is a “4.0” model… Nice job stew burner.
Bob Gesking, USCG (Retired)
At the risk of repeating myself-- You’re likely to get much faster response from the Coast Guard Museum Northwest in Seattle. You can google the name to find the contact number, call them, and get a set of plans on the way to you in a jifffy.
I know the CG Historian’s Office is overworked and under-staffed. You’ll proabably have a bit of a wait…
I can’t say enough nice things about the staff at the Seattle Museum…
There is a set of plans currently on ebay.
Can anyone confirm that these are the plans that are accurate? I know jtilley had mentioned that Revell used the wrong plans when they did their Eagle, I wouldn’t want to make the same mistake.
Professor Tilley, are you out there?
The seller on 3-bay says there are five sheets. Three are illustrated. The one on the left - the combined sail plan and outboard profile - is the one I drew for the Coast Guard Historian’s Office in 1994. (It’s in the public domain; there’s nothing illegal about anybody’s selling it, but copies can be had for free from the Coast Guard.) The hull lines appear to be the set that was prepared in the early nineties by the Coast Guard in conjunction with a major overhaul of the ship; I’m pretty sure they’re based on direct measurements, and are therefore accurate. The simpler sailplan appears to be one of the surviving German drawings of the Horst Wessel, and therefore are also reliable - insofar as they depict her as-built configuration. I don’t have any way of knowing what the other two sheets are.
This looks to me like a package of plans somebody ordered from either the CG Historian’s Office or the CG Museum in Seattle. The plans are fine, but there probably are cheaper ways to get them.
Thanks John, I appreciate you reviewing them.
Since they’re not going cheap (relatively speaking) I might just wait until I hear from the CG Historian’s office.
Tory
In the other thread that had also sort of morphed into a discussion about a USCGC Eagle in 1/96, “Goshawk” mentioned that he was thinking about looking into the feasability of doing an Eagle in resin.
Another alternative might be fiberglas-- that way the hull would appeal to both static and RC modelers. (I’d love to build an RC model of Eagle someday…)
That’s a very good idea, although I have to admit that I just HATE working with fiberglass!
Would the R/C folks really be interested in building something that small as an R/C boat? In 1/96 scale the Eagle would be 28 7/8 inches long at the waterline with a beam of 4 7/8 inches. Isn’t that a little tight for R/C operations?
You’re right, it is bit small-- I’d probably build it as a power-only model. (I have seen the Revell Kearsarge and Alabam kits converted to RC models, and they are about the same size, so it can be done.)
The advantage to 1/96 scale is that this is a common scale for RC warships-- lots of models, hulls, and fittings are available in this scale. It would look cool in the water next to a 33 inch long Bear class cutter and a 47 inch long Hamilton. (I have a Hamilton, someone else in my RC boat club has a nice Bear.)
If I was to build her as a sailing model, I think I’d double the scale to 1/48.
Just an update for all those interested. Yesterday, a tube came in the mail from the USCG containing six sheets of plans for the Eagle. Three sheets were in 1/8" scale of the various deck plans, one sheet was in 1/100 scale of the sail and rigging with all writing in German, one sheet in no listed scale was of all the hull lines, and one enormous sheet in 1/4" scale was of a hull section showing all the decks and fittings.
Not all in the same scale, but pretty comprehensive none the less. And all for free. Kudos to the Coast Guard for their support of modelers.
Now, if I do create a 1/96-scale model kit of this ship, will I owe Blohm und Voss a royalty payment?
And more important, would anyone actually purchase it?
You certainly won’t owe Blom und Voss anything. I suspect they turned over their financial rights to the ship when they turned her over to the German Navy; in any case, all German claims to her evaporated when she was transferred to the U.S. As a U.S. government vessel, she’s now in the public domain.
If you do decide to make an Eagle kit, one of the first big decisions you’ll have to make is the date you want it to represent. She’s changed a great deal over the years. If you just offer a hull, it probably can be made sufficiently generic to represent all periods. But as soon as you start dealing with such things as deckhouses, boat gear, and spars, you’ll be into stuff that’s been conspicuously modified over a period of seventy years.
That German sail plan presumably is accurate in terms of how she was rigged originally, but she’s been altered quite a few times. The most conspicuous change involves the spanker. She originally had the distinctive, German double-gaff rig shown on that drawing. The lower gaff was removed shortly after she entered Coast Guard service. Then, sometime in (I think) the early nineties, the double-spanker rig was reinstated. (I assume the current lower gaff is a new one; I don’t know whether it has the same dimensions as the original.) When I did my drawing of her in 1994 the captain and bosun were enthusing over how much better she handled with the original spanker rig restored. I don’t know how many, if any, of the other spars are original, or whether any of their dimensions have changed.
The current set of sails also is a good bit different from the original. In addition to being made out of some modern, high-tech material, they’re put together rather like a modern racing yacht’s - with circular panels in the corners that would have looked downright bizarre to a German seaman of the thirties. The deckhouse at the break of the quarterdeck is relatively new. The boat complement, and the gear for handling it, has changed several times. And, of course, she now has the (in)famous “Coast Guard Slash” painted on her bow, and the letters “U.S. Coast Guard” on her sides. (She got the “slash” sometime in the seventies, I believe - certainly prior to the bicentennial “parade of sail” in 1976. The lettering originally read simply “Coast Guard”; the “U.S.” was added to all Coast Guard vessels and aircraft during the administration of George Bush Sr.)
I’m a little surprised the Coast Guard didn’t include a copy of my drawing in the package they sent you. (They apparently sent one to the person who was selling that set of Eagle plans on e-bay.) It depicts the ship as she looked in 1994; maybe somebody in Washington has concluded that it’s now obsolete. (I have no idea what changes she’s undergone since 1994 - but I’m sure she’s undergone some.) I don’t know whether a copy of the drawing would be of any use for your purposes, but if so I can scan it and e-mail it to you. (My scanner isn’t big enough to do it in one shot, but I can do it in two.)
I can’t honestly say I’d be interested in building a model of the Eagle; that drawing project - and the associated task of catching up with the ship, which turned out to be quite an operation - left me sort of Eagled-out. But I think it’s a great idea. She certainly deserves a genuine, high-quality kit - and (with the exception of that 1/200 Imai one, which apparently flashed across the modeling scene so quickly that few people noticed it) she’s never had one.
Good luck.
I would be very interested in a copy of your drawing John, as the more information I have on her, the better. If you wouldn’t mind scanning it, I would be very grateful. You can send it to my work email address at:
My home email is dial up and ridiculously slow. Besides, I have access to larger printers at work, so I could print you scans out on larger paper.
I don’t know when, or even if, I will do this as a kit, or how complete a kit it would be, or even at what point in her life span I would do her, but at the very least I wouldn’t mind using the information I gather to build a really nice version of the Revell kit in my stash. I built it as a kid, and have always wanted to revisit it.
Thanks.
Tory
Tory
If you contact me off line with your address I’ll mail you a print of Professor Tilleys’ drawing. I have doubles of all his prints so I’ll make one available to you if you wish. A good friend of mine(and one of the finest ship model builders in this country) contacted Bob Browning at CG headquartes this week looking for a copy of Dr. Tilley’s EASTWIND icebreaker print. The historian said the stocks of prints are all depleted and the CG museum in Seattle said likewise.
Regarding the EAGLE…I have a copy of the film of the HORST WESSEL being christened with Adolf Hitler as an participent. The film is incredibly short about 2 minutes long, black and white but of good film quality. A shipmate of mine was the sailmaster on the EAGLE when they visited Germany in the 90’s. He, along with all the wardroom folk(ship’s officers), were invited as guests to the Blohm and Voss shipyard. They were ushered into a huge boardroom that was reminesent of a hollywood movie set vision of what a “power” office would look like. Very spartan and formal. They were seated around a LONNNGG boardroom table when on some invisible command the room went dark and a large white screen dropped from the ceiling. Their German host, speaking in eloquent english, “Gentlemen, you are about to view a short film that has not been seen since 1936, the ceremony of christening the ship you now sail” . After the lights came back up the EAGLE crew meet with two former HORST WESSEL crewmen and I gather it was a pleasent affair for all concerned. As they left the board room each officer received a VHS copy of the christening film., and I was able to obtain a copy of the sailmasters tape(what are shipmates for!)
I was given a piece of the original wooden decking(by a former enlisted crewman) of the EAGLE that was torn up when the EAGLE underwent an extensive refit in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. It still has the tar caulking on each side of the wood. I hope to have it split, planed and an edge put on it. I have the Revell “EAGLE” model and the decking would make an interesting base for it. Still it creeps me out to think that Hitler may have stood on the piece that I have…
Regards
Mike M.
Goshawk - Over the weekend I sent you an e-mail with two scans of the Eagle outboard profile/sail plan as attachments. I used the office server, which is normally quite reliable. But the e-mail doesn’t show up in the “Sent Items” file. Did it come through?
Hi John,
Yes, the drawings came through just fine. I’m not sure why it doesn’t show as “sent” but then what I don’t understand about computers is a lot! I did send you a reply, hope it got there as well.
Thanks again for your help on this, I really do appreciate it.
Tory