by David Griffith
1/700 USS Chicago CA-14 (Combrig)
This is my model of the protected cruiser USS Chicago, built from the Combrig 1/700 resin kit.
This is a delightful model of a rather elegant little ship. In typical Combrig style, there is very fine detailing and very little in the way of construction “issues.”
The resin masts were replaced with brass rod, tapered by putting into a pin chuck and attacking with a file.
The kit contained no photo-etch, so railings, ladders and assorted little twiddly bits came from frets by Gold Medal and White Ensign.
The rigging was the potentially most challenging part of the model. Most people would tend to use the photo-etched shrouds & ratlines produced by “Mad” Peter Hall, under the name Atlantic Models. I chose to use fine copper wire for the shrouds and “Caenis” thread for the ratlines, glued to the shrouds with stationer’s gum.
The rest of the rigging was done with “Caenis” thread or nylon cord teased out to individual fibres, again stuck with stationer’s gum (mucilage in US parlance).
The prominent anchor chains were represented by braiding fine copper wire, stripped from the core of high quality speaker cable. If I remember, it was just a plain three strand plait, as per a schoolgirl’s pigtail. But a more effective appearance may be obtained with a somewhat more fiddly, four strand square sinnet. “Ashley Book of Knots”, diagram 2999, page 493.
I wanted the diorama to show the bustling activity that might be seen around a ship with lots of small boats, such as is seen in old photographs.
The signal flags, painted on cigarette paper, are A-B, for Alexa Baumann, Jim’s daughter. In consequence this model is now part of Jim’s collection.
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