Almost finished now, time for the flags!
The Squadron/Encore kit came with flags printed on paper.
They were correct 45 star US national flags and jacks, well printed and accurate, but they were also very big. Photos of Olympia indicate that she sometimes showed an extra large US flag when in port, but I thought it might look a little toylike on a scale model. I’m also not a big fan of printed paper as a medium for model flags since their inks tend to flake off when the flags are being formed with waves... so I opted instead to use HO-scale US flags from Microscale (set MC-4202). Intended for model trains, these water slide decals offered a number of size options which I thought looked more realistic. The colors were also more vividly printed. Unfortunately, they were also 50 star flags, so I had to fudge accuracy a bit! The pattern is: 45 star – 1st, 3rd, 5th rows: 8 stars; 2nd, 4th, 6th rows: 7 stars. The 50 star pattern is a little different – 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th rows: 6 stars; 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th rows: 5 stars. Luckily, there isn’t all that much visual difference between the two:
The size of the US national flag on the model also helps: at 7 X 12 millimeters, the flag is pretty small, and after compressing it even more with the waves, those stars become pretty darned hard to see, much less count! Anyway, I decided I could live with it.
To form the flag, I applied the decals to either side of a piece of aluminum kitchen foil (the heavier-duty kind). When they were dry I trimmed the excess foil away, leaving a tiny decal/foil/decal sandwich. I then carefully formed the “waving in the wind” pattern of undulations on the flag with a round toothpick. It was then mounted to the brass wire flagstaff at the stern with Gator Glue. The exposed silver foil edges of the flag were touched up with red and blue paint, and since the flag decals were glossy I went over the ensign with a thin brushed-on coating of Testor’s Dullcote. This last bit was actually the trickiest part of the operation, since I discovered on my first attempt that the lacquer based Dullcote can melt the colors off the delicate decals if applied too liberally! I got it right on the second try though.
The union jack at the bow was made from the blue field and stars section cut from a second national flag. Like the national ensign it has five stars too many... but at 3 X 4 millimeters the jack is small enough that I don’t think very many people will be counting the stars!
I added the Admiral's flag and commissioning pennant seen flying from the mainmast next. George Dewey was appointed Admiral of the Navy (4 Star) on March 2, 1899, so the presence of his personal flag places the model between that date and November 8, 1899, when the ship was temporarily decommissioned for overhaul (when the torpedo tubes and observation posts were removed, the hawsepipes relocated, and the federal shield on the bow replaced with ornate gilt scrollwork). The Admiral’s flag was from a wonderful US Naval Signal Flags and Pennants decal set by the now-defunct Dunagain Decals (I wish I had bought more of these sets when they were available several years ago – I use them for nearly every project, and they are steadily running out!) It was formed in the same way as the other flags.
Finally, I added the ship’s commissioning pennant just above Admiral Dewey’s flag. The commissioning pennant is flown by all US Navy and Coast Guard ships at all times on while in commission, but for some reason it is a detail omitted from most ship models. It was made from yet another national flag from the Microscale flag set. In this case I simply trimmed off the top two stripes and adjacent bit of blue field to make the narrow pennant.
The Olympia build has been a long haul, but with the addition of the flags, I guess it’s time to put this one to bed!
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