G'day Bruce and '109',
Sorry for the delay in responding to you Bruce, The Plans are from Loyalhanna Dockyard through Taubmans Plans, here is the link to the plans The Bombardier and I bought..
http://www.taubmansonline.com/DMMONITOR.htmWe bought the detailed plans at 1:48 drawn by David J. Meagher in 1992. They seem good and show a lot of detail... as for the accuracy, well, there are so few pics out there of the real thing and the original blueprints seem impossible to get a copy of. It has been 18 months and 2 seperate emails from the Bombardier and myself and we are still waiting for a response from the National Archives who claimed to have the original plans of the Monitor... So I hope my interpretation will do the old girl justice.
109, I liked the pics, they look great. I hope our girls look as good on the water. If I had my time over, I would definitely build out of Brass. It has been a job with the very thin aluminium cans.
I have done a wee bit the last couple of weeks, when I had a chance to get some lathe work done I turned the barrels (all 4 of them) out of mild steel. Just have to slide the trunnion pins through and set the elevating screws. Intend to blue and temper the guns so they don't rust. Here are the pics.
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File comment: Close up of the Dahlgren Gun
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File comment: Size is right to plan
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File comment: All 4 guns, trunnion pin and screw materials
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Now, after it all going far too well, yes I had a problem... got a bit excited with the press and one of the guns!!!! Ooops!
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File comment: When it all goes wrong
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This caused me to have to make a 5th gun, but if one of the girls goes down, I can always do a memorial plaque on the side of the lake with the squished gun....