Hi there again,
I always try to take photos of my models during building but in most times I simply forget, either because I'm to fast or simply to lazy.
But not this time. I got interested in something unusual the CSS David a 50ft. semisubmersible boat used during the civial war by the Confederates. The boat carry a "Torpedo" on a spar and it was planned that steam powererd boat should approach (at night) an enemey ship . ram it and ignite the Torpedo. The David and quite a few more more or less similar were built and used with not as much success as you might expect. The David rammed 2 ships on two different sorties, one of which was damaged and had to be send back for repairs, the other one was rammed twice but the Torpedo did not explode. A third attack on another ship had to be abandonend after the David was sighted and the enemy ship escaped. There have been no reports about other similar built boats and their missions.
Union troops captured one of these ships/boats which might have been the original David after the fall of Charleston, even if it seems that it was damaged it was repaired and brought to Washington Navy Yard to be evaluated. Another "Large David" which was 3 times as big (about 160ft) was also captured, repaired and evaluated too.
So here it is, or should I say what I have built to look like one.
When I posted a thread that I was looking for some plans, someone suggested to me to buy the Cottage Model Industry Model. I denied, not only because I knew the quality of these models (which is not that bad but neither is it that good) and I still would have to pay almost 40,-- $ plus s/p and most of all I think building a model that simple is not only a whoole lot of fun, I alos strongly believe that building something by yourself does actually improve your skills much more than "simply using a kit".
I started with an ordinary, broom stick, or what was left of it. I needed a piece about 210mm long which was cut off and tapererd on both ends by using a electrical sander, This took less than 10 minutes. When my wife saw that piece the first time, she asked me if I was planing to kill some vampires!
After that I cut out the later compartment in the "hull"
and started to cover the entire hull with small stripes of wooden veneer. This was somewhat more difficult because those clamps did not like to stand on the thing and started frequently, ultimatley unsuccessful attempts to reach a lower orbit in my hobby room.
After the last piece of wood was on the model and everything was dry, I started to sand the whole thing and polish so meticulously, I think my upper arms got somewhat bigger.
This ended, it was time to use some styrene. Of this I made the forward and aft "armour" which protected the boiler and the steam engine in the back. This armour was also used to ballast the boat so that it floated that low in the water. The stack was made of styrene too but this time I used some aluminum and solder wire for some details. The rivets on tha armor were made of styrene created with a punch & die set, The keel, the side protectors and the rudder were made of styrene too. Front and backend were covererd with tiny ammounts of copper foil. the extreme tip as well as teh back end for the propeller were made of wood. The spar is a piece of steel wire and the Torpedo itself was made of wood again. Quite a few tiny details like eyes and so were made by suing some leftover PE parts. The "cockpit-interior" was made again by using solder wire and some PE wheels.
So far I have spend almost exactly 38 hrs on the whole model, now the only thing left is some color and perhaps some wiring. I will have to make a base for the little model as well but this should be an easy job.
So I hope you like the way I did this little beauty and if there are any questions, please let me know.
Cheers René
Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz
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