1/192 Arkansas Class Monitor

[Chris E.]

First off, let me give a huge thanks to the likes of ARH and Bill W. and all the other scratchbuilders here for the inspiration, tips and techniques needed for me to get off my duff and tackle this project. I'm starting small ; a 1/192 scale Arkansas class monitor. These are my first project posts, so here goes nothing...

The hull form is foamboard, I'll laminate sheet styrene to this for decks, hull and bulkheads. It's a deep waterline hull so that I will be able to place her in a seascape, underway...

The smaller model is ISW's 1/350 version. Just for reference.

The turret is from the same mold as those for my USS Michigan project, obviously in the same scale. I'll start a seperate thread for that build once it's a little farther along...

[Dave Wooley]

Hello Chris this is a really interesting build and welcome to the board. Both ARH and Bill have given so much in time and effort in explaining the techniques used in their builds and it's great that you have benefited from this. Look forward to seeing more of Arkansas as you progress.
Dave Wooley

[Yevgeniy]

Chris!

Great choice of ship as we do not see many of them How did you laminate drawing on plastic deck? Paper glued by CA glue? Thanks in advance and good luck with your build.

Yevgeniy

[Chris E.]

I think that these being an often overlooked subject is one of the reasons I chose this particular vessel. Could you imagine crossing the Pacific on this vessel, with such little freeboard?... It was done, during the Spanish-American War.

The paper was just tacked on to the foam with a few drops of CA to get the form. I removed it before laying the scribed sheet. I used 30minute epoxy to laminate the sheet styrene to the foam.

Update; I've got the decks and sides laid up in styrene, more pics coming soon!

[Chris E.]

OK. She's starting to take shape. The deck is .040 v-groove. The sides are .020 sheet.







I'll post more soon.

[johnny canuck]

I will claim ignorance in not knowing the US had monitors such as this. Very cool ship.(and build)

[Chris E.]

See, I said they were obscure! Johnny, go to http://www.navsource.org and look under Battleships then "Post Civil War Era Monitors" and that will tell you much. This particular class mounted 2-12" guns in the same type turret that the US Predreads of the era carried plus an assortment of 4" and 6 pounder secondaries. They were shallow draft and had about three or four feet of freeboard...

Here's a line drawing showing what I'm going for...

U.S. Naval Historical Center #NH61879

...and here's a picture. These ships were originally named after states and then renamed to make way for the Battleships use of said state names.

National Archives, courtesy of Dan Treadwell.

Pictures are courtesy of Navsource.org

[Bill Waldorf]

Very interesting subject! Love the turrent. The ship sure does sit low in the water. Great job, glad you found some of my stuff helpful. Look forward as to your progress!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good choice of subject!

I shall be watching this one!!

JIM B

[Chris E.]

Thank you both. Bill, I've found your builds EXTREMELY helpful. Your posts, as well as others here were able to answer questions I never even considered asking!!! I am truly surrounded by master builders here! The master for the turret was actually my first scratchbuilding project, several years ago. I built that, cast several copies, fabricated the Michigans armored conning tower, started the hull and promptly lost steam and headway on the project. (Bit off more than I could chew...) The Arkansas is now my primer for scratchbuilding in large (for me) scale. The hull of the Michigan is starting to look good instead if intimidating... Jim, I might need to import one or two of your pet spiders... And maybe your parts-shrinking ray as well.

Here's an update:


The barrels are made from aluminum and brass tube that came from the parts box...
I now know the sliding hatches aren't prototypical but they add so much to the turret top that I can't bring myself to remove them...


I turned the stack on my mini-lathe last night. It is aluminum. The upper deck is .040 scribed sheet.


Next, The conning tower, wheelhouse and the 1001 fiddly little detail pieces that bring a model to life...

[Chris E.]

Just a quick progress report...


The bow is beginning to take shape...


Superstructure beginning to look like it should...


Next week I'll place an order for PE railing and other tidbits.
This build has shown me one thing... I really do enjoy scratchbuilding! And I think I'm ready to tackle the USS Michigan, as commissioned, also in 1/192 scale, just as soon as I finish this one...

[Devin]

Chris,

Love the subject matter and your approach. Looking forward to more of this.

-Devin

[kennylibben]

Great looking build, glad to finally see some white and buff on this board!

[Chris E.]

Yes Kenny, I agree, we need more Great White Fleet action here! But... I've had a friend commission me to do a 1/720 CVN-65 Enterprise for him. When I asked him what era and fit, his response was, "The day before the fire". So, 13Jan 1969 it is. Luckily I've the room to keep two slipways in use at the same time... I'll work on this one when I can but the paying job will come first... I'm not abandoning this one, just putting it on the back burner for now. I'll post updates as I can...

[AlainFR]

Hello Chris

I want to know at where is your work on the Arkansas?

Alain

[Chris E.]

AlainFR, First off, thank you very much for your interest in this project. It's good to know others have similar interests. I haven't had a chance to work on the Arkansas lately as life has an annoying way of interrupting things. I didn't get a chance to do much more than what you see before I had to put this project aside for a bit. I've had some medical issues in the last two years; I'm fighting a chronic muscle disease and when it fights back, anything requiring fine dexterity just doesn't get done. I'm hoping to resume construction on her here real soon. I'll be sure to post progress reports as soon as I can.

Cheers!
Chris