We'll be providing this diagram to the judges at MosquitoCon. Points WILL BE deducted if the knots aren't exact matches.
Martin
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
Hi ACW fans,
I just found a paper kit (free download) of Azuma (Koketsu), formerly CSS Stonewall, at the following link. Paper kits are always a good starting point for a scratchbuild. http://www.geocities.jp/papercraft_etsutan/free.html
The following link is for a producer of ACW ships for combat - however it never really picked up, the penetrable area was just too small! Plus the range of ships is kinda small, 4 main categories - the ships with sails, the monitors, the confederate style rams, and the union style rams (ie cairo).
Sure there are variants of those, and blockade runners and whatnot, but within those 4 categories they all pretty much look the same - most people want more diversity.
I think you can change that lack of diversity by throwing in the hypthetical intervention of the european Great Powers in the Civil War, something which almost happened in reality due to the not-so-neutral attitude of France and Britain. The RN had a major presence of ironclads in Bermuda and France was also keeping a strong naval presence in the Carribean. Add to that the very real war between Italy and Austria (Battle of Lissa) and you get a far more interesting variety of ships. This is in fact what Skytrex has done with its 1/1200 wargaming miniatures.
Last edited by Pieter on Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Does anyone know of a plan source for the Laird Rams built for the Confederacy by John Laird & Sons & seized by the British in October 1863? I'm already thinking ahead towards how to cap off my Civil War 1/72 ironclads & thought one of these would make for an interesting subject with their twin turrets & tripod masts.
Regarding CSS Stonewall, Taubmans offers 2 sets of plans in 1/96 & 1/36 scale. It would make for an intriguing subject as well, but not sure if I'd be interested in building a model to shoot BBs into.
Chuck
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Laird Ram
HMS Wivern
"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
There's a good article + some fairly nice drawings on the Laird rams by Arnold A Putnam in the 1999-2000 issue of Warship annual. Parkes (Britsh battleships) and Brassey's Naval Annual also contain some drawings off course as they became units of the Royal Navy. According to Putnam the official drawings of Laird number 294&295 are held by the Camell Laird archives in Birkenhead (Birkenhead Town hall); location No 005/0195/039 and 005/0195/040.
I'm past the halfway point on my 1/72 Canonicus (Manhattan) & Tennessee builds am now looking forward to building a paddlewheel ironclad. I have City Class plans coming, but want to build a Confederate ironclad. Would anyone have a source for CSS Nashville plans? Verlinden offers the 1/200 resin kit, but I've not located any plans.
Regarding the Laird Rams, after trading emails with every major archive in the UK, I've come up empty handed. Birkenhead's archivist apologized saying that many of the old Laird plans had been destroyed since they were stored between asbestos sheet!
Chuck
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"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
I found a reference in an 8th grade teaching syllabus where one of the projects involved researching architectural plans for the CSS Nashville while visiting Ft. McAllister.
Here is the Georgia Parks link. http://www.gastateparks.org/net/content ... 120698.1.5
Not sure if they have the plans or not but a call might give the answer.
Sorry, but I should have posted that I was looking for the late CSS Nashville that served in the defense of Mobile. There were 2 ships of that name, the one you are referring to was a former steamer seized by the Confederates & converted as an armed cruiser / blockade runner in the first half of the war & lost in battle in February 1863.
Ironclad CSS Nashville was built in Montgomery, AL in 1863 but not fitted out until late the next year in Mobile where she served in the defense of area. Surrendered at the end of the war in May 1865. Both are interesting Confederate subjects & would for a nice RC paddle wheeler.
I've never come across any plans for the Nashville. I know when Verlinden released their kit there were many people who cried foul and said that it wasn't accurate because no plans of the ship existed. Now how they know of the inaccuracies without plans is beyond me.
There must be something out there, though, as Verlinden and Thoroughbred based their models on something. I'd suggest emailing Thoroughbred Miniatures and asking for their plan source (I can't remember the gentleman's name that runs the company, but he's very friendly) and also try emailing the Port Columbus museum and see if they have anything; if anyone does they would.
-Devin
p.s. Let me know what you think of those USS Milwaukee plans when they show up and if there's any info on who makes them. She's one of my favorite monitor designs.
p.p.s. I think people on this board would like to see a few shots of your scratch built USS Manhattan!
We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley
Since we're talking about Civil War plans, I thought I'd throw out this question: Does anyone have any idea of where I can look for plans of the gunboat USS Hunchback? She combines a few of my favorite ship subjects (Civil War warships, New York City ferries, and paddle wheelers) all in one hull and I'd love to someday do a military and civilian version of her. I've checked the usual suspects of Taubman, FDD, Maryland Silver, Plans-n-Things on eBay, but no luck.
She's a butt ugly boat, as you can see in the rendering on this page. I bet that a boat made to ferry crowds of people did make for a stable gun platform, though.
We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley
Thanks for the tip on plans - I've sent emails to all & will see what comes of it.
The Milwaukee plans are a very basic single sheet that I found on eBay from DavesDrydock. It will be good enough for my needs for what I'm doing in RC:
"1 sheet of plans 36"x23" a contract plan for the 1862 ironclad Milwaukee class: Chickasaw, Winnebago, Kickapoo, Milwaukee prepared from the records of the bureau of ships. 229ft long 26ft beam. I also carry plans for Arkansas, Cario, Monitor, Essex, Merrimack, Albemarle, Canonicus, Atlanta & Marietta."
USS Hunchback looks to be an interesting subject & would make a nice model, especially with that beam engine. Even if you can't locate plans, it shouldn't be too hard to draw those up yourself using what reference material that's available. Try looking over at the Paddleducks site where you'll find some double ender plans.
Chuck
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"China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
herrmill wrote:Sorry, but I should have posted that I was looking for the late CSS Nashville that served in the defense of Mobile. There were 2 ships of that name, the one you are referring to was a former steamer seized by the Confederates & converted as an armed cruiser / blockade runner in the first half of the war & lost in battle in February 1863.
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Just to follow-up on the above about the USS Hunchback. I haven't found anything further on her specifically, but the gentleman who did the 3D model I linked to above sent me this photo. Also, at Chuck's suggestion that I checked the Paddle Ducks site, I found a fellow that makes a paper model of a converted ferry gunboat. The model is of the Commodore Perry, which was a bit smaller than the Hunchback, but very similar in appearance.
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We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley
