The Ship Model Forum

Gentlemen,
[attachment=0]20221001_145315.jpg[/attachment]
I give you CSS Arkansas and USS Carondelet in glorious 1/700 scale. These are posed on a printed pdf. of the actual Yazoo river,
depicted just after Arkansas' Captain Isaac Brown had bested classmate Henry Walke's command, that sultry summer day in 1862. This can be emailed to interested buyers and printed on glossy photo paper to add interest and authenticity.
I build every kit I make, so I do my best to include things that make the models more fun and/or easier to build.

https://tlarmodels.com/ols/products/tlar-models-1700-1862-yazoo-river-dogfight-duo-css-arkansas-vs-uss-carondelet

Now, there is a Hungarian (?) company that makes an incredible 1/700 Eads Federal Navy ironclad model kit. Their detail exceeds my own American efforts as do their shipping costs. There is also Chinese-made 1/700 scale version of CSS Arkansas that could not be more inaccurate, but as always you get to make up your own mind.

Sean Hert pointed me to that article yesterday. Very interesting. It's nothing I've heard of before, but that doesn't mean anything. I have the catalog book of drawings mentioned in the article, and I likely can have access to the original drawing in the Steven's Institute collection, so I'm going to have to look into this further. Always amazing how new information can be turned up over a century and a half later.

An interesting article from USNI's Naval History Magazine that argues Monitor had a short-lived boxy armoured shield attached to the area around its gunports during the engagement at Hampton Roads: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2024/april/new-look-old-icon

Suggests the artifact on display at the Naval Academy is actually this temporary shield, and numerous contemporary written sources refer to this shield.

JoeP,

I've read about the Brown Water Navy ironclads, but haven't purchased any of them. I do like the Thoroughbred ships, though. I have photos of their USS Monitor and USS Essex that I built, adding detail as you did, on my website: [url=http://www.devinjpoore.com/models.html]http://www.devinjpoore.com/models.html[/url]

-Devin

I don't see any mention in this thread or in a search, so I'm noting that Brown Water Navy on Shapeways has a broad range of small scale ironclads:

[url]https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mglawson?li=pb[/url]

I haven't ordered any yet, so I don't know how they come, or how the compare to Thoroughbred. I've built the Passaic from the latter, adding details to take it from wargaming to a proper little representative.

JoeP

Great ,then will try leaded red color ,or a mix of red chocolate color with pencil powder .

Thanks again for your help Devin :thumbs_up_1:

I honestly don't know what the lower hull would be like on her. She was converted from a merchant steamer, so I assume it would've been however the hulls for those type ships were done. I've read of some ships being left bare wood, some traditional copper, and some with the lead paint, either red, white, or sometimes a green. I just checked Canney's "The Old Steam Navy" and it doesn't address the lower hull materials at all, only saying that, after conversion, the lower hull and paddle wheel boxes were the only things left of the original ship.

OMG , that Choctaw is truly a masterpiece and 1/96 is BIG!!!

Thank You for the link ,then those cool ships were painted ,I thought they were left natural metal , but the shade of the paint in Rene's Choctaw looks blueish tone similar to the Tamiya Kure paint ,the panzer grey is more darker,

Anyway ,a great reference ,I got the FB model pictures of Rene ,a great reference indeed, and Devin , just if possible to ask ,how those vessel were painted in the hull, same grey and below waterline anti foul red ? Can You give me any suggestion please? I am planning a full hull build.

Yeah, I think that gray, and have some German Grey XF-63 on hand, and give some mixing experiments and weathering between the two.

If you're on Facebook, check out Rene Hieronymus. He did a 1/72nd scale scratch build of Choctaw recently. Very nice build, great paint and weathering, and it's in a river bank water diorama that's simply amazing: https://tinyurl.com/yb25bha9 One photo below.

[quote="Devin"]
I have a little experience with the Gunze Sanyo paints. In my opinion their metallic nature is going to be too strong in this scale, and that would be assuming that she was unpainted, bare metal. I've not found any mention of an unpainted ironclad.

Hope that's of some help.[/quote]


Thanks Devin ,much appreciated ,Ok I thought those vessels were not painted ,and that's why assumed to use natural color metal paints ,like the iron and gunmetal, then darker grey paints can do the job .So for an example a Tamiya panzer grey XF54 can do the job o if there else any suitable paint for the USS Navy Ironclads in the Civil War?

regards

For the Choctaw, you're pretty safe going with a dark gray/black. There aren't may photos of her, and what few there are suggest that she was painted those colors. There's one shot of her that leads me to believe that she MAY at one point have been painted a lighter gray -- many western river ironclads were, as a heat reflecting measure -- but most of the photos make her look pretty dark gray to black.

I have a little experience with the Gunze Sanyo paints. In my opinion their metallic nature is going to be too strong in this scale, and that would be assuming that she was unpainted, bare metal. I've not found any mention of an unpainted ironclad.

Hope that's of some help.

Future plans I have is a very interesting warship, and as I never built something close ,wish to ask some advice .
It is the USS Choctaw 1863 resin model in 1/350 scale from Ropo's (ex Samek)Models,this little fellow is packed with lots of detail and IMHO is a quite simple and straight forward build,my main concern is the paint to use,honestly I don't have any experience in this type of vessel, and will appreciate any info about which paint to use and the appropriate colors. May main concern is using the new Gunze Sanyo Metal paints,has anyone experience with those?
Thanks in advance

https://youtu.be/m1t_PtrT5GY

Thanks! Samek kit has the sloped sides on the pilot house, so it is probably a later state. Then I will probably just go on as it OOB, as I just want to get back to 1/350 ships after some 5 years doing either RC or 1/700 or aircrafts ;)

Pretty much everything on deck was stripped away for battle, boats left behind. Going into battle she basically only had the turret, the pilot house, and maybe some bitts/chocks mounted. I haven't seen the Samek kit for some time, so don't remember, but for the battle the pilot house forward should be a block/cube, not the later slope-sided version.

Monitors little square smokestack trunking was removable.
Go here you can find more information.
[url]http://www.monitorcenter.org[/url]

I am toying an idea to build USS Monitor in 1/350 as my next project, first after a larger break. I got the ROP Samek kit in my stash. I want to build here as in combat with CSS Virginia, maybe even as a small 2 ship diorama. But I am not sure if the kit shows the Monitor appropriately for the battle:

The kit has the railing on the turret roof with a sun shade. Most paintings show none...
Small smokestacks, boat and similar gears on the deck - once more, no such things on the paintings....

Most paintings also show it in black, but some in grey...

Was it so that all these devices were removed before combat? Were these later additions?

Cool pic, and a great find.

USS Onondaga spent her brief US Navy career blockading Richmond as part of the James River. In 1867 the US Navy sold her to France, where she served under the name Onondaga as a harbor defense ship in Brest until the turn of the century. She was eventually scrapped. I had only found one picture of Onondaga in French service, until now. In researching French warships, I discovered the French have a Reserve Fleet location on the L'Aulne River river at Landevennec. The river has a broad bend, sheltered by the point, with sufficient depth for an anchorage. In 1903, Onondaga was put in lay up (or "ordinary" to use the US Navy term at the time) in this location as depicted in a post card image, which can be found in this French forum - http://forum.netmarine.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2538&sid=a39ea797401d8720da1f90ed1dfe40d2

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=6970361904ONONDAGATAGEMAGELLANSFAXSEMIRAMISexVICTORIEUSElandevennec.jpg

I would love to find more pictures, but for now I am very excited by this find.

For those that've been asking about David Meagher's plans/drawings, he's resurfaced! He says drop him a line at csstennessee@gmail.com and he can accommodate you. I recommend buying direct from him if you can, as he ships direct prints, not copies like Taubman Plans, and his prices are better, too.

Devin,

Thanks for the information. I have always had a fascination for the Keokuk -- even in an era of quirky warship design, the Keokuk stood out.

Best regards,

Ken