They are finally ready, just in Case,mate....

At long last (and courtesy of the inclement weather and the stinking cold I am suffering from) I have finished the construction of the five casemate ironclads for use with Bob Cordery's 1860 to 1870 variant of Memoir of Battle at Sea. I used balsa wood for the hull and funnels and as the core to which the casemate panels were anchored. The casemate itself was made from craft sticks (large size) which are made from a much harder wood and so are more durable. The hatches, gun ports and the pilot houses were made from strip plastic supplied from Model Zone. The next step will be to seal the surface and then base the models prior to painting.

I am really pleased with these models and whilst they will undoubtedly offend the purist they are suitable gaming pieces and have been relatively inexpensive. I had to purchase the raw materials for construction which came in at around £20 all in. For five models that probably does not seem great value but the sheer quantity of building material I have acquired means that I will be able to build a couple of dozen extra models easily so the unit cost will come down dramatically.

I opted to model these on a generic basis rather than specific historical vessels and so I have built a large ship, two medium sized and two small versions. I will tackle some Cairo class gunboats next and then the part of the project I am most looking forward to - the assorted side wheel gunboats and rams.