'Indianola wants me, Lord I can't go back there....'

At long last and after much frustration, I have FINALLY finished the USS Indianola! She was a real pain to put together simply because of the small casemate forward - I have learned that making these on the model rather than off it is not a good idea when your basic construction technique relies heavily on, what I would term, 'aggressive filing'!

The central core of the casemate was a carefully cut and shaped two spot 'Mega Blok' which is a cheaper version of Lego but is made from a far better (for modelling purposes anyway) plastic. I shall use this idea going forward as now I have gone through the teething troubles of this technique it will be useful for some other models I have in mind.

Everything else was the usual balsa wood and craft sticks with the odd piece of plastic card where needed.

The biggest problem I experienced though was trying to establish exactly what the ship looked at. I was working from three sources, each of which was different in some way so in many respects the model is very much a compromise 'artists interpretation'. The final result will, as with my other models, probably have the rivet counters reaching for the tranquilisers but she is close enough for my purposes and does look quite impressive; albeit it larger than I would have liked. The paddle boxes were made in the fashion you see rather than the casemated version simply because a/ I had misinterpreted a picture I had seen of the ship (actually a line drawing), b/ they were easier to make and finally c/ the style was used on some later Union ships so I can claim (probably without justification!) that this was an earlier experiment in the technique!

Indianola-esque is probably a better description of her but she is fine for my uses in any event so USS Indianola she will remain.

On with the next batch then and with a surprise or two appearing in the casemate ironclad refurbishment agenda - more of which later.