Friday 28 January 2011

'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.

2 comments:

El Grego said...

As a former rivet counter I think she looks great!

David Crook said...

Hi EG,

Thanks for kind words - I am pleased with the final outcome although it was quite a challenge! I hope to add detail during the painting but the one thing that has struck me though is how little we know for sure about some of these ships. In many cases a best guess is about as good as it gets! I am now really keen to get on with some models as when the first batch of 24 are built I shall be taking the brush to them.

All the best,

DC