Confederate Gunboats on patrol
Above are the three cotton clad gunboats I have built for the Confederates - they are the last ships I am building for the South in this current batch of models. I have built them using my usual technique for side wheel steamers with the only difference being the 'arrow head' style superstructure rather than the more common 'cheese wedge'. This means that the Confederates can field 9 casemate ironclads and 9 assorted ram/gunboats types. When complete the Union will have a similar composition but numbers are deceptive as the Rebels will never have more than one or possibly two ironclads on the table at the same time whereas the Union routinely used squadrons of gunboats.
The deck guns are, as usual, from Peter Pig and they really make the models stand out - I am looking forward to giving these their coat of paint in due course.
The ships of the Confederate River Defence Fleet - a selection of cotton clad rams and gunboats.
I have said many times that I have really enjoyed the building aspect of this project and this continues to be an undeniable fact. So much so, that I will be sorry to take a break from construction when the last two Union ships are finished! I have a number of other building projects under consideration but once these are completed I plan to 'go ashore' for a while and work on some land based stuff for a change.
I will post a fleet review of all 36 models before the paint job commences and this will be the last time they will be seen in their natural form. I will not be posting any pictures of them whilst they are being painted either - they are designed to be viewed en masse and so showing them off in ones and twos will defeat the object somewhat!
The last 2 models for this phase of the collection are under construction as I was able to cut out and shape the hulls last night. These are the USS Tuscumbia and USS Chillicothe with the former being a large side wheeler of similar size to the USS Benton. I am going to press on to get these two finished for the close of play on Sunday and with three nights to work in should manage this barring any unexpected events.
2 comments:
Great to see the fantastic progress continues - and I see you are going to keep us in suspenders waiting for the photos of the completed fleets - you will have us all biting our nails until they appear - personally, though, i am sure they will be well worth waiting for.....
One other thing though - do be careful about how you title your Blog posts - I thought on first reading that the whole d*rned navy had been destroyed in a freak Essex-based Hurricane event - gone with the wind indeed!
Hi SoS,
I have nearly finished the Tuscumbia and the Chillicothe is next so am on track for the Sunday finish. Sorry about the title! I will be more careful next time!
All the best,
DC
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