'Ole Man River....he just keeps rollin' along....

Ellet Rams steaming in a loose formation preparing to engage the Rebels.

Huzzah!! The latest batch of seven models for the ACW naval project have been completed (well built anyway). The first picture of four ships is my interpretation of a typical side wheel steamer as used as the basis for the ships of the Ellet Ram Fleet. I had already made three of these and the newest addition is in the bottom right of the picture - I just wanted to see how they looked en masse.

USS Switzerland and USS Lancaster on patrol.

The next pair are my interpretation of the USS Switzerland and the USS Lancaster. These two ships appear to have had an extra deck added hence the extra height. Note the use of the cut plastic angle from the Mega Blok building brick I have used to endure that the angles at the front of the superstructure are constant. there should be more gun ports along the side as well as a 'flaring' from the paddle boxes but I have not bothered with this!

The Queen of the West times two!

The next pair of models are my two copies of the steamer The Queen of the West. I have made two copies of her simply because she, like the General Price in my earlier post, served in both navies. Like most of the ships of this era, there are a number of different interpretations of exactly what she looked like so this is a reasonable compromise. Again, you can see the plastic former I used for the front of the superstructure.

The USS Vindicator on the lookout for the CSS Webb

The USS Vindicator (what an inspiring name!)was a sidewheel ram and featured in the pursuit of the final model from this batch - the enigmatic CSS Webb.

The CSS Webb preparing for her epic flight from the Yankees.

The final model from this batch is the CSS Webb. She was a very mysterious ship (as well as one of the longest surviving ships the Confederates possessed) and the only illustration of her I have been able to find was a line drawing from the civil war era newspaper Harper's Weekly that shows her in flames after having been set fire to by her crew. The only details I could make out for certain was that she had an angled superstructure at the front with a single gun port as well as a single funnel - the rest is pure speculation. One thing in her favour though was that she was fast and had fairly good engines which was rare for most of the Confederate navy!

These have taken longer than I expected simply because of the lack of time I have had due to work but having said that, I am quite pleased with the way they have turned out. The variety of side wheelers is self evident and so in order to complete the full spectrum of river water craft I would really like to try my hand at some stern wheelers....but not just yet!

I am now clear for the weekend and so can concentrate of the labels for my C and C Napoleonics.