C.S.S. Arkansas built to my usual ‘based upon’ system but looking the part all the same
It was somehow inevitable that as soon as my ACW naval project started to head inland from the Gulf of Mexico that at some point the famous Confederate ironclad the C.S.S. Arkansas would feature. To be honest she has presented me with a couple of dilemmas. The construction and paint job were simple enough but I had to make some significant decisions before attempting either! She has been described as having vertical sides and also that she was ‘painted’ a brown hue to help camouflage her alongside the banks of the river. To be honest my own feeling is a that she, along with the rest of the Confederate ironclads probably had a healthy coating of rust anyway - paint was in short supply - so daubing mud all over her as well would have certainly helped to hide her.
A historical tradition cannot be easily cast aside and so I decided that she would be ‘muddy’ looking albeit in a controlled and tidy fashion! The colour I used for this was Humbrol Matt 26 - Khaki - and very nice it is as well. It has a very slight orange tinge to it, implying a degree of rust which is handy.
I also opted for vertical sides rather than sloped which makes her stand out from the rest of the rebel ironclads - I am not sufficiently well informed to say if this is correct or not - and so she certainly looks quite intimidating.
She will be going into action over the next week or so as I have a hankering to get another game in. I also have some of the opposition she fought - U.S.S. Essex I am looking at you!
She is also significant in another way in that she is the 30th ship model I have built since starting this construction programme back in September last year. Thirty ships in six months is not really anything to write home about but allowing for the fact I have been honing my building technique pretty much as I go it is not bad at all! Ideally I would like to have the ACW and the Russo Turkish collection completed by the end of June - and that includes the Royal Navy.
Best I get a move on then!
9 comments:
David,
I think that this is the best of your models to date.
Well done!
All the best,
Bob
Hello there Bob,
Thank you old chap! It is probably a little on the tidy looking side but I am pleased with how she turned out.
She will be in action in a few days so watch this space!
All the best,
DC
Very much enjoying the continuing adventures of your battles and ship building. Its amazing to me how you put these ships together from parts. On the table they look the part. They look outstanding and your games look fun.
Thank you for posting these and I look forward to more.
Hello there Mark,
Many thanks old chap - much appreciated! I have always enjoyed putting things together from odd items and this current building frenzy is no exception. The games are working out well and using the larger models really makes the action ‘pop’.
I hope to be doing these for some time to come and in fact reckon I have around a year’s worth of work to keep me busy!
All the best,
DC
Quote from Lieut G.W. Gift, CSN:
'Down they came, steaming slowly and steadily, and seemed to be on the lookout for us. But they had miscalculated their time. The darkness which which partially shrouded them from the view of the army gunners, completely shut us out from their sight, inasmuch as our sides were the colour of rust, and we lay under a red bank; consequently the first notice they had of our whereabouts came from our guns as they crossed our line of fire, and then it was too late to attempt to check up and undertake to grapple with us.' (Quoted from J. Thos. Scharf: 'History of the Confederate States Navy'.
I suspect the Arkansas armour was not painted, but left in its natural colour: rust red/brown. The impression I have is that the Union fleets came down during the late afternoon, the sun close to, if not actually, setting, which would have put the right bank of the Mississippi in darkness; but lit up the reddish Arkansas and the reddish riverbank close under which the vessel lay, such as to make the vessel indistinguishable from its surroundings. If in fact the sun had gone down by then, much the same problems of visibility would apply.
Hi David.
Such pictures of the Arkansas I can find indicate that the side armour did have some slope to it. Here's a quote from J. Thos. Scharf:
'The bow was made sharp, and her stem (sic) tapered, so as to permit the waters to close readily behind her. ...' Now, although 'stem' does have a nautical meaning, associated with the bow of a vessel, I suspect here it is a misprint for 'stern', which seems to make more sense in association with the remainder of the sentence.
In my own attempt to make the Arkansas I gave it pointy bow and stern. Although I was sufficiently dissatisfied with this to remove them, I now think I probably had it after all near on correct.
I do like your Arkansas, though, and absent any really good pic or plan of the original, it is as 'right' as any other model I've seen.
Cheers,
Ion
Hello there Archduke,
Many thanks for the quotes from the Confederate States Navy book - it is one I would like to track down if I can and assuming I do not have to sell body parts to finance it! As an aside I really need to dig into Battles and Leaders as well as Mahan’s Gulf and Inland Waters volume.
Arkansas caused me no end of difficulty as to how to build and finish her - due in part to the contradictory information we have about her or at least what I have about her. In retrospect I believe she would probably have had a slight slope to the side armour of the casemate but as it was only slight could have easily be described as ‘near vertical’ (compared to the other Confederate ironclads) which over time became just ‘vertical’. I opted for vertical so as to make her appear quite distinct.
As far as the colour is concerned then rust would probably rule the roost but even then you would have varying degrees of rust and therefore colour so the end result could feasibly be something that was very patchy looking and with the clearer areas plastered with mud to help further with her camouflage. The colour I opted for was Humbrol Matt 26 which is Khaki. When I applied the first coat it dried quite patchy which actually look rather effective. It would have looked even better over a grey undercoat. The shade of Khaki I used does have a very slight orange tinge to it so I thought ‘well that is the rust and the mud taken care of!’ The second coat was far more even and so now looks like a uniform shade of rust - at a certain stage of its evolution - or mud or even both! Historically I do not believe she was painted brown - the likelihood of there being sufficient quantities of brown paint lying around would seem remote - but that she was ‘camouflaged’ on an ad hoc basis.
When all is said and done my entire ACW scratch built collection has been built on what I call the ‘Hollywood Disclaimer’ basis - they are all ‘based upon’ rather than strictly detailed and accurate museum quality models. There have also been a lot of compromises made in order to build them, primarily due to my modelling technique having a pathological aversion to dealing with curved lines! Having said that I am throughly enjoying building and using them and am pleased that so many people have enjoyed my journey with them thus far.
As always I thank you for your comments old chap - they are very much appreciated!
All the best,
DC
Hi David -
The Battles and Leaders (Vol III) account of the 'CSS Arkansas' was written by Lieut Isaac Brown himself, the commander of the vessel. It is a good read, though fairly brief. He states, by the way, that the casemate shields were set at 35-degrees. He should know: he oversaw the construction of it.
I have always found the short career of the Arkansas to be one of the most stirring events of the Civil War.
Cheers,
Ion
Hello there Archduke,
I read the passage and see it slightly differently. Brown mentioned that the casemate was a box with straight sides and that the ends were 35 degrees. Other than stating ‘flat sides’ there does not seem to be any further detail about the shape. This could mean anything really!
Until they dig the wreck out from the levee I guess we are not going to know exactly but you are absolutely right about her career being quite a stirring event! I might try and run a game based on her run through the fleet or something similar. I will be building the Union timberclads and a U.S.S. Richmond in due course.
I really must dive into Battles and Leaders - there is so much potential in there!
All the best,
DC
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