ACW Naval Endgame….Part 2

U.S.S. Sassacus - a ‘double ended’ gunboat - a lovely looking model which my own version will be (very) loosely based upon!

The central box like structure is what has caused a minor delay (actually the second minor delay but hey ho!) as the version I have is slightly too large.

Yesterday evening I spent a short while up in the man cave working on some of the remaining ACW models. The theme for the evening was largely funnels and pilot houses as for all of the models currently under construction these items needed to be made. Funnels are easy as all I do is to cut off a suitable length of dowel rod of the appropriate width and file the ends flush. These are then mounted on a craft stick for sealing, undercoating and painting - usually a uniform black.

Pilot houses are essentially box like structures but a long running problem I have had - and it is one of those that would be really easy to remedy except that I never seem to think of it - is that I do not possess any square shaped rod to cut them off in a similar way to the funnels. My solution is to merely stick two strips of basswood together and cut off the pilot houses as required. With careful sanding the ‘join’ usually disappears and sealing, paint and varnish do the rest.

Neither of these phases are difficult to accomplish but for whatever reason I had not gotten around to it. Having done so it means that nine models can now be completed in the short term with a further four being further along the production line.

One small problem did occur though. If you recall I had ordered from Warbases the revised hull templates for the Union double ended gunboats. Due to a misunderstanding I had to reorder the lower level hull template - the one that is the first layer of the hull. At present these are still in the postal system so I thought I would make a start on the upper hull. For this particular model the hull is quite simple in that the central superstructure essentially forms a box that encloses the paddle wheel. The only problem is that the ‘box’ piece is slightly too large. My schoolboy error in this case was using the wrong size hull to make the new templates from. The error is very small but to correct it would require some careful filing on both sides of the hull which I am not really sold on doing. As it happens I do need something else from Warbases so may well opt to design the correctly sized piece instead. Entirely my own fault - I should have paid more attention when getting the order together!