Howdy All-who-may-be-interested...

As I said in some previous posts {haven't really been around lately}, one of my present , large-scale, scratchbuilding projects is a Civil War 'Ironclad' boat, namely the Union Navy ship, the USS Choctaw. I have built this project in 1/87th scale, or railroad HO scale which allows me to build the vessel in a scale that is large, but managable and pretty close to 'museum' scale.

I have included some photos {below} of what I have built so far to show you what meager progress I have made. As you can see, I have built a 'waterline' version of the ship and built up all of the main superstructure out of multi-layered sheets of MDF board. What you see in the pics is the main/major form of the basic ship. I still have to add a central pyramidal (sp?) pylon that will support the wheelhouse, and the two, rather tall smoke stacks. Plus cutting out all of the cannon apetures in the casemate, and all of the window openings in the crew area between the armoured paddlewheel housings.
The entire thing {once smoothed and finished to my liking} will be clad in sheet styrene to simulate the actual iron 'cladding' that gave these boats their moniker.....

As usual, any and all comments would be warmly appreciated........

here's the pics;

This is a view of the Union ship USS Lafayette to give you an idea of what the actual ship looked like. The USS Coctaw and the lafayette were almost identical.....



Here is a right front view of what I have built so far .......



and here is a plan view......



Now, I know this really isn't the place to showcase this type of project...but I thought that maybe some/one of you might find it interesting......

Thanks for taking a look.

Tread.

EDIT: I almost forgot....in case any of you are curious about just how big a ship like this is in 1/87th (HO) scale, at a real length of approx. 260', this ship I'm building is just over 3-Feet long!!

Gordon,

What are you talking about this isn't the place to showcase a project like that? This is the perfect place for it. It floats..it has guns..it's a warship..nuff said.

I love it. Multi layered MDF, man that thing must weigh a bunch. Too bad you didn't make two of those. The second you could have made as a vacu-form mold and sold as a kit.

Yeppers, I like it a lot. How long did it take to build up your layers and sand smooth? And what did you use for your filling material ? Is that wood putty?

I think it will look pretty awesome when finished and I for one can't wait to see it.

Steve

You bet I'm interested Gordon, that's one hell of a projekt you've started. Carving MDF?.... brave...
I'm looking forward to you progress, as this should be a great model when it's finished. Work on my Cutty Sark has been halted, as my stephson has decided to come and live with us..so thats the room for that one gone... 'No dear, I don't mind if he comes to live with us, honest..'.
Cheers
Henk

Later addition:

Besides, if I can get away with posting photos of my finished scratchbuilt dragons head in "General Modeling" without anyone fussing....yet...

Besides your Ironclad is more along focus of the site than mine.

Gordon, Gordon...

As Steve so well mentioned this is the Right Place!
I think that you've donne a good job so far, and I might say, the hardest part! Making the fittings will be easyer, compared with all the work you've donne!

From the USS Lafayette picture and making the comparison with your USS Choctaw model, my only "complaint" (forgive me the word but I am having a blank and the proper word is missing!!!!) is that the freeboard seems a little to high out of the water... Or are you going to put it on a scenic water dio??

From the "plan view" picture it looks like a Star Wars spaceship

Gordon you're doing a great job!
Keep us posted here - this is the right place

Skipper

You're a good man Henk. That should have earned you a few hundred brownie points.

Henk
Your action is more valuable than any model, so I bow to you!
Models come and go, and you can put them in boxes for years and (if properly stored) nothing will harm them! Now, persons it's a completely different matter

Steve
I think your Dragon was (as I mentioned to you earlyer) a very good deed! I think no one will bother you about posting your built!

End of

Gordon,

One thing that crossed my mind after my post:
Do you have plans or did you "enlarge" a Verlinden Ironclad?

Skipper

Gordon, if not here then where? I like it. An interesting subject, interesting technique, what more could you ask? I envy you the room you must have in order to display her. I only have four shelves, in a lawyers bookcase, big enough for that, and they're all spoken for right now.

Not Interested!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you, you......silly person. Of course I am interested!

This is going to look awesome. Please keep sharing the build with us and I hope I can manage to catch each thread as you post it.

cheers
Cliff

I know, I know, but still, at last I got a place with a spare room, with BIG plans for my workspace... But hey, there you go, life gives and live taketh away... :-)
I do count myself lucky, because at least I have a loving wive who understands my hobby. If not the space I need for it :-) :-) .
Sorry for taking this a bit of topic Gordon, but the big scale ship building does tend to take over your life a bit.. just a subtle warning there.. :-) :-)

Cheers
Henk

Howdy Fellas,

Thx for stopping by....

I meant no negative waves for saying " Now, I know this really isn't the place to showcase this type of project...". What I simply was trying to say was something along the lines of this place isn't called 'Ironclad'arama right?
Either way, I take it back...{sound of munching on words......}

Many thx for the kind words of encouragement guys, I appreciate your indulgence in this obscure subject matter. And, just for the record, I have indeed begun building two of these. One is the Choctaw, and the other is the Lafayette pictured above. Since both ships are quite similar, I used the finished shapes I made for the Choctaw and traced them out on secondary sheets.
As far as time invested, it really didn't take me too long, it's just that the time invested was pretty intense while I was doing it. You see, what I used to sand and shape each layer of MDF was a full size, hand-held, belt sander. Not the most delicate of tools in the 'ol hobby box, if you know what I mean...
The material I'm using to 'putty' all the pieces together is standard joint compound....works like a charm.

To Henk:
Thx also for your words. And even though your modeling 'space' has been temporarily reassigned, I must echo the sentiments already voiced......you're a good man.

To skipper:
Glad you think it's the "right place" too I just need to get comfortable with being the only 'cladder' around these parts....that's all. But I'm really having fun with this, and, I'm doing my best to use basic (and cheap) household items for as much of the project as I can.
To answer your "free board" question, I do indeed plan to place it in a 'brown water' setting on (probably) the James River. And, as to plans. I don't have plans specifically, but aside from a fairly sizable amount of research material I have amassed on several Ironclads(and Timberclads) of the period, I have been fortunate enough to have garnered the assistance of another Ironclad aficionado by the name of Orin Palmer who supplied me with computer-generated 3-views and assorted schematics he assembled from original plan drawings he owned. And, most assuredly, a resounding No, to enlarging anything from Verlinden.

Halfyank said; "... I envy you the room you must have in order to display her. ...."

Actually, funny thing you said that, because, I am in the process of moving my entire modeling 'room' downstairs into the lower level of the house. Since my oldest daughter has moved out, and the middle one is about to leave, I can now slowly commandeer approximately half of the lower level of the house for my 'hobbies'. And the timing couldn't be better, because most of my scratchbuilding efforts are focused on rather large projects. And add to that the full-sized, commercial (used) drafting table I just purchased for better implementing my drafting duties and you come up with a(hopefully) bigger and better place to cause havoc.


to 'Roo:
Mighty glad you're interested too!......but Cliff, this ship was built before there was any such thing as a T-R-U-C-K.......

I'll keep you guys posted.....just look for my next large-scale project thread..........a 1/35th scale Leichte Flakkampf-Fahre German Flak Barge!
No kidding....really, I picked up the last three Tammy 20mm Flakveirling kits today (there will be a total of four), and already have the three German 88mm's sitting on the shelf.
That project has already passed the drawing/planning stage and I am half way thru one of the 88's and one of the Flakveirling kits (built the AA gun while away on business), and have already started the pontoon's. The barge itself measures out to 24" square, with each pontoon coming in at just under 32".
But more on that later........

Tread.

Oh no Gordon, this is CERTAINLY the kind of thread that REALLY gets me interested - being not totally unfamiliar with some of the Ironclads, what surprises me with this one, is the size of it - She really must have taken some manouevering. For those of you who are relatively new to this kind of vessel, one thing to remember, is these were VERY shallow-draught vessels indeed, obviously what they drew depended on the size and tonnage, but in general, they, required very little water to operate in...

As always, Keep 'em Comin'!...Jim

Man....I could just kic myself. There was an individual in the DFW area that LOVES the War of the NOrthern Aggression's ironclad ships. He scratchbuilt a about 2 dozen of them. They average about 6" or so that must of put them in the 1/200 scale range. I took a ton of pics, but if they were digital, I deleleted. IF regular my scanner is goofed so in either case I can't share them. Some of the southern ships like the Tenessee and the Arkansas were quite beautiful ships looking like extended versions of the Virginia (Merrimac to all you Yankees)

Big and Mean!!
This is another very interesting Project, Gordon!
Glad you are expanding your work space
I usualy say to Alexandra (Mrs Skipper) "One day all this will be mine, all mine!!! "
:-) :-)

Skipper

Howdy again fellas,

Thx for the continuing comments and critique, keep it comin'

to jimbrae:
Glad you're familiar with these unique vessels, and you are indeed correct about their draft. For the sheer size of these boats (you've got to remember the Choctaw is 260' long, almost the size of an ocean going frieghter), they could travel into some intensely shallow waters.
And, to address your comment about "... She really must have taken some manouevering. ..." From what research I have read, because of both the Choctaw and the lafayette's sidewheel configuration, she was slow but surprisingly maneuverable since each side wheel could be powered independently, theoretically she could pivot on a dime (given the time ).

to blaster76:
You said...." Man....I could just kic myself. "....
No, that's alright Steve, don't bother, I'll do it for you!
Just kiddin' Steve....I really wish you had those pics, they would be really nice to see.....shame. Maybe one day you'll come across the guy again......never know.

Ok, since there really is some interest here ( ) I'll post another quick pic of some progress I made this morning (at approx. 5:30AM).......

Here's a closeup of the outside hull treatment (this same strip of etched styrene goes around the entire perimeter of the boat), if you look closely you can see the vertical lines in the side of the hull which depicts the seperate hull plates, or 'cladding'. You can also see the front section of the wooden deck. The spacing on the simulated styrene decking is accurate, and will be in several places on the ship itself. The hull plating is also accurate, in that the 'iron' plates where applied in 2' x 6' (or 8') sections. The lines depicting these mating lines between plates were simply scored into the sheet with the backside of an Xacto knife.

Here's the pic.....


There will be a very short/shallow railing mounted to the outer edge where the hull and deck come together.
You can see the very front of the vessels casemate (where they keep most of the cannons ) to the rear left of the photo. This will have the cannon apetures cut into it using a Mortise & Tenon bit, and then tapered sections of plastic 'cladding' will be applied all the way around.

More to come....

Tread.

You're making a Very Good job Gordon!!

I am enjoying your built a lot!!
Hmmm - Any chance of an article?

Skipper

Gordon, my friend.
I am so psyched that you finally threw some pics to us. As you can understand, I've been very interested since we talked last.
As to the model-AWESOME! As to the other topic we talked about-Totally Marketable! You could earn a bundle.
Back to the model, HUGE rings true. But, I did a little research for ya and 3 feet long is fairly average with maritime Railroad modelers and they tend to make the space to do it. One layout I looked at had a 5 foot Coastal Freighter in HO and ,OH how he superdetailed it. The possibilities are endless.

Glad to hear from ya,
Cuhail

Howdy Murph'

Thx for the good words, and glad you're still interested in my Ironclad build. Sometimes it feels a little like lunacy, building such a different subject, but I plan to plow ahead anyway...in fact, I've already started another one, this time it appears a bit simpler, but applying slightly different techniques. It's the USS Osage, which was more of a Monitor design.
Here's a pic......


The main deck as you can see has a slighly rounded surface to it, so I'm going to try to hone my shaping skills with MDF this time......we'll see how I do

Did some more work on my Choctaw while away on business the past couple of days, I'll try to post some photos when I get back from work today....

Tread.

Hi Gordon!

You are really steamed up with your Ironclads!!
Have you considered make the Turret on Osage with it's interior? It would make an interesting change, specially if you're going to have all three Ironclads - and believe me, they will be targets for "stupid" questions and remarks (which I am used to hear about my own midget subs and manned torpedoes)...

You can make a "little more" effort and have the pilot house visible or (I know this is nuts) the paddle weel

Just a thought! (actually more than one...)
I am really enjoying your efforts and your builds!!!

Skipper

Tread!
Keep 'em coming, man! I don't think anybody would say WE don't enjoy this build with you. Armorama IS the place for projects like this. No matter HOW obscure the subject.
And that's how it is, Segeant Major!

Just a side note, have you looked at Walther's site for superdetails in HO? If not,

Walthers

I hope that link worked. Anyway, there are thousands of detail parts that can be adapted to what you are doing. And all in scale.

If ya want, I can look for some HO Maritime links for ya. Let me know.

Keep up the exceptional works Tread, Ya peaked some definite interest.

Yur Bud,
Murphy