Earlier this month Flagship Models had released the CSS Tallahassee, a twin-screw steamer blockade runner from the American Civil War. It looks like another excellent kit from Flagship.

The Tallahassee was built in London for the London, Chatham & Dover Rly. Co. to the design of Capt. T. E. Symonds, Royal Navy, ostensibly for the Chinese opium trade. She was previously the blockade runner Atalanta and made the Dover-Calais crossing in 77 minutes on an even keel. She had made several blockade runs between Bermuda and Wilmington, N.C. before the Confederates bought her.

The CSS Tallahassee went through the blockade on August 6, 1864 from her home port of Wilmington, North Carolina. Her first day out, four cruisers chased the Tallahassee without incident. She made a spectacular 19-day raid off the Atlantic coast as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Tallahassee destroyed 26 vessels and captured 7 others that were bonded or released. Later in 1864, she would be renamed Olustee and then Chameleon. After a failed attempts to make port in Bermuda for supplies for the Confederacy, Olustee went to England where when she arrived in April, 1865, she was seized and sold by the British authorities and was about to enter the merchant service when the United States instituted suit for possession. She was awarded to the United States Government and handed over to the consul at Liverpool on April 26, 1866.

This multi-media 1/192 scale kit (No FM19221) is exquisitely detailed with the big pivot gun be comprised of more than 30 parts and each cannon has more than 13 parts each. It is listed for $160.00 US plus shipping and can be ordered from the Flagship Models webstore.