USS Monitor vs CSS Virginia for school project

I would love to do so.  I slam nobody's profession and don't appreciate anyone slamming mine. No offense intended.

Bill

It sounds like you have most of your questions answered, but you can find additional info on the ShipModels.info forum here.

Here is a little tidbit concerning life on the Monitor :

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/uss-monitor-center/life-board

No offense intended to you or any other in your profession Bill. In speaking to my older nieces & nephews, I have concluded that here in MA (land of the liberal democrat) the curriculum usually opts for a more "poltically correct" or watered down version of events when it comes to teaching US history. That's all I got to say about that. 

Anyway, I don't want this thread to turn into a political battlefield, let's stick to the subject of modeling

As an American History teacher in high school, I am not sure how to take the last comment.

Bill

I inked some plans & got started making parts. My daughter is having a ball assembling USS Monitor. It's looking pretty good considering I'm an aircraft guy. Like I said earlier, it's a school project, so nothing fancy. I'm making the parts & she's putting them together (it is her project, after all!) We'll be starting on CSS Virginia tomorrow.     

BTW....the book her class is reading, which inspired this whole project, is called "Iron Thunder; The Battle Between The Monitor & The Merrimac".  It's a kids book but I think it's pretty cool (read; short of miraculous) that they are actually teaching American history!

Jim

Try this website

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/ships/

http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/ships/ships-us/23665/view/css_virginia_%28ironclad%29/

If you don't want to totally go with the "build it from scratch" mode then you might want to think about two large vacuform kits from Combat Models (1/72 ship section) http://www.combatmodels.us/

Both of these kits are not too expensive and Vacuform can be made into a fair model.  

And, I didn't realize I'd make a bunch of posts into the same thread this morning, otherwise I'd have put them all into one. No coffee ... <stumbles off to AN EMPTY COFFEE POT> Someone will pay. Mark my words: Someone. Will. Pay.

Anyhow, you're welcome, Mr. Tilley. And pleeeeeeeze stop calling me Mr. I'm too much of a goofball to be a Mr. Misters are respectable, like you. I'm just a dude who puts words on paper and helps other people say what it is they want to say in the best way it can be said. 

jb4406

Not exactly what I was looking for, but similar to what I had planned to draw out and assemble from 3-view drawings. I'll break out the pencils & drafting table & lay out a simplified version for her to build. It's for a 3rd grade project so it doesn't have to be super detailed. Simple poster board & cardboard for construction.  Thanks for the links & your help!

Jim

Sorry, Jim. It's what I fired off as a first thought. As Don suggested in another post in the thread, you might try Taubman, but the plans are going to by pricey.

Don Stauffer

There is a company that sells ship scale drawings, whose name is on the tip of my tongue but I can't spit it out.  Anyway, they advertise in FSM, and their ad is again in the latest issue that just came out.  I think they would be a good source to look at though I am not sure that those two are among their offerings.  I have used several of their plans and been well satisfied.  Yet I still can't spit the name out- oh, the curses of getting so old.

Don,

I think you mean Taubman. It does have plans for CSS Virginia and USS Monitor. However, they may be a bit more than one may want to pay for a school project. On the other hand, you'd have good plans to build some killer models.

There is a company that sells ship scale drawings, whose name is on the tip of my tongue but I can't spit it out.  Anyway, they advertise in FSM, and their ad is again in the latest issue that just came out.  I think they would be a good source to look at though I am not sure that those two are among their offerings.  I have used several of their plans and been well satisfied.  Yet I still can't spit the name out- oh, the curses of getting so old.

Thanks to Mr. Kidwell for the link to Paper Shipwright!  By remarkable coincidence I'm just starting a model of a British WWI battleship.  I was playing around with the idea of putting it in a small diorama with a couple of tugs and a Clyde puffer alongside.  Presto!  A nice set of plans for a Clyde puffer!  I just printed out the page from the website; it came out slightly larger than 1/700 scale.  My printer can reduce it to 1/700.

That whole website is most interesting.  Nice looking models of offbeat (in some cases extremely offbeat) subjects.

Thanks again!

I hate to disagree with Ed, but this time I have to.  Don't use rubber cement for anything you want to last for any period.  If you intend to stick the paper to the plastic sheet, cut out the plastic parts, and peel off the paper, that's fine.  But the rubber cement will turn either brown or pink within a month or so, and then cut loose completely.

Check Lou Coatney's website for cardstock model plans of the Monitor & Virginia (Merrimack).

http://lcoat.tripod.com/monimerr.htm

Print onto card stock, fold & glue.  Or print onto plain paper and attach it to sheet styrene with rubber cement.   Cut & glue.    I used Coatney's Monitor as the basis for designing & building the master for Iron Shipwright's resin Monitor kit.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but similar to what I had planned to draw out and assemble from 3-view drawings. I'll break out the pencils & drafting table & lay out a simplified version for her to build. It's for a 3rd grade project so it doesn't have to be super detailed. Simple poster board & cardboard for construction.  Thanks for the links & your help!

Jim

Paper, eh? I need to get out my scissors and glue!

I haven't seen a depiction of Virginia with that wooden stern platform before. It makes her look like a platypus.

Hi Jim,

Here's a link to a 1/250 scale USS Monitor.

Here's a link to a 1/250 CSS Virginia.

They aren't drawing, but actual paper models from the UK. Not sure if this helps, but may make things easier.

Tim