Civil War Ironclads

Once you move away from the Lindberg Monitor & Merrimac set - you are away from styrene and are heading into the metal, wood and resin areas.

Verlinden makes several resin ACW ships in 1:192 (or is it 1:200?) scale.   They range from very good down to so-so.    The CSS Atlanta has a major booboo in the arrangement of the guns.  They are resin and they are rather simple with no PE details.  

Lone Star Models used to make a whole series of 1:192 scale resin and vacuformed ACW ships.  They have been sold to Flagship Models ttp://www.flagshipmodels.com/flagship/NorthSouth_Ser.html 

Rusty White at Flagship is reworking many of the models and is adding PE.

Blue Jacket makes a nice Monitor & Merrimac in wood.

Thoroughbred Models makes a series of 1:600 scale white metal ACW ships.    To my eye they are a bit crude & overscale -- more for wargaming -- but they can be painted into very attractive models.

Cottage Industries makes some interesting ACW ships including accurate Hunleys and Davids in 1:72 scale.  They are resin & white emtal

http://www.cottage-industries.com/default.asp

 

 

The Verlinden kits are 1/200 scale. While Ed is correct about Atlanta's guns, it's still an enjoyable kit. Nicely cast, simple construction, the hardest part is figuring out what colors to paint them!

cottage industries produce two awesome confederate ironclads in 1/96, resin and white metal. these are CSS Palmetto State and CSS Arkansas. You have the choice of building a cutaway model of the casemate even. there are two very voluminous reviews of both kits in steelnavy website. I strongly recommend both. (when I'll have some 300 bucks to spend for leisure, my first act will be buying the Palmetto State )

Here - I dug this out from SteelNavy.

http://www.steelnavy.com/VerlindenMonitorEGrune.htm

Photos of the kit were also featured in FSM's 2005 IPMS Nats coverage

please allow me to offer my respects Mr Grune, that's beautiful model. I hope you may give clues about the same model but in a different scale. I have the battleaxe injection molded USS Monitor in 1/144 scale but I want to build it in her final form, with the command tower glacis, turret tent and long single cylindrical funnel. is there a conversion set for that or how can it be done by scratchbuilding ?

best wishes

kapudan_emir_effendi wrote:

cottage industries produce two awesome confederate ironclads in 1/96, resin and white metal. these are CSS Palmetto State and CSS Arkansas. You have the choice of building a cutaway model of the casemate even. there are two very voluminous reviews of both kits in steelnavy website. I strongly recommend both. (when I'll have some 300 bucks to spend for leisure, my first act will be buying the Palmetto State )

Thanks guys for your answers. I have seen the Palmetto State at my LHS. That's a ton of money though. The Arkansas looks amazing and I always found her story to be quite intriguing. I think resin would be more friendly, never used white-metal though. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Thank you.

I am not aware of any conversion sets to update the Battle Axe Monitor to as-lost configuration.  I'll tell you what I did and give some suggestions.  Some of this is also what I did when I made the master for the Iron Shipwright Monitor in 1:350.   Perhaps you can work out a solution for yourself.

The canopy on the turret was from the 1:192 scale Lone Star Models (now Flagship Models) USS Monitor.  It is vacuformed.  The same sort of canopy comes in the other LSM monitors.  The railing was 1:192 scale PE railing.   I attached two lengths of railing together top rail to bottom rail and cut away the middle rails on the upper piece.  It was formed around a dowel and cemented to the turret top grating.   The canopy was cemented to the top rail.  The center pole is just there for looks.

In your instance I think I'd build the railings similarly.   You may have to put 3 lengths together and adjust the top height.  There is no vacuformed canopy.   I think I'd run thread from the top of the rails to a centerpole (make each thread taut) and make a tissue paper canopy.   Paint the tissue with white glue to make it stiff.

The sloped conning station plates would be from trapezoids of plastic sheet which lay up against the existing conning station - much like on the real thing.   Miter or otherwise conceal the edges

The engine air vents (after stacks) would be made from square plastic or brass stock.  

I think I'd approach the trunked together stack by using aluminum tubing.  Its is soft and bends easily.  Use a spring tubing bender to prevent kinks.   Cut approapriate radius arcs.  Cement together.  Notch to receive the vertical stack extension - also from aluminum tubing.   Add strenthening rings from aluminum tubing.  

Has anyone built the old Lonestar 1/196 kits? Are they waterline? Well detailed? They have some great subjects.

The Lone Star Models kits are for the most part 1:192 scale (1/16 to the inch).   There are a couple of 1:72 scale kits in the series - notably the submarines.  Mike West of Lone Star recently sold the masters and all rights to his kits to Rusty White of Flagship Models.     Rusty is in the process of refurbishing the masters and re-releasing them.  Most will have new photoetch that was not originally part of the kits.   Flagship is a PE company that is branching out.

I've built several of the Lone Star kits.   My favorite is the USS Winslow torpedo boat of Spanish American War fame.   For the most part - the Lone Star kits are whole hull and their method of construction allows the modeler the flexibility of constructing them waterline if desired.   Generally there is resin, white metal, perhaps some vacuform, and chain. 

Details vary.   The USS Monitor,  for example has a solid turret.   The guns are just muzzles and are cemented to the gun ports.   The Hunley was originally done as the model outside the museum in Charleston.   After the Hunley was raised the model was reworked based on the new information.

Some of the kits, mostly the sailing ships, are vacuformed hulls

In 2004, IPMS North Central Texas built all of the Lone Star kits for our group entry

This is just some of them -- can't quickly find images online ...   The USS Osage (upper left) is mine.  It is not a LSM kit.  It was scatchbuilt. 

Thanks Ed! The Osage looks awesome. Love the paint job. I'd appreciate any more photos you can share. The Cairo looks cool also. So, Lonestar(now Flagship) is a good value for the buck?

Tracy White wrote:

The Verlinden kits are 1/200 scale. While Ed is correct about Atlanta's guns, it's still an enjoyable kit. Nicely cast, simple construction, the hardest part is figuring out what colors to paint them!

I agree with Tracy on the Verlinden kits.  I just picked up the Palmetto State kit, and it's a fantastic kit.  The best resin casting I've ever seen.

Has anyone put their CSS Virginia kit next to some plans?  It looks fairly accurate at first glance, but I've never looked closely.

-Devin

Ed Grune made a comment about our Thoroughbred 1/600 ACW ironclads and vessels in this forum which is simply incorrect. Our scale is constant throughout the product line and these are a very popular model range with collectors, wargamers and more than a few IPMS metals have been won using our models as the main feature.  Many of our models are the best renditions of Civil War ironclads and vessels in any scale.  I would sincerely ask that anyone curious to see for themselves the quality and popularity of our products visit our web site at:  www.thoroughbredmodels.com

Order some kits for yourself and if you are not completely satisfied you will get your hard earned money returned.  That's been my policy for over 16 years in this business.

Toby Barrett,       Thoroughbred Figures

Hi, I have purchased one of the Lone Star Kits and was not impressed with the detail. Of course it may have been one of their older efforts. I just recently purchased one of the Verlinden kits - CSS Atlanta (oddly enough, it is the same model as the Lone Star kit) and I was impressed with the detail of the kit even though it is a bit on the small scale. I have built about 6 of the Cottage Industries kits and LOVE them. I currently have the Arkansas and the Albemarle. The scale, the detail is without peer. Yeah a bit pricey but if you want a larger scale model were you can cut away casemate to display internal detail you cannot go wrong. Now if price is the issue, then I would go with the Velinden kits, at least the Atlanta kit I have is pretty cool. Best of luck.

That 1:200 Monitor placed next to a Nichimo 1:200 Yamato would be hilarious.

torybear wrote:

<<SNIP>>  Now if price is the issue, then I would go with the Velinden kits, at least the Atlanta kit I have is pretty cool. Best of luck.

There is an error in the placement of the starboard broadside guns on the Verlinden Atlanta.

Refer to the period drawing of the Atlanta from the US Naval Historical Center.

The location of the second gunport on the starboard side should be moved aft of the stack.  The port needs to be filled and a new oval hole drilled in the appropriate location.

The Verlinden CSS Palmetto State is pretty nice also.

I'm sorry to add this comment.  But the Verlinden CSS Palmetto State is really a model of  the other Charleston Ironcald, the CSS Chicaro.  See the US Navy ship site.

Don't be sorry. Everyone left this conversation four years ago. NTL that is good to know.

Welcome to the forum, Roger.

I would recommend Cottage Industry (http://cottage-industry-models.com/). I bought and built his Hunley, Palmeto State and the David kits, ALL of they excellent kits. I also bought but have not built yet, the Arkansas, the Hunley with interior, the Albemarle as well as the Monitor kits. Again, ALL excellent kits. You will not be disappointed.

The Verlinden kit has so many issues.

I built both Palmetto State and Chicroa from Flagship, no complaints, fun builds and great customer service, same for Cottage Industries kits, though at 1/96 scale you better have a lot of room.