The helicopter guy trys a boat...

These are extremely old kits.  They were, I believe, originally sold separately; the idea of packaging them as a pair came later.  They're on different scales.  The new Lindberg website (bravo for its honesty) says the Monitor is on 1/210 and the Merrimac/Merrimack/Virginia is on 1/300.  I think I remember buying the set in one of its earlier incarnations - without the vacform base, but with an electric motor for the Confederate ship.  (The Monitor didn't have room for one.)

They really aren't too bad for their day (the early fifties).  To my eye the turret of the Monitor looks a little undersized, but at least it's in the right place.  (The competition of the era, Pyro, put the turret of its Monitor forward of amidships.)  I haven't actually had my hands on either kit in many years, but the overall proportions look reasonable.

I'm unaware of any aftermarket detail sets designed specifically for these kits - or any other Civil War ships.  You might be able to make some generic parts (rail stanchions, gratings, etc.) from Gold Medal or Tom's Modelworks fit.  If you drill them out, and clean them up with a file, they shouldn't look too bad. 

If you do a Forum search on tne name of either ship you'll find some interesting stuff.  Good luck.

I don't think you're going to find any aftermarket guns, either.  Bear in mind, though, that only the muzzles will be visible.    (As a matter of fact, the current thinking among the experts seems to be that the Monitor's two guns were set up in such a way that only one of them was projecting through its port at any given moment; the recoil of one ran the other one out.  So to depict that ship accurately you only need one gun.)

Yeah, I was just a kid when they came out, and was surprised to see them still around. Which is why I grabbed them/it up. Plus I have just finished the novel by David Poyer, "That Anvil of our Souls", about the the two ships... So they were fresh on my mind as it were.

I am surprised by the lack of aftermarket details available for civil war era ships in general. I would have thought such a niche would not go begging, judging by the general interest in ships of sail and steam.

Anyway my thought at this point is to try to do a decent job them and dress them up a bit to  make them sort of a "stand off" scale model. My ship building skills being in the "humble to nonexistant" catagory.  

Thanks for the info!

-chuck

NASA 736 wrote:

I am surprised by the lack of aftermarket details available for civil war era ships in general. I would have thought such a niche would not go begging, judging by the general interest in ships of sail and steam.

There are aftermarket details available,  just not in the box scale you are looking for.

http://www.flagshipmodels.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6

Flagship Models markets the photoetch frets from their 1:192/1:200 scale resin ACW ironclads as separate items.   In addition to the Flagship kits they will fit the old Lone Star kits (now OOP and masters sold to Flagship), and the Verlinden kits.

For guns you can do like I did for a scratchbuilt Osage (in 1:192 scale).   Carve one and cast as many as needed.

Very interesting, Ed.  1/200 and 1/210 aren't far apart; it might be possible to make some of those Flagship Monitor parts (the rail stanchions and anchor davit, for instance) work on the Lindberg kit.  There's also some question in my mind about how accurate those figures for the scales of the two Lindberg kits are.  Kit manufacturers are notorious for screwing up such things - especially when it comes to reissues of old, old kits.

Ed,  

Wow, talk about "ask and you shall recieve..."   Exactly what I was hoping for! For a first go round in ships, as a learning experience kind of thing, it doesn't get any better than this.

Looks like the Monitor is going to be "first up". (Old Medavac term)

Thank you sir!

Chuck