CSS Albemarle

[NeilL]

Some progress. Got most of the exterior detail done.
View attachment 140322

I'm not 100% sure that she had lacquered wood on the interior. I'm thinking whitewash or 'tar paint'. But these are only to show scale until I get something better.
View attachment 140323

Whitewash is my best guess.

 

[AndyHall]

Superb work, @OwenEgan . I got sidetracked by work projects, but hope to get back to my boat soon.

I would guess whitewash, too -- anything to brighten the below decks, that would have been very dark in any case.

 

[rebelatsea]

Wonderful. She apparently carried a small boat on the fantail.

 

[OwenRichards]

Whitewash it will be. There are a lot of details I'll be adding to the interior over time. I'm writing to the Neuse museum to see if they have any details on her interior construction. By the look of those videos, it look like one boiler with coal stores to each side.

Rebelatsea - I was wondering about that. On your august information, one shall be installed! I'm going to assume that there were no davits and they just wrestled it over the fantail. This is from not seeing any davits on any of the illustrations available online. If anyone has any further info, please let me know.

Also on that note, if anyone has any better photos of either the reconstruction or the cut-away model of the Neuse in the museum, please let me know.

 

[rebelatsea]

Whitewash it will be. There are a lot of details I'll be adding to the interior over time. I'm writing to the Neuse museum to see if they have any details on her interior construction. By the look of those videos, it look like one boiler with coal stores to each side.

Rebelatsea - I was wondering about that. On your august information, one shall be installed! I'm going to assume that there were no davits and they just wrestled it over the fantail. This is from not seeing any davits on any of the illustrations available online. If anyone has any further info, please let me know.

Also on that note, if anyone has any better photos of either the reconstruction or the cut-away model of the Neuse in the museum, please let me know.

I've never seen an illustration showing davits, or a mast with a boat boom aft. I think it sat on crutches, and as you say it was man handled. Mind you getting it over the side is one thing, lifting it back on quite another.

 

[Kazziga]

I could swear I have seen the boat towed behind the ironclad in at least one illustration.

 

[Kazziga]

Owen, I am not pushing you for anything, but... a scene with the Albemarle, Miami and Southfield would be nice.

 

[AndyHall]

I could swear I have seen the boat towed behind the ironclad in at least one illustration.

That would be normal practice in action aboard a conventional naval vessel. Boats mostly served as a source of splinters.

 

[OwenRichards]

...Mind you getting it over the side is one thing, lifting it back on quite another.

My thoughts EXACTLY! I'm going to put anchor davits on, just because I can imagine them trying to haul that thing on board by hand, soaking wet and slippery, when they are suddenly expecting to be shot at. I can see them on a few Albemarle models, even though they aren't on some illustrations.

Kazziga - Not impossible. I have a paddle wheel steamer model that might be pressed into service. The problem I have at the moment is getting the wakes to look authentic. Not impossible, but technically a royal pain.

 

[rebelatsea]

I could swear I have seen the boat towed behind the ironclad in at least one illustration.

In the Napoleonic era they used to drop the boats with an anchor to keep them in one place to be collected later. in the steam era it was probably more practical to tow them or just leave them ashore in our scenario. Although at Lissa in 1866 the boats were still on board in action.

 

[OwenRichards]

My understanding from what I've heard previously was that the boats were lowered into the water and towed behind the vessel on a painter. As AndyHall says, otherwise they turn into kindling pretty quickly.

I'm imagining that small boat makers and smokestack repairmen would be some of the big financial 'winners' of the Civil War. Business is, you could say, booming.

 

[rebelatsea]

My understanding from what I've heard previously was that the boats were lowered into the water and towed behind the vessel on a painter. As AndyHall says, otherwise they turn into kindling pretty quickly.

I'm imagining that small boat makers and smokestack repairmen would be some of the big financial 'winners' of the Civil War. Business is, you could say, booming.

Yes you can see CSS Palmetto State doing that in the painting of her and CSS Charleston, the latter ,which is fully cleared for action has presumably left her four boats at the quayside.

 

[Aussie Billy Sherman]

That replica must've been the one used in the dramatizations of the Cushing raid documentary the History Channel made.

 

[Dilandu]

Albemarle and her Union opponents had drafts of 9' or less, while the Passaic class monitor drew about 10 1/2'. Was that enough to keep them from operating in the North Carolina sounds, or were they considered more needed at points like Charleston?

As far as I knew, the Albemarle Sound simply wasn't considered vital enough to send a monitor here just to get rid of one small ironclad. From here, she could go nowhere. The "Albemarle" was too slow and small to actually challenge the Union ships for local naval superiority in Albemarle Sound: much faster Union gunboats could always evade her attempts to engage them (unless they wanted to engage her) - and since no blockade runner could possibly go to Sounds, there was no point for gunboats to held position.

The "Albemarle" was, basically, the river defense accet. In such role she represented problems for Union Army, but after Army refused to participate in expedition to destroy her while on shipyard, the Navy probably wasn't too distressed by army troubles.

 

[OwenRichards]

Needs a lot more work, but the displacement technique for the armour and bolts looks like a winner. UV's are still WIP.

 

[OwenRichards]

Sorry I've not posted for a while, but I've got another project on the boil at the moment.
I've added the cannons and the Pilot's station.

 

[AndyHall]

Needs a lot more work, but the displacement technique for the armour and bolts looks like a winner. UV's are still WIP.
View attachment 143310

Bump mapping?

 

[OwenRichards]

It's bump mapping at the moment, but I'd like to try for 'real' displacement mapping (texture deforms geometry).
The bump mapping doesn't look too bad at the moment.

I've been informed that the Neuse had round entry hatches on the bow and stern deck. The square grate on the bow is a layer that shouldn't have been on the render.

 

[rebelatsea]

It's bump mapping at the moment, but I'd like to try for 'real' displacement mapping (texture deforms geometry).
The bump mapping doesn't look too bad at the moment.

I've been informed that the Neuse had round entry hatches on the bow and stern deck. The square grate on the bow is a layer that shouldn't have been on the render.

Where did you find that info on round hatches ?

 

[OwenRichards]

I've been speaking to a very helpful person from the Neuse Museum, who directed me to some of these pictures.
http://www.nchistoricsites.org/neuse/drawings.htm