CSS Virginia help needed

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

more work done on the Virginia. nothing is glued in place yet. Tomorrow I will be finishing the trim work and then painting begins.View attachment 48877 View attachment 48879 View attachment 48877 View attachment 48879 View attachment 48880 View attachment 48879 View attachment 48877

Fantastic work !

BTW, can one of our moderators move this thread into an appropriate forum ?
The Naval War forum . . . perhaps ?

Thanks.

 

[jgoodguy]

Fantastic work !

BTW, can one of our moderators move this thread into an appropriate forum ?
The Naval War forum . . . perhaps ?

Thanks.

Done

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Done

Thank you Sir.

 

[OwenRichards]

Those are amazing models.

 

[rebelatsea]

Ha! Let me know and I'll get you some scaled renders.

I will watch with great interest !

 

[Kevin Martin]

Thanks all! I've reached the point in model construction where the subjects takes on a life of it's own and becomes fun when adding all the interesting features. Andy, I use Evergreen Plastic products for the most part. It comes in a wide range of strips, tubes, rods, angle, and sheet form plastic. It's wonderful to work with. The basic shape of the hull comes from the same builders insulation foam sheet that you see my model cradled in during construction. It's dense and shapes nicely with a block sander. For decks I use basswood strips.

 

[Kevin Martin]

Sorry about the placement of this thread. It started out as my introduction to the group as a new member and went from there. Thanks for moving it.

 

[Kevin Martin]

Scribed styrene plating?

Yes, it's Evergreen plastic sheet stock. Model railroaders make good use of the stuff. Wide variety of sheets and strip stocks.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Sorry about the placement of this thread. It started out as my introduction to the group as a new member and went from there. Thanks for moving it.

Kevin,
You did nothing wrong.
All comments in an unregistered guest forum have to be moderator approved. By moving it to the naval forum, members can respond in "real time".

 

[OwenRichards]

I'm familiar with Evergreen and Plastruct products from my railroading days (a LONG time ago!). You can buy sheets of riveted styrene sheet from a company called Slaters. There is also the old-fashioned method of using a syringe and some glue.

 

[Kevin Martin]

I'm familiar with Evergreen and Plastruct products from my railroading days (a LONG time ago!). You can buy sheets of riveted styrene sheet from a company called Slaters. There is also the old-fashioned method of using a syringe and some glue.

I've been debating the rivits issue. Archer Dry Transfers makes a line of rivets that one burnishs on the surface. I am intrigued with the idea of a syringe and glue.

 

[OwenRichards]

I've never tried it myself. I imagine you have to be very careful of what sort of glue to use as some types shrink as they dry.

Keep dem pics coming!

 

[AndyHall]

I've done the syringe and glue thing. Takes practice, but it works well. It takes a while, as well, but it probably faster than other methods. You use white glue. Sometimes it contracts a little, but that gives the rivet heads a nice, irregular shape.

Added: Here's a better technique:
http://www.modelairplanenews.com/bl...-at-the-wram-show-easy-rivets-from-cal-grafx/

 

[Kevin Martin]

Hmmmm........white glue is a for sure. Application can be syringe, or pointy end of toothpick. I have a couple of different sized spiked wheels that I can run a pattern down a straight edge. Might give the glue something to stick to, and consistent shape.

 

[Kevin Martin]

Picture of tonight's work. I sat down to figure out what I felt was the smallest part to make, but with the biggest challenges. The conical forward cupola. I spent the day debating just how to pull it off. Options that came to mind were using a drill to us as a makeshift lathe and glue together scrap plastic to make a block that could then be chucked onto the drill and "turned". Getting a sturdy enough, yet easy to remove mandrel proved a stumbling block. I ended up creating a rough buck of the part by gluing pie shaped pieces of Evergreen around a round base. Once fully cured, I will sand it to a final finish. The viewing ports will be represented by masked black paint. Today I also drilled out the holes for the anchor chains. Still have not decided how I will present the anchors. Hanging down the sides of the bow? Or lashed in some fashion to the breakwater deck. I highly doubt the thing traveled with her anchors hanging and banging the sides. That be a hell of a drag.

 

[Kevin Martin]

I'm getting ready to start painting assemblies of the Virginia and need some input on color. Many I see are in black. Others in a dark gray. similar to USAF Gunship Gray. Any thoughts?

 

[AndyHall]

For color, a dark gray for sure. Gunship gray would work. Black will hide all the details.

One query, though -- I think the pilothouse may have been solid cast, and so not have individual plates.

How are you handling gunports?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

For color, a dark gray for sure. Gunship gray would work. Black will hide all the details.

Good point RE use of black.

I've long wondered about how literally "black" should be taken in period descriptions of ironclads. Many photos appear to show something a bit lighter than actual black, so I've tended to assume a dark/lead gray in the absence of better information...

 

[AndyHall]

On my own (digital) stuff I generally give the armor a metallic finish. That's probably strictly wrong, because they were not bare metal, but painted surfaces. But otherwise they don't "look right" to me. There's a lot of subjectivity in the process, and tinkering with aesthetic considerations.

 

[Kevin Martin]

For color, a dark gray for sure. Gunship gray would work. Black will hide all the details.

One query, though -- I think the pilothouse may have been solid cast, and so not have individual plates.

How are you handling gunports?

Funny you should mention the pilothouse being cast. I had the same thought last night as I didn't think it possible to get iron rails to work together for that conical shape. I have sanded it smooth. And yes, I have started painting in Tamiya Gunship Gray which is the darkest of brands between Modelmaster and Tamiya. And in modeling there is that thing called "scale colors". In that as the scale gets smaller, the colors get lighter.
The gunports, again I may be over thinking reality, I know they were absent doors during the March 8th and 9th battles. I'm speculating that maybe down the road, doors were added. I dunno. I have the gunports opened on the starbaord side and receiver blocks behind to accept cutoff barrels. I'd love to put doors on as it makes my life easier as I can pick and choose how many barrels to have to make.