Rene
Private
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2014
Hi there
The original:
She was originally built in 1853 as a sidewheel merchant steamer named Nebraska. In 1862 she was acquired by the government renamed USS Choctaw and converted into a gunboat and ram. Carrying a battery of 3 x 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns, a single 100pdr Parrot Rifle, 2 x 30pdr Parrot Rifle's and 2 x 24pdr Howitzers made her a rather well armed ship but in reality she was weakly armored and underpowered. At a length of 260ft, and a beam of 69ft she displaced 1.004 tons and had a crew of 106 men.
From April 1863 until the end of the war Choctaw operated in the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Between 29 April and 1 May 1863, she stood up the Yazoo for a feigned attack on Haynes' Bluff designed to prevent the Confederates from reinforcing Grand Gulf. During this action she was struck 53 times. Remaining in the Yazoo, she took part in attacks with the Army which led to the destruction of Confederate works at Haynes' Bluff and the burning of the navy yard and ships lying there at Yazoo City between 18 and 23 May. On 6 and 7 June, she joined in repelling a Confederate attack at Millkin's Bend, Louisiana, after which she rescued a large number of Confederates from the river and sent them in as prisoners. Between 7 March and 15 May 1864 she took part in the operations leading to the capture of Fort DeRussy.
In July 1865 she was placed out of commission and sold. Her further fate is unknown.
The model:
I ran across a picture of this obscure vessel several years ago and I knew instantly that I had to build a model of this. Honestly, just take a look at these unusual lines those towering smokestacks and the huge wheelhouses; it looked like something from a comic book, definitely nothing like a proper warship even if you count those French heavy metal absurdities of the pre WWI era.
As luck would have it, I found a shipbuilding magazine which had a plan of this very vessel in it. Even though these plans turned out rather crude and not highly accurate but I still could use them and just to make sure I found another set of plans of acceptable quality too. As it turned out there are quite a few cardboard models available and I also found a few small scale short run resin kits of this apparently not so less known ship. But as usual, my idea of a model was the usual much bigger and highly detailed version in the one true scale of 1:72.
So here I am at the very beginning of building this model. Just to have a little more fun I decided for a small change, this time I did not start with the hull but instead with all those small details which I usually add much later in the build to the earlier finished hull and superstructure.
The very first parts I started to build were those 4 rowboats, a work that went pretty fast, since I used resin casted boat hulls which I simply covered with wooden veneer. A rather time consuming job but easy and simple. The final result looks quite good at least to me, if I may say so. Even easier than that were the next parts, I needed several 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns. According to my first plan there were at least 6 such pieces aboard the vessel. I found a set of them at Shapeways, 12 pcs. of these guns for 66,--€ plus s&h, not exactly cheap but the picture looked good and I would have a few of them left for another project and it would help me to spare some time. So I ordered them and within 2 weeks they arrived. Turned out I should have waited a bit longer with this order. Don't get me wrong, the 3D printed parts turned out pretty good, they need a bit more details but this is something to achieve rather easily but a new set of plans for this vessel and more detailed information's revealed the fact that this ship only carried 3 of these Dahlgreen gun's while the rest were of different origins. With that knowledge in advance I would have built them by myself just like the rest of these guns and spare a lot of money instead of only a bit of time. I should've known better but well, you never stop learning.
And learning I did, so for the 100pdr Parrot Rifle I decided to build it entirely scratch. The gun tube was made on my little lathe from a wooden dowel; the rest is a pile of plastic bits cut from small strips and profiles plus a few self-made PE parts from my spare box. The rest of the armament was done the same way, well more or less. The gun tubes were made from wood. I needed 2 different types, 2 pcs for the 24pdr Howitzers and 2 pcs for the 30pdr Parrot rifles. I found the right dimensions in some books and the internet delivered the proof that these were indeed right, all that was left which kind of carriages I would build. To be honest, I do not know if exactly these carriages were used on this very ship, I just tried to build different types to make it a bit more interesting, while this may not be totally historic accurate I can say at least that such weapons were used and that they all appeared in such a form on various ships of the Union at this time. At the end I had 8 guns of 4 different types, 3x 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns, 1x 100pdr Parrot Rifle, 2x 30pdr Parrot Rifles and 2x 24pdr Howitzers.
At the last moment I decided just for the fun of it, to add one of those Gatling guns on a horse drawn carriage. These guns were used outside the casemate on the open main deck to keep away enemy boarders. This particular carriage was scratch build too, from plastic profiles, some tin foil a few PE parts, the wheels came from the spare box and the gun itself was made by using hollow needles. Took me about 9 hours to build this Gatling gun, except coloring.
The vessel had 3 wooden masts on its main deck, building them was just as easy. With the right dimensions and a few photos of similar masts I was able to add a few details to them; altogether it took me less than a day to build all 3 of them. Next in line were 2 capstans, one for the Forecastle and one for the Back. Once again the desire to buy a set of 3D printed parts via shapeways was present but since I needed only 2 of them the decision was instantly, a few parts made from plastic sheet in combination with some wooden parts and perhaps 2hours and they were made. Sorry Shapeways no deal this time.
If there are any questions please let me know.
Cheers
René
The original:
She was originally built in 1853 as a sidewheel merchant steamer named Nebraska. In 1862 she was acquired by the government renamed USS Choctaw and converted into a gunboat and ram. Carrying a battery of 3 x 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns, a single 100pdr Parrot Rifle, 2 x 30pdr Parrot Rifle's and 2 x 24pdr Howitzers made her a rather well armed ship but in reality she was weakly armored and underpowered. At a length of 260ft, and a beam of 69ft she displaced 1.004 tons and had a crew of 106 men.
From April 1863 until the end of the war Choctaw operated in the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Between 29 April and 1 May 1863, she stood up the Yazoo for a feigned attack on Haynes' Bluff designed to prevent the Confederates from reinforcing Grand Gulf. During this action she was struck 53 times. Remaining in the Yazoo, she took part in attacks with the Army which led to the destruction of Confederate works at Haynes' Bluff and the burning of the navy yard and ships lying there at Yazoo City between 18 and 23 May. On 6 and 7 June, she joined in repelling a Confederate attack at Millkin's Bend, Louisiana, after which she rescued a large number of Confederates from the river and sent them in as prisoners. Between 7 March and 15 May 1864 she took part in the operations leading to the capture of Fort DeRussy.
In July 1865 she was placed out of commission and sold. Her further fate is unknown.
The model:
I ran across a picture of this obscure vessel several years ago and I knew instantly that I had to build a model of this. Honestly, just take a look at these unusual lines those towering smokestacks and the huge wheelhouses; it looked like something from a comic book, definitely nothing like a proper warship even if you count those French heavy metal absurdities of the pre WWI era.
As luck would have it, I found a shipbuilding magazine which had a plan of this very vessel in it. Even though these plans turned out rather crude and not highly accurate but I still could use them and just to make sure I found another set of plans of acceptable quality too. As it turned out there are quite a few cardboard models available and I also found a few small scale short run resin kits of this apparently not so less known ship. But as usual, my idea of a model was the usual much bigger and highly detailed version in the one true scale of 1:72.
So here I am at the very beginning of building this model. Just to have a little more fun I decided for a small change, this time I did not start with the hull but instead with all those small details which I usually add much later in the build to the earlier finished hull and superstructure.
The very first parts I started to build were those 4 rowboats, a work that went pretty fast, since I used resin casted boat hulls which I simply covered with wooden veneer. A rather time consuming job but easy and simple. The final result looks quite good at least to me, if I may say so. Even easier than that were the next parts, I needed several 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns. According to my first plan there were at least 6 such pieces aboard the vessel. I found a set of them at Shapeways, 12 pcs. of these guns for 66,--€ plus s&h, not exactly cheap but the picture looked good and I would have a few of them left for another project and it would help me to spare some time. So I ordered them and within 2 weeks they arrived. Turned out I should have waited a bit longer with this order. Don't get me wrong, the 3D printed parts turned out pretty good, they need a bit more details but this is something to achieve rather easily but a new set of plans for this vessel and more detailed information's revealed the fact that this ship only carried 3 of these Dahlgreen gun's while the rest were of different origins. With that knowledge in advance I would have built them by myself just like the rest of these guns and spare a lot of money instead of only a bit of time. I should've known better but well, you never stop learning.
And learning I did, so for the 100pdr Parrot Rifle I decided to build it entirely scratch. The gun tube was made on my little lathe from a wooden dowel; the rest is a pile of plastic bits cut from small strips and profiles plus a few self-made PE parts from my spare box. The rest of the armament was done the same way, well more or less. The gun tubes were made from wood. I needed 2 different types, 2 pcs for the 24pdr Howitzers and 2 pcs for the 30pdr Parrot rifles. I found the right dimensions in some books and the internet delivered the proof that these were indeed right, all that was left which kind of carriages I would build. To be honest, I do not know if exactly these carriages were used on this very ship, I just tried to build different types to make it a bit more interesting, while this may not be totally historic accurate I can say at least that such weapons were used and that they all appeared in such a form on various ships of the Union at this time. At the end I had 8 guns of 4 different types, 3x 9" Dahlgreen smoothbore guns, 1x 100pdr Parrot Rifle, 2x 30pdr Parrot Rifles and 2x 24pdr Howitzers.
At the last moment I decided just for the fun of it, to add one of those Gatling guns on a horse drawn carriage. These guns were used outside the casemate on the open main deck to keep away enemy boarders. This particular carriage was scratch build too, from plastic profiles, some tin foil a few PE parts, the wheels came from the spare box and the gun itself was made by using hollow needles. Took me about 9 hours to build this Gatling gun, except coloring.
The vessel had 3 wooden masts on its main deck, building them was just as easy. With the right dimensions and a few photos of similar masts I was able to add a few details to them; altogether it took me less than a day to build all 3 of them. Next in line were 2 capstans, one for the Forecastle and one for the Back. Once again the desire to buy a set of 3D printed parts via shapeways was present but since I needed only 2 of them the decision was instantly, a few parts made from plastic sheet in combination with some wooden parts and perhaps 2hours and they were made. Sorry Shapeways no deal this time.
If there are any questions please let me know.
Cheers
René
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