|
|
|||||||||||||
Background Converted from the blockade runner Fingal, the C.S.S. Atlanta was the fourth ironclad ram commissioned by the Confederate States Navy (CSN) during the American Civil War. Typical of the early war design, she was underpowered and slow to respond to helm. To make matter worse, it leaked constantly due to the lack of cladding on the underside hull.
The Kit
Then last year a fellow member in my IPMS club wrote an article on how he tackled his Italian howitzer. I thought I could try out his method of painting wooden surfaces with this kit as a test piece. So I asked him to give me a lesson, and the next thing I knew the deck came "alive" under his guidance. It was a shame not to finish the rest of the ship, so I suspended a few of my ongoing projects and went on to complete this model. As you can see, it turned out very satisfactorily indeed. Construction
Painting As I originally intended to use this kit as a practice piece, I went straight to painting the deck. This complicated the painting of the rest of the ship later on. As a result, I wasted a lot of masking tape protecting the nicely finished deck surface. I would not recommend anyone doing it the way I did. Instead, one should paint the low hull first, then the armored upper hull, and finally the deck. The Hull
Testors Model Master European I Gray (1768) was the base color I chose for the upper hull. Then I added two parts flat white into eight parts base color for panel fading. Once dried, I used my trusty Rotring 0.18 rapidoliner for filling the recessed panel lines. To simulate rust, I mixed a Burnt Sienna wash and applied it randomly with a "grass comb" brush. The Deck
Allowing the ink to dry for 10 to 15 minutes, I dipped a cotton swab in denatured alcohol and wiped along the wood grain to remove the excess ink. This blended all the colors together and also created highlights for the wood. Beware not to rub all the way down to the bare resin surface and always have fresh cotton swabs ready. You might need a lot of them. When everything dried, I sprayed the entire deck with Testors "rattle can" dullcoat. Cannons, Funnel, and Ventilation Grating Lifeboat and Davits
It took me a while to find the correct size davits for the lifeboat. Believe it or not, the ones in Hasegawa 1/450th IJN Akagi kit appear to be a perfect match. I made a RTV rubber mold and cast four resin copies. The hooks and pulleys were PE items from my spare parts box. The ropes were stretched sprues softened with Tamiya Extra Thin and attached with CA glue. Extra Details
The kit supplied the warhead of the spar torpedo but not the spar. I scratchbuilt it by inserting a pin into a bended 10mm tubing. Using the color plates in Konstam's book as a guide, I also built the lowering mechanism with stretched sprue, brass wires, and a davit kitbashed from a Tamiya 1/700th Japanese destroyer. After I glued everything in place, I painted all metallic items with the same Gunze Mr. Metal Dark Iron color I used earlier for the cannons and the funnel. The wooden section of the spar was painted Testors Model Master Wood color. Flags
Figures The figures are Preiser Z-Scale railroad workers. Although they are a bit underscale (1/220th), they come pre-painted, and the gray on their uniforms resembles the Confederate color. Conclusion Very seldom do I build a ship, but I really enjoy the challenge and the result. Without the help of my fellow modeler showing me how to paint a wooden surface, I doubt this kit would have ever left my to-do pile. References 1. Angus Konstam, Confederate Ironclad 1861-65, New Vanguard #41, Osprey Publishing, 2001. |
Digg
this story!
|
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
