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Old 01-04-2012, 04:37 PM
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Details of Confederate ironclads

OK, details you may want to know about. We will start with armor. For 1/250 scale or smaller it may be impossible to add the following details, however, it is interesting to understand how armor was applied to a ship.

On my models I make the armor lines between 10 inches and 1 foot apart. In during the war, southern rolling mills produced 2 inch thick bars, and the widths were usually around 10 inches. holes were per-punched, and often off-set from the center. The problem with this type of rolled iron was that it could crack during battle, so by off setting the punch holes it added strength to the bar.

Now, rail road rails were a convenient source of armor iron during the war, but this does not mean that the ship builder used the rails as is. Sometimes, like on the CSS Missouri, they were used intact. But Usually, when source material refers to rail road rails as armor, they mean that the rails were recycled. First supper heated, them run through a couple of rollers flattening the rails into bars.

To get four inch armor, as common with CS ironclads, they needed to layer two layers of the per-punched bars. To do this, the bars were laid in different directions, with the lower layer having a wooden spacer laid to match the punch holes of the upper iron bars.

The armor was probably not riveted. Instead, the plates were bolted with threaded rods. In some cases, large wood screws were used, and in some cases both.

This is a pretty loose overview.
I will do the rail armor next...
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Old 01-04-2012, 08:15 PM
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CT
I do not know if you have ever seen this before, but it is your drawing from the backside. There is also a photograph of a 3/4 from the right front that shows the plating, bolts and slope. I have read that this railcar was made at the naval yard where the Virginia was built and that they both date from 1862. This car was supposedly used in the 7 Days Battles around Richmond.

Joe
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Old 01-04-2012, 08:35 PM
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Yep, actually it is on my to do list!
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Old 01-04-2012, 09:06 PM
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Great info...thanks!

CT and Joe, I find this very interesting...it is a period of time that I had very little exposure to in the past (read: in school) but have learned a little bit on my own hear and there. I am particularly interested in the vessel development of the CSN, and for this find CT's series of models so very interesting.

Thanks for taking the time to help provide some information on these subjects, makes modeling all that more interesting, at least to me!

Cheers!
Jim
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Old 01-05-2012, 12:51 PM
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Thanks seconded. I knew that the RR ties were recycled and flattened, but I had no idea of how the plates were laminated. Actually, for those who have interest, a large scale model of your description would be cool.

On the other hand, if you did that rail gun in a large scale, you could design it so that the modeler built it in layers, piece by piece, just like the original.


Off topic: did you mention to me that you wanted to do something about the cannons in 1/250?
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Old 01-05-2012, 12:59 PM
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Oh yes, 1/250 scale cast barrels would be great.

Here is what the rail armor may have been like. It could also have been laid vertically, or even at an angle like on the CSS Missouri.

The rails used on the CSS Georgia were coated and filled with a rust-cement as well.

CT
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:12 PM
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The T-rail iron was quick in that the ship yard only needed a large drill to hole the rails. The rails didn't need to be sent to a rolling mill first. But the rials did not have the same stopping power as the flattened rails.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ct ertz View Post
Oh yes, 1/250 scale cast barrels would be great.

Here is what the rail armor may have been like. It could also have been laid vertically, or even at an angle like on the CSS Missouri.

The rails used on the CSS Georgia were coated and filled with a rust-cement as well.

CT

Send me the cannon profiles and I'll work something out. I have been toying with the idea of casting paper. This would be the project to give it a try.
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Old 01-05-2012, 09:19 PM
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I do resin casting a lot for other types of projects. This paper casting sounds interesting and i hope you go into detail when you get started on it please?
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Old 01-06-2012, 06:51 AM
rebelatsea rebelatsea is offline
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British Bridge rail was imported and used at Charleston on the ICs there, this weighed in at 68 Imperial pounds to the yard and when rolled added materially to the strength of the armor. I guess it must have also imposed a weight penalty on the ships, as the two Richmond type ICs at Charleston were notoriously poor seaboats, when compared to CSS Raleigh, which was apparently quite happy at sea.
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