USS Thomas Freeborn waterline

[ct ertz]

With my Oven Bluff vessel and General Price closing in on test build time, I started another!

The USS Thomas Freeman is one of those gunboats that was active throut the War but was not really famous. It was at the start of the war one of three boats called on to try and help fort Sumter. At wars end it participated in the search for John Wilkes Booth. In between itt had a successful career capturing many Confederate ships.

Besides capturing ships, the little two gun gunboat participated in silencing reble batteries in Virginian, and it's crew mad many landings to cut tellegrapg lines and capture shore positions. In one such raid it's commander, James H. Ward was killed.

Active throuout the war, this little unsung hero of the navy will soon be available in 1/250 scale!

[rmks2000]

Cool! What was the structure between the paddle-wheels used for?

[Kazziga]

It was the walking beam of the steam engine. Check here: Marine steam engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ct ertz]

yep, the old walking beam engine. For the model I simplified it a bit for the 1/250 scale but it gets the idea across.

Her are some more pics with more deck clutter and the ships launches.

I also added a pair of deck guns. Although not listed, the Freeborn must of had them because of all the landing work it's crew did.

CT

[jmr248]

Is it just me or is that polit house vaguely familiar? It seems we have seen it before. I am thinking it took a special person to climb into some of the pilot houses on these vessels since they seem to be very exposed.
Joe

[ct ertz]

I thought the same thing, although this one is a bit bigger then the one on the USS Alexandria. A bit.
Corey

[ct ertz]

OK, braking down the details. I am assuming the anchor winch was below deck and steam powered. On deck, I put in the foreward and aft hatch way and the gun circles. The Thomas Freeborn had two guns but I put the reenforcing rings on each side for and aft. From a picture I found, the Freeborn did have port and starboard rings forward, so I assume aft as well. Also, acording to the photograph I was surprised about how wide the deck planking was for a union ship. I put it at a foot wide per board.
CT

[ct ertz]

A quick update on the Thomas Freeborn. Parts are coming along great. It should be ready soon.
CT

[ct ertz]

OK, after finding a few more drawings of the ship and looking a bit more closely atthe one photograph I redid a few things. Keeping up with my little boat fleet, I hope to have this ready soon. The ship had 2 32 pound guns, though it had iron reinforcing rings on port and starboard in the photo. The drawings of the ship in action shows the 32s in aft and bow positions. My guess is the guns where secured on the center line and then manhandled to the direction needed, and the chase ropes and rigging was attached to the bulwarks with large hooks and iron rings. I am unsure about the capstan and the anchors, but I will go with it for now. I also followed the drawings impression of there being gangways all the way through the deck house. This was common on other side wheelers at the time.

Any suggestions would be awesome!

[ct ertz]

Finally! After several half starts and getting a bit side tracked this little guy is about done. It looks like two pages of parts not counting the display base, and I got to day, it is a nice looking little boat. There a a few small parts, and a lot of parts in general. I am finding thatthe gunboats require much more "things" then do the ironclads to make the models look right. The one thing not seen is the wheel drive shafts that would be about ankle high running across the two hall ways. Rather these would have has some sort of wooden or brass step over them or rather they were left exposed I do not know, and the model has neither as they would be unseen anyhow. But for those who are detail oriented a simple bronze colored box or a little set of steps place in the open hall ways would do the trick.

When said and done we should be looking at well over 100 parts. And again, this is a small model so it is well detailed!

I will be looking for an enthusiastic test builder soon!

CT