CSS Albemarle/Nuese - Page 2

**cdavenport** · #11 06-23-2009, 10:58 PM

If you go to the Civil War Museum in Columbus to see the remnants of two ironclads, there are a number of knowledgeable folks to help you understand the history of these river monsters.

One of things I asked about was the very topic of the iron plating. To the best of the historical knowledge, the edges were butt joined with overlapping backing plates to prevent buckling under fire. Think of modern laminated armor.

If I was going to critique anything it would be the paint schemes. There is no evidence to suggest these iron hulls were painted. So, they would be mostly black, mottled gray, and rusty, especially along the seam lines and fairwater.

So, in the scales you are working here, the look of the boats is about right.

BTW, the designer of those models died last year, so you'll not see any new boats unless someone else takes up his mantle.

**Knife** · #12 08-03-2010, 07:12 AM

Like CT, I'm making both the CSS Albemarle and the CSS Nuese. I repainted the casemate and pilot house on both ships to be more of an iron color, and erased the heavy chain drawing on the bow. I also drew in steps inside the casemate where there's two rectangles which I assume are access to the below decks. After saving the drawing as the Nuese, I then recolored the decks and hurricane deck as iron and saved the drawing as the Albemarle.

The only major fit problem is the stern skirt, which doesn't match up with the side skirts. It's way too large, so can be trimmed to size once the side skirts are on.

**Knife** · #13 08-03-2010, 06:22 PM

Here's a photo of how much I had to trim off the stern skirt. I think the cleats on the hurricane deck are about twice the size they should be, so I shrunk them down. I forgot to shrink the white positioning marks on the deck and ended up just painting them black. The pilot house is also too large for the border printed on the hurricane deck. All the grates were just a little too small for the printed boarders, so a little bit of white shows around the edges. I'm touching up the CSS Albermarle (again!) to recolor all the white boarders to the color of the surrounding areas. I swear I've printed out a dozen sheets of this model just to get a decent build!

On a sad note, Alton Stapleford, the builder of the CSS Neuse II (a full size replica of the Neuse) died a few weeks ago. It looks like he was able to fulfill his dream before he died.

Neuse II's builder dies | nix, neuse, know - Local - ENCToday

**Knife** · #14 08-04-2010, 07:50 PM

The Neuse is loose! Completed the CSS Neuse. I have been storing my model ironclads in a cabinet to keep them safe. Tonight Jack the Damn Yankee Cat found the door ajar. Luckily I had most of the fleet out on a photo shoot, and only the Monitor and Mosels were in his line of attack.

**Knife** · #15 08-04-2010, 07:54 PM

Here's the whole Confederate Fleet surging on patrol. It's the photo that saved the Confederate Fleet from the giant Yankee cat.

Models I would still like to see: CSS Baltic, Manassas, Stonewall (hint, hint).

**Knife** · #16 08-09-2010, 09:57 AM

I finally finish the CSS Albermarle. It was the very first ironclad I downloaded, and after 12 models it's the last one to be built. Anyway, here are the photos. The Albermarle has grey (ironclad) decks and the Neuse has wooden decks.

I recolored the decks and casemate, shunk the pilot house and cleats, moved the cleats to the bow and stern. Added another layer of edging on all the hatches, added stairs between the deck and hurricane deck, and added flags from CT Ertz's flag sheet from the download section of this website. Railing and rigging were made from thread coated with superglue. I also shrunk the anchors. It's now ready to join the Confederate fleet in supporting States rights over the Northern invaders.