CSS Albemarle/Nuese

[ct ertz]

Hello all,
I found a great waterline model of the CSS Albemarle at http://www.myspace.com/mmpapermodels

A little research convinces me that this could be a two for. There was only a foot difference between the CSS Albemarle and the CSS Nuese, and both were designed by the same man, and followed the same plan. At 1:250 scale, I do not think the length difference will be an issue. The big differance was that the Albemarle had the for and aft deck, and probebly the top of the casement, decked over in armor and the Nuese was like most Confederate rams, and had wooded decks with only the casement and waterline armored. The model shows only parralel lines on the for and aft decks, and casement tops. When I printed this model out, I used a light yellow marker to color over the gray iron color to make it look like raw pine, the wood used on the Nuese. When I do the Albemarle, I will leave it in the gray metal color. I am real new at these so please forgive the crudness of the work, but I have included some pictures of my unfinished CSS Nuese. I still need to make and place the second Brooks rifle and the smoke stake, and I have a lot of details to finish as well. I am not sure on the ships boat plasement, but it as as good as any. May be some one with more skill will want to do a build on this great model.

[ct ertz]

OK I finished my boat and it came out pretty good. The removable casement keeps trying to poop up, and I made a few other mistakes, but over all I am pleased.

[redhorse]

I'm really enjoying these Civil War builds of yours. I'm going to have to try a Confederate iron clad one of these days...

[Michael Mash]

Nice work on that iron clad. Fun to see someone creating pieces from the civil war era.
Mike

[ct ertz]

Thanks for yout comments.

My tug boat "Clyde" id done also, a small steam tug that came with the Monitor Lehigh model, but my wife has just reinstalled everything on the computer so I have to figure out how to get the web cam working again. I really need a digital cam again!

[ct ertz]

Ok, I added some Gun crew figures that I recolored with markers. The figures are free from Paper Ship Wright and are in the 1-250 scale, but real small! I also added smoke. Here is a picture of my almost finished CSS Albemarle as well. Are these things ever done?

[Golden Bear]

Hmm. Looking at these Civil War ships makes me wonder... they are smallish and don't have a ton of detail. Could you add some punch by bringing relief to the armor? They were iron bars or plates weren't they? Could you lay down individual pieces of card for each plate? Or maybe build it out of thicker card and heavily scribe or something.


Carl

[ct ertz]

I thought about that, but these are the first ironclad models that I ever made. I thought about scoring the lines between the bars, but I am not sure how and have it look right. Most Confederate ironclads had had 6 or 8 inch bars two inches thick, made by heating and rolling old railroad rails. The bolt holes were cold punch I think, and the holes were staggered to the left and right, not in the center of the plate. The decks on the CSS Nuese were probably raw pine planks, although the Albemarle had armored decks. It would be real fun to do a cut a way model in a 1:100 scale or so. These two ships had the keel laid, then "ribs" set side by side. If caulked the frame would float that way, but regular planks were then laid over the ribs, giving these ships a great about of stength for ramming. A modeler could have a lot of detail to work with! The Albemarle and Nuese were only around 150 feet long not including thier rams, so they are on the small side!

[Golden Bear]

hmm. Maybe if you made one at 1:100 you could try doing the detail of separate plates. I am just trying to think of a way to "punch" up the WOW factor a little bit. Depending upon your sources and particularly photos you might be able to do a nice kit bash at 1:100 with little details added.

Carl

[ct ertz]

here is some up dated photos with a better cam.