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1/700 Yazoo River Dogfight Duo. USS Carondelet vs. CSS Arkansas, 1862

USS Carondelet 2.0 is casting tonight. 40ml of poly-plastic is a God's plenty for both Ironclads and their parts molds.
Stay tuned! More exciting developments as they occur!
Naval Academy classmates Isaac Brown and Henry Walke will salute one another on the 1/700 scale Yazoo river base!
 
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Castings a Man can be proud of. TLAR Models kit #920 "1862 Yazoo River Dogfight Duo" is a sure thing!
Thanks for having a look-see!
 
Thanks Men! Now for the fun part! Building and painting! I won't go nuts on casting kits like I did the 1/350 USCG Point class Cutter set. (12 kits.) 3 or 4 kits for to begin with should be a dandy start.
 
The Build:
I chose the smoke stack with the cinder deflector. What may have been the original when CSS Arkansas began her 129-day career in 1862.
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Molding and casting PE gun port hatches is kinda cool. Actually putting them on the model proves impractical. Gentle 600-grit wet-finger sanding yielded unsatisfactory results. The little bastiges got so thin they would blow around the work mat, then snap when picked up to install them. Evergreen .010 X .100 strip to the rescue!! Cutting 3/16 bits of strip and CA gluing them onto the casemate sides was much more forgiving. Stretched sprue for upper & lower hinge details. Tamiya thin sticks the thin sprue to the Evergreen strip hatches, but not to the poly-resin ship.
Drill & scribe the gun port hatches, Roberts your Uncle, Fannie's your Aunt, PROGRESS!! Bow & stern chaser guns are installed too.
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This casting had a small imperfection in Her port quarter and was damaged coming off the pour stub, making her The Builder. I'm having a really good time with this CSS Arkansas. She and her Union antagonist should debut at the Fartin' Flea's show in April.
I appreciate you guys humoring me about how I ramble on.
Thanks for looking in!
 
Your rambles are hilarious and this ship is looking fantastic! Brillaint idea with the styrene and stretched sprue. Way to go Rhino!
 
Some of the text you men see here gets included in the kit instructions. Almost all of the photos do.

So! What do you guys think. Would you rather have a simpler model with the side hatches cast in place, or would you prefer the option of hogging out the gun ports and opening out the ship for battle, then adding the hatches afterwards? CSS Arkansas' Master may be retooled and 2.0 ,molded. NEED MORE INPUT!
 
Looks good. With the hatches closed and molded in, it's more of a toy than a model, isn't it? :coolio2:
 
Iron Mike said:
Looks good. With the hatches closed and molded in, it's more of a toy than a model, isn't it? :coolio2:
Click to expand...
My thought has always been to make kits that advanced ship modelers will enjoy. Modifying and adding extra nautical PE bits as they go along. Stuff they have lying about from other ship kits. Beginners may be put off by a TLAR Kit. Some fabrication, imagination and improvisation is required to make a satisfying miniature. A bit of challenge, perhaps? Lesson learned for the Ironclads: Casting and molding a teensy part does not mean it will be usable.
 
That's exactly what I was saying, fabrication and assembly required. Where's the fun in breaking it out of the box and painting someone else's work?
Party on! :vgood:
 
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I tried out my Stynylrez white primer tonight. It sprays pretty well. I had some help from other modelers I respect.
There are lots of projects here on the frosty prairie!
Thanks for looking in!
 
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After our informal pole about opening out gun ports, I decided to give it a try. On the Left, A rare, late war photo of USS Carondelet (See the inverted star between the stacks?) I theorize her gun port doors open up and then retract part way into the casemate roof. On the right is one of the original castings of my USS Carondelet. One really nice feature of this Smooth-On poly-plastic is how easy to carve & tool it is, once cured. This means each Yazoo River set will include 23 little bitty brass cannon barrels.

In this scale, if any sumbitch wants to pick nits about Columbiads, Dahlgrens and Blakeley guns, Let him! The difference in bore diameters is infinitesimal at best.

In other Ironclad news,
CSS Arkansas will be getting a 2.0 mold upgrade. I was really thrilled with how the fine laser-etched hatch grating detail looked. It is so fine it doesn't survive primer. See here the PEE gratings in place on the box-art version for the set. There a couple of other minor flaws to address as well. Anything worth doing is worth doing well (twice). Don't you agree?
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My Sweetheart called "Perfect Pajama Day" today. Expect more thrilling updates as this enthralling story unfolds.
Cry Havoc! Let slip the dogs of Model Mojo! We few. We happy few. We Alliance of Modelers!
Chris Rhiner. Good Day!
 
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CSS Arkansas 2.0 master. The PEE hatch gratings should stand out better when molded/cast. A couple of other small glitches got improved as well.
 
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