Scrap Building a Passaic Class Monitor (1 Viewer)

[maddadicus]

First off, as most members know, I cannot saw, nail, barely glue, measure, fabricate, anything in the way of scratch builing, but I have always had a gift for finding shapes in hardware and craft stores and making them fit into a 1/32-ish ACW ship. I have modeled the USS Osage, a tinclad stern wheeler, and a Sudan era gunboat to date, but I always wanted a Monitor type in my collection. I found a 4" round wooden box, a bargain counter 4" craft metal bird cage, several packs of 3mm self adhesive gemstones, a plastic drain plug, bags of wooden shapes, gloss black paint and gunmetal silver paint, in all about $20.00 worth of stuff..Michael

 

[maddadicus]

I removed the top from the box and this became my turret. I drilled out gun ports. I spray painted the sheets of gemstones to seal them to their strips ,cut the strip to make a double row and contact cement them to the turret as rivets. I beveled out a small lip inside the turret top to fit the birdcage. I cut the birdcage to create support piece for the canopy. The canopy is a 3" drain plug with cardboard strip extensions to to make the canopy larger than the birdcage frame. I bought lightweight canvas like fabric and glued and shaped it as shown. I spray painted the birdcage frame gloss black and the canopy a light yellow. I used cardboard cut to fit into the turret, painted that yellow first, then a watered down shade of oak paint. A gloss coat was then applied and the floor was inserted. I then dry brushed gunmetal silver over all the black exterior surfaces for the turret and canopy frame..My cannons are wood shapes, cut ,glued, and sanded to simulate Dahlgren cannons. They are mounted on Lego block carriages, painted gunmetal..The only liberty I took to accuracy was to mount a Lego ships wheel above the turret instead on a round cylinder pilot house. I like the breakup in color...I will continue later when I work on the hull...Michael

 

[theBaron]

Very cool, and very resourceful use of craft store items for your scratchbuild! I look forward to seeing the hull and how you tie it all together.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Wolfgang_UK]

Allready looking great ! Will be following this thread with great interest. Thank You for shareing.
regards
Wolfgang

 

[maddadicus]

Time to update my Ironclad building program..The hull was created from ( 2 ) 6" x 36" sheets found in a crafts store ( Michael's ). I glue them together to create a 1 1/2 " thick hull. I cut it down to about 28" to match the length of my other ships...Sanded it and cut out my bow and stern.

 

[maddadicus]

Next I spray painted it gloss black...I took cardboard and ruler and pressing hard with a pen, created the plate lines for the deck . This got painted black also. I then dry brushed gunmetal silver paint over the deck and hull, creating the metallic iron look..This gave the deck a textured look adding to the realism..I sprayed a gloss clear coat over the surface to shine it up..

 

[maddadicus]

The smoke stack was created using a round flat wood circle shape, an empty model paint can, and a cardboard tube from an electrical supply house, used for bulb holders on chandeliers..Painted black, then dry brushed gun metal silver.. The lifeboat davits are super sized paper clips found at Office Max and cut to make overhang shape..The rudder chains are small chain links found in craft stores jewelry sections as well as the rectangle belt buckle used as a vent hatch. Repair screen patch kit gave me the vent look..

 

[maddadicus]

Lego life boats painted gloss white with oak colored floors inserted will be mounted to the davits..I bought brass stanchions cheep, but decided not use them on this project as it might clutter up the deck area. The whole ship completed only cost me about $35.00 U.S. to make..Next step will be to create the flags..

 

[maddadicus]

Here's hoping for a better photo..Michael

 

[mr colt 45]

Just fantastic and very interesting. It was just great to see how You built this ship. Thanks for posting. You are a great craftsman. Keep up the great work and keep us all posted on Your next project. {bravo}} {bravo}} {bravo}}

 

[steveemmo]

Lovely little boat, If only I could have stuck to this scale size of model, I might have had a few nice dio pieces to show off, however as it never occurred to me when I built my boats out in the workshop that would need a place to display them they ended up huge, and had to go ! my USS. Monitor was a little over five feet long.

 

[maddadicus]

Lovely little boat, If only I could have stuck to this scale size of model, I might have had a few nice dio pieces to show off, however as it never occurred to me when I built my boats out in the workshop that would need a place to display them they ended up huge, and had to go ! my USS. Monitor was a little over five feet long.

You will always be the real craftsman on this forum. If you could size down your models to look OK with toy soldiers ( 30 inches length, TS plus height )even if not scale correct, I would buy from you in a heartbeat. As I get older, I find myself too overwhelmed with job stuff to make my own anymore. Michael