ACW Naval week 13 update

13 weeks! 

When I started the ACW Naval blog updates 13 weeks ago, the objective was to hold my feet to the fire and get the 1/600 models assembled and painted. After a quarter of a year, I can see that great progress has been made and that a fair bit of work remains. Time to take stock of the achievements and lessons learned and outline what remains to be done.

One achievement is that all the ship models have been assembled. Items that have languished in boxes since 2007 are assembled and based! Given that it was a 9 year backlog, this alone is cause for celebration. 

New models have joined the tabletop fleet and are ready for play. This includes a salvaged Sassacus model, two Patrick Henry models, USS Varuna, USS Calhoun, USS Pawnee, USS Eastport, CSS Florida, CSS Selma, the Confederate Yazoo Monster, Battery Buchanan and assorted gun batteries. Not bad work for a quarter of a year! 

Lessons learned

You don't have to do a lot of work all at once. A little work, when you can do it adds up over time. Don't feel like you can't tackle the project because you can't set aside enough time to do it all at once. Break the task into small parts and take each as time allows. It's surprising how quickly the results build up! 

Sharing the results along the way has helped improve the finished work. Knowing that someone else will view these models pushes the quality bar higher and results in a better product than just a 'table ready' model. 

Sweat the details. You'll be happier knowing you've giving the model the best effort you can muster. But don't drown in sweat - at the end of the day these are tabletop gaming models. Remember the 3 foot rule!


On to week 13 results! 

What's done...
Two models join the fleet this week - USS Pawnee and USS Calhoun. Pawnee served on the Potomac River flotilla in 1861 and remained in service for the rest of the war. 

Ready for action!

Seriously? Two wires are missing from the foremast? 

This quarter view showcases the amount of standing rigging present on the model.

USS Calhoun from Bay Area Yards.

 Calhoun has the distinction of starting service with the Confederacy before falling into Union hands. For such a small vessel, Calhoun was in the thick of the action through the war.  


What's coming along...

Work on the squadron of Union sloops continues Kearsarge moving through the paint queue while the two Lackawanna class sloops have received their armament and await touch up painting and rigging. 

 

USS Kearsarge from Throughbred Models.

USS Lackawanna from Bay Area Yards.

"Are we not the baddest sloops in the fleet, Lackawanna?"

"Yes we are Other Lackawanna. Yes we are."

 

USS Susquehanna is coming along with painting almost finished on the masts and the hull touched up after the recent red lead incident. 

 

The model in the rear is an old TCS casting of a blockade runner in "not-1/600" scale. a fellow gamer cut off the deck fittings using industrial equipment. The conversion was done way back in the day before Bay Area Yards existed and was far beyond the current range of Thoroughbred models available. Given the limitations of the model and the modlellers skill the result continues to serve in Ray's fleet filling in for whatever large sidewheeler  is required.

With the TCS model in the foreground. The masts are very simple posts. The mizzen mast was scrounged from a Throughbred Sassacus kit that as sacrificed for parts (but which was recently resurrected and refit - see earlier post)

USS Susquehanna and USS Miami.

Both models are from Bay Area Yards.

 

USS Miami is about ready to receive armament and rigging as well. 

Apparently Miami only has the single mast forward. This might be unique as I cannot point to another double ender with the same configuration.

What's in the queue...
 Finishing up the above project really leaves one big project in the queue with a couple of minor tasks to finish off the project. The big project is indeed big - Bay Area Yards USS Minnesota model. There's a bit of painting to do, then mount the formidable spar deck armament...and then the rigging.

That's A LOT OF MAST!

USS Minnesota in broadside, the masts tower over the hull.

 

ACW Naval - status update week 11

Another somewhat slow week in the yards. The week started off with a bronchial-sinus cold that sucked away the will to do much work. But towards the end of the week, the weather cleaned up enough and my energy levels bounced back enough to accomplish a few things.

What's Completed
Good news everyone! Three models can be marked as finished - CSS Patrick Henry, CSS Jamestown and USS Sassacus all have the rigging installed and are ready for the game table. Huzzah!

CSS Patrick Henry

CSS Jamestown

USS Sassacus

What's in Progress?

A fair amount of activity this week. Basically a lot of small tasks that are not yet gelling into tangible results.

CSS McRae is slowly getting painted.

USS Susquehanna had the masts assembled and mounting holes drilled out this week.

A big side wheel frigate. A nice model from Bay Area Yards.

The post from the aft mast is smaller than the other two. I drilled to hole too large and the mast rattles around a bit.

USS Miami also slowly getting painted.

USS Calhoun getting a little pigment laid on. I'm thinking a mostly gray palette for this one.

Bit of a mess right now. Painting the superstructure is a pain with the hogging beams in place.

USS Eastport getting the base coat applied. Thinking white upper works and tan/gray decks.

USS Kearsarge with a dark gray hull color applied.

Slow work on USS Pawnee. Doing a good job on the rigging adds a lot of time to the modeling process.

A Milestone! 

The two Lackawanna class sloops. The one in back is the last unassembled model in the queue. At this point every model is assembled and at least primed! Huzzah! Huzzah! 

While I was laid up this week, I spent some time reading Donald L. Caney's book Lincoln's Navy. I wish I'd read this years ago. This book is loaded with great tidbits on ship's ordnance, ship handling and rigging that all influence how a model would appear in action. Knowing what I know now, I'd go back and change details on almost every model.  Grab a copy if you find it! 

ACW Naval review - Week 9

Another week already?

Progress in the past week was much slower than in preceding weeks. This is due to two factors - 1 the nature of the main task (rigging) is by it's nature slow work for me. The other has been time devoted to another hobby (model trains) cut into my free time this week. This next week will be similar, mostly due to preparations for CINCYCON which is next weekend. I'll be hosting two games (ACW naval using Smoke on the Water and Mongoose Publishing's Starship Troopers). So time to work on the models will be somewhat limited.

With that out of the way, here's the progress from the last week.

Rigging on the CSS Patrick Henry continues. Actually, the rigging is installed -painting is the next task!

May have spoke too soon. The bowsprit needs another wire run to the foremast.

Looking down on the CSS Thomas Jefferson. Armed with two pivot rifles.

CSS Thomas Jefferson is getting there. four more wires to go!

USS Pawnee is just getting started.

USS Sassacus needs one more wire and  then painting starts!

That's all for now!

ACW Naval Week Five Status Report

okay, it's been a busy, hectic week for a number of reasons, so this week's update is moe of a photo montage of what's been going on. Progress is being made, some models are nearing completion while a couple of new ones made it out of the box and onto the construction table. So without futher ado...

What's almost done...

The Yazoo Monster is done. Based up and ready for gaming. To be honest, I'm having doubts about the base coloration.

CSS Patrick Henry is almost done! Just need to work on the guns and get the rigging done. (groan...rigging.)

CSS Selma based up and just needing a flag to be finished.

Sassacus salvage project almost done. Just a little rigging and a flag and I'll call it done.

What's getting there...

CSS Florida from Bay Area Yards. This one's been sitting for years. It's stuck at the stage of needing it's rigging completed. So that's the task at hand. The foremast has most of the rigging installed. Then it's work aft to the end.

Close up of the rigging. I think the stacks need to be painted a darker color, but the raiders often went 'low visibility'.

Another model from the Bay Area Yards stable - USS Varuna. Got the masts installed and the formast has it's standing rigging in place.

What's new to the queue...

I pulled out the model for CSS McRae this week. A Confederate gunboat that fought at New Orleans,  it's model that has only been available from Bay Area Yards. It's been in the box for about 18 months since it came home with me from a trip to California.

Sorting out the parts, the masts got a bit bent in transit coming home.

The masts were pretty easy to straighten out.

It's a relatively small model compared to many other ships.

The hull with the bowsprit installed.

Overhead view of the hull.

Another new project to reach the table is USS Lackawanna. It's a near sister to USS Hartford (in the middle). The Bay Area Yards model has more of a fighting rig for the masts.

Here's an overhead view of the Lackawanna hull. These screw sloops saw extensive service on both the coasts and the Mississippi River campaigns.

USS Kearsarge is in the process of being assembled. This is a Thoroughbred Figures model that's been in the box since - ahem - 2007. Assembly has gone well so far. The outstanding items are the chain armor boxes and the bedding rolls along the tops of the gunwales.