Sometimes Things Just Happen Part VI, Accidental Ironclad

it was almost inevitable, wasn't it?

     A little while back I was playing around with my Proxxon Hot Wire cutter (how many of these stories start that way?)   and knocked up some ACW style ironclads. Knowing the danger such things presented to my painting schedule I offered them up to anyone who would like one. Most went to good homes. Sadly this orphan was left alone. 

     Having an afternoon free I considered just chucking it in the bin and getting back to my Lace Wars cavalry schedule, but, once I had picked it up I got to thinking how simple a job it would be. The next thing I knew I was gluing things into place and cutting index card to represent the railroad irons that the Confederates used for armor. Of course after a few hours I was in too deep to quit so I plunged on and finished the job. This is where we stand now; just waiting fore the rivets to dry so I can start painting. Another pointless project, I don't even game ACW in 28mm!

     This is how things played out.....

 

sitting there, so innocent looking, just a few simple geometric shapes

 

I still can't cut curves worth a darn, so there was bit of sanding involved

 

fitting the bow-plate

wood glue, I ran out of Titebond and used Elmer's 

(which works great on real wood but behaves oddly when thinned and used on blueboard)

 

spread it around a bit with a brush to get good coverage

 

in no time I had the edges covered in card

 

the superstructure had a huge contact area, which would dry very slowly as the blueboard is not water-absorbing, so I spread a very thin layer of glue on and set it aside for a bit to get tacky

 

thin the glue slightly to ease spreading, 

also sand the surface lightly beforehand to give the glue something to hold onto

 

too lazy to roll paper smokestacks I resorted to using instant drink tubes

 

they do look the part

 

then it was time to start making the iron rails that would be the armor 

index card is great for this as the lines make it easy to cut long straight pieces

 

a thin coat of glue and I started laying the rails into place

 

as that was drying I added some armor to the pilothouse 

 

more armor, I leave the extra part stick up past the edge of the work, 

it is much faster than fitting and trimming each piece as it is installed

 

once dry you can trim it back with scissors

 

another "look check" to make sure I was on the right path

I don't work to plans and was building this from memory 

 

joining plates to cover the rough ends of the  railroad "armor"

 

nice and tidy

 

shutters over the cannon ports, some raised, some lowered

 

then the pilothouse got attached

 

the bottom of the smokestacks were wrapped in a few windings of card to give them some heft 

and make them easier to glue into place

 

cannon ports were cut through the armor plates

 

Quaker Guns! the cannon are just bits of dowel drilled out at one end

 and sharpened on the other, then poked into the blueboard

 

then a liberal application of rivets, all that remains is paint

 

a base coat of flat black

 

50/50 mix of black and metallic steel wet-brushed into the black

 

33/33/33 mix of black/steel/dark gray added over the top of that

 

followed by a drybrush of dark gray

 

then a drybrush of medium gray

 

finally a drybrush of light gray

 

it still looks a bit dark

 

at least the light gray picked up the rivets

 

28mm crew figures from a number of different sources

     I might just build a monitor to go with it...........