the shape is very simple, all flat surfaces
In my usual dilatory way I didn't get around to ordering a CSS Tennessee from Thoroughbred until this morning. Even with the usual fast service from them I was worried that the model wouldn't arrive in time for me to get it ready for play in ten days. Just to be on the safe side I decided to scratchbuild a model out of matte board and balsa. This was greatly eased by the primitive design that most Confederate ironclads followed; a greatly elongated hexagon for a hull plan and a truncated pyramid for a superstructure.
I found a drawing on line and printed it out in scale to use as my "master plan". The smokestack is a bit of bamboo skewer and the gunports are rectangles of index card. I smoothed out the balsa using wallboard compound and scribed panel lines into the surface with an X-Acto knife when it was all dried. A thin coat of superglue covered the whole surface to harden it and I added a couple of lifeboats that I highjacked from another kit to provide a little eye-candy on a very plain model.
the wake is just Liquid Nails teased out with a toothpick
the foredeck should have a pair of ventilators,
but I'm not going to try that in 1/600 scale
with a wash of black and the base finished,
it is usable if not up to the standards of the other ships
I'm really hoping that the kit I ordered gets here and I can find the free time to get it convention-ready, but now I have a back-up plan just in case.
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