I noticed that I have two posts that I have yet to put up on my blog. One was started over a month ago and the other about a week ago. Unfortunately, I have had very little time to do much of anything and they remain unfinished. For the past month or so, I am lucky if I can stay awake long enough to get in a half hour of hobby time at night. So, if push comes to shove, I choose working on stuff than blogging about it.
My current work in progress is tiny ironclad based very loosely on the US Civil War USS New Ironsides:
 |
| Source: US Library of Congress |
From my brief research, the masts for the sails were removed and replaced by two simple pole masts for signaling purposes. It was not very sea worthy and had a lot of mechanical issues. It did participate in the First Battle of Charleston Harbor but most of its action at sea consisted of bombarding forts.
Here is my take on the New Ironsides:
Just to be clear, it is not done yet. Mine has a flying bridge, the original does not. In fact, I'm not sure how the original New Ironsides was steered. It took me a while just to find its conning tower, which looked no bigger than a garbage can and aft of the funnel. Mine has fewer gun ports and lacks a ram. I will finish it, but I plan to make a New Ironsides II. For some reason, it came out shorter than I would have liked. Measuring in at just under 4 cm, the gunboats that I have made are longer than this thing. Therefore, I want to lengthen it by at least another centimeter. A longer ship will mean I can add more gun ports. I will keep my flying bridge and add a conning tower just to the front of the bridge. I will also add a ram to it. I might or might not add sail masts.
