So I got bitten with the make-another-aeronef bug.

This time I'm making one for the unvanquished Confederacy, based roughly on the CSS Albemarle, seen here:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h57000/h57266.jpg
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h76000/h76384.jpg

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures until I had most of the deck roughed out.

First, I cut the deck section from foamcore, having done some measuring, guestimating, and research/crackpottery online.  Having accomplished that, I glued craft sticks to the deck (using superglue this time so as to not warp the foamcore with white glue), trimmed it off, and dremeled the ends down to the outline of the deck.

The cabin was made in styrene, and in this picture is not glued on.  Some Great Rail Wars figures are shown for scale.  This image was taken at the end of the day August 11th.



In this next image, the underhull has been made from styrene and glued on.  I've put a roof on the upper bit and added a smokestack from part of a pen(?) and a serial port bracket from an old computer or possibly VCR.  Another bracket makes the front porthole, and the bit that clips a mouse wheel into a computer mouse makes the hatchway on the back.

The cannon and mount are from the melt-bin at Reapercon.  I think the mount may have been a GW tank gun, and the cannon had an attached 10mm fist holding it.

I think the gearbox is made from half a cable insulator.  It's really dense and fairly heavy, and feels like rubber.  The propeller shaft casing is from two VCR parts I can't identify, and the shaft itself used to have a large VCR gear/cam thing on it.  There's a hex-nut at the end of the tail to mount the large GW flying base I'll use as a propeller, but only after the ship's been painted.

The tail struts are the large covers from Zap-a-gap bottles.  Yes, I really do go through this much superglue.  The tail fins themselves are bits of metal from the bits-bin and I have no idea where they're from.  

And the spar torpedo is a capacitor off a circuit board.  As a friend put it, "Torpedo spars are always appropriate, especially at childrens' events."

This image was taken at the end of the day August 12th.


Still to do:
I want to put two small portholes at the front of the cabin at about figure eye-level, and two cannon-ports at about figure waist-level per side.  The problem here is that I'm running into The Rule of Three - that being I can only find three of any given part that would make a cannon port-hole, and I need four.

What I will make the cannons out of is less clear, but this is VSF, so I should be fine if I don't strain plausibility too far.

I need to somehow disguise the seam in the walls - I didn't have long enough sheets of styrene so I had to make a join somewhere.  Shouldn't be a big deal, I just need to do it.

I'm debating on whether to put posts and a railing around the gunwales  They'd get in the way of the cannonfire and comparable Confederate vessels didn't have them, but if done right they could greatly enhance the look.  I'm open to suggestions here.

I also need to add more rivets than I ever want to think about, and greebly the whole thing up before I paint it.

Suggestions are welcome, nay, solicited.

Edit - From the top of the torpedo spar to the end of the tail, she's about 16" long.

 

Yes, indeed.  She's going to be a beaut!

I need to somehow disguise the seam in the walls - I didn't have long enough sheets of styrene so I had to make a join somewhere.  Shouldn't be a big deal, I just need to do it.

What about a ladder?

End-of-day pic, #3.



I added the port-holes and gunports on the cabin.  The cannons are spires from flight bases.  I added a wheel to the hatch in back - from a butane lighter.  The bits in the back corner are off a Crimson Skies clicky base - not sure if I'm keeping them or not, and the gearbox got some greeblies.

I added a bit in the prow to cover where I'd short-measured my styrene cut, and you can't see it but I added some trimwork to the undercarraige as well.  The seams on the sides were  covered up too.

Next up - figure out what I'm doing for railings (I'm out of nails and the sky opened up so I couldn't hit the hardware store) and then adding more rivets than I really ever want to think about again.

What a novel piece of equipment!   

As someone says,"excellent". And do I see the Louise's as well? 

very nice indeed

will the front gun get a shield of some kind?

Gorgeous work as always Froggy. I especially like the almost magical way you have of transforming found objects - your creations never cease to delight.