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Author Topic: USS Choctaw 1862  (Read 3871 times)

Flundle (Speedline Models)

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USS Choctaw 1862
« on: August 23, 2014, 08:40:12 pm »

I have in the past only really been interested in very few warships and my tastes are a bit strange I guess.
The USS Monitor has always been a favourite and the ships of the American Civil War offer an amazing choice of the weird and wonderfull so its no surprise to find myself heavily into another. This time its the USS Choctaw in 1/72 scale.
She is the most wonderfull looking vessel (?) and at just over a metre long she's impressive too. 
I ordered some plans of Taubman in the US of A but they were a bit iffy so I CAD,d them up and set to.
Choctaw was a classic side wheel Mississippi river boat before being 'converted' into a casemate ironclad. If you look her up on Google images you'll see why I put 'converted' in apostrophes.
The paddle boxes are very high and on the immediate inside they are almost open to view so the drive system was big issue. Looking on the net I found some right angle drive units with a 280 size 12V motor and an output speed of just 120 rpm. Perfect!
God bless laser cutters, I would hate to have to fretsaw those paddle wheels out.
 I made up some hexagonal steel drive shafts that slip over the gearbox output shaft and fit tightly into the paddlewheel centres to provide the drive. The gearboxes were about £20 complete with motors so great value too.
If anyone is interested in how things are progressing I'll keep the posts going and add some piccies. Martin might think I'm advertising and scratch the thread but I hope not. There are some really interesting aspects, both of the ship and the modelling techniques being used.
I have an 'In the workshop page on my site and soon I will be putting it on that but only picces there. Here we can talk about it?
Hope you like the subject matter.
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Bob K

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2014, 09:45:59 pm »

Googling images, that looks wonderfully weird indeed.  I love weird warships  :-))

Can't see it as advertising unless you plan to market a kit from her, and as the ship is both so unusual and would be technically challenging to sail that sounds unlikely.

Please post some build photos so we can appreciate the challenges involved.
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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2014, 04:02:37 pm »

OK will take some tomorrow.
How do I put photos into the reply?
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TailUK

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2014, 09:41:34 am »

A lot of sidewheelers had high paddle casings like this.  IIRC it enabled the wheel to be winched up out of the water to  clear obstacles and assist in repairs.
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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2014, 07:42:47 pm »

Well I had no idea that was the case, thanks for the info.
I have taken some photos today and , after tea, my grandson will no doubt show me how to put them on the site.
F/I I have the plans for the Virginia too and I know I should be making that. Anything 'confederate' will sell' I was told just after I made the Monitor!

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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2014, 04:41:55 pm »

I have tried and I have failed. So I'm trying again.
I had a lot of text with it too so I'm not going to write anything until the piccies are up so hang on....
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Bob K

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2014, 06:04:31 pm »

Nice woodwork  :-))
Ironclads of this era are really fascinating. 
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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2014, 07:01:40 pm »

Thanks. Nothing is glued yet, its held together by tabs, sellotape and gravity.
I'll post some more pictures which give a much better idea of its overall shape.
The little motor/gearbox was a great find and fits like it was designed for the purpose.
The drive shafts are 6mm diameter and a 0.44 A/F  hex bar drilled fits over it and is secured by an allen screw. The shaft is fitted through the rectangular hole in the outer wall of the paddle wheel housing after the paddle wheel is inserted up into the housing. A spacer and collar locate and lock the wheel into place. The paddle wheel has a hexagonal hole through it to transfer the drive.
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derekwarner

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2014, 07:43:36 pm »

FLUNDLE....those small DC geared motors do look interesting O0....as does the laser cut plywood material

1. what sort of unloaded output RPM do you expect? [@ say 6 or 12 volts]
2. is the motor/box dimensionally mirror reversible?

Derek
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raflaunches

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2014, 07:53:33 pm »

Hi Adrian


Looks like another promising project, like Bob K I enjoy the weird and unusual. Look forward to your progress :-))
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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2014, 09:42:07 pm »


Hi there,

If you could increase the picture sizes to around 100K they will show larger in size on the Forum.

Hope this helps

ken

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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2014, 11:49:26 pm »

In truth, I haven't run the motors yet. The motors on 12V should give 120 rpm, at no load and since these are only 280's the won't pull much current. The gearing is very low so torque should be relatively high and I expect to loose very little in rpm due to the small paddle blade size and there only being three of them in the water at any time.
The motors should run equally well in both directions but yes, the motors hole mountings are symmetrical so reversible.
 I will pop a battery across them tomorrow to see. I hope they are silent too.
The plywood is 3mm thick. Some I bought from a specialist supplier is birch ply waterproof stuff at £44 a sheet and it cuts very nicely. Some came from Jotika and was a lot less but can't remember how much it was. It laser cuts OK too. If you use too slow a cutting speed, the edges of the wood char badly so you have to be carefull there. The glue also melts and stains the wood and looks a mess. It doesn't matter since when its dry it sands off and of course its painted too.

The thin ply is 0.8mm, from John Wright again and cuts and engraves well.
I,m not sure how to do the armour yet but engraving lines into the thin ply was my initial thought, we will see.
Planking the wooden decks should be fun as the planks are American Oak veneer laser cut into 2mm wide strips and stuck on with PVA. Guide lines are etched into the ply sub structures by the laser to keep everything straight.
I have say, I really like this wood stuff!
The small wheelhouse sits on top of a truncated cone, to tight to wrap ply around so I think it might be a cone of brown paper wrapped around the wood substructure then planked with precut plating made from the thin ply. That's a tomorrow job too.
I'll keep you informed.
Its all new to me so any suggestions would be very help full.
I'll post some piccies of the Choctaw tomorrow too.
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Flundle (Speedline Models)

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2014, 02:03:05 pm »

I'll try with thee next photos to get them to 100k. Is that the suggested max or the limit?
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Bob K

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Re: USS Choctaw 1862
« Reply #13 on: August 29, 2014, 02:32:54 pm »

I tend to use a max width of around 600.  This image of USS Choctaw was 600 x 352 pixels.  At 72 dpi = 50k
Dropped into my Photobucket account, just copy the IMG link shown by the picture in Photobucket and pasted into Mayhem text.

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