CSS Manassas -aka- Steam Atragon

[Steampunk]

Okay, here goes with this becoming an actual Build Thread ... in a more usual, "start at the beginning" sort of way.

Here's the historical drawing I had started with, to draw up my own blueprints ... and testing some theories as I went, using a "half model" ... eventually ending up with the static model seen above.




... and here is a tracing that someone made, of that official drawing. For several reasons I'll explain later, in some detail (in both words and via pictures), I felt the "several decades after the fact" tracing below was considerably less reliable than the original drawing, above.

Basically, I noted that this drawing below existed, and I did study it (along with anything else I found) ... but when it came time to get serious about figuring out the proportions, outlines, and contours of the "real thing" I immediately went back to the image, above.





These two drawings, plus some very interesting text accounts, I had sourced from an official U.S. Navy historical web site ... so they're as "official" a pair of drawings as anyone is likely to run across. And given that the first one was drawn by an eyewitness, who saw the real thing OUT of the water, while it was being reconstructed in dry dock ... well, to me, considering how "iffy" most of the other, later artist's takes on this thing generally seemed to be ... well, while I eagerly studied any contemporary (or later) drawings I could find, I kept coming back to that first drawing; over and over and over. When the initial "study all the images you can find" period ended, I used that drawing almost exclusively; as I felt virtually everything else was just too prone to guesswork and "making things up". Anyway ... more on the analysis phase, in just a bit!

[Steampunk]

Thanks much for the compliments! Appreciated!

I'll add more details as to what's supposed to be what, as far as things like that "cannon in an armored tube" sorta thing, a bit later ... but for now, know that this isn't totally fictional. I took a dockside drawing from 1861, a few years back, and did my best to interpret it in an orthographically valid way ... and came up with what you see, above. I may have mis-guessed in a huge variety of ways (given how little info I had to work with, etc.!) if one compares the model I made, to the original boat ... but since no one has yet seen anything but vague sketches and drawings of the "real thing," I'd say that just looking at what I'd started with, vs. the model seen above: I feel the model is one orthographically valid interpretation of J.A. Chalaron's original "blueprint" of the CSS Manassas.

(But the short answer to your specific question is: yeah, that's supposed to be a forward-facing-only cannon's armored living quarters. A normal-sized cannon wasn't very likely, in that turret in back ... but if you had a carronade in there, and treated it kind of like a "one shot wonder," and didn't try to stay inside the turret itself, when firing that weapon ... technically, I think the technology of the time would have allowed 180-degree rotation; and a limited firing capability.)

Getting to the big question:

I personally have no intention of creating a hull kit, for sale to others ... BUT that doesn't mean others won't give it a shot, at some point down the road. Just depends on how cool other people think the design is; and how badly other people want to have something like this, patrolling their local pools and ponds.

By putting a full "blueprint" set of drawings up, in another thread -- (see link above, right below the pictures; or the one a bit below this paragraph) -- my intent was to go out of my way to make it easy for other folks to duplicate this model (or build something like it), in any scale they wish. And if someone does that, and then sells copies of the parts they created themselves, to other fans of R/C models, I'm not gonna whine about it. I posted the drawings, HOPING they'd get used by some folks around here! (Either as a one-off, or possibly as some sort of a kit effort.) It would be cool if others credited whatever work they feel I've done, if they make a kit closely based on this thing ... but, ultimately, whenever you upload something like a full drawing set to a public forum, some might use it with no thought of crediting prior work. It didn't feel like that much of a risk, to me, either way. The drawings are just sitting on my hard drive, anyway ... so, why not share them a bit? Especially since build threads have some chance of resulting, down the road! I think it'd be kinda cool, seeing others building stuff from drawings I created.

Take a good look at the supplied drawing set, folks, before any of you assume it'd be too much work to duplicate what I've done, in the pics above.

http://forum.sub-driver.com/showthre...by-Ward-Shrake)

Even if a person hasn't really built much of anything from blueprints, before, I'd argue that with this set of drawings that I recently uploaded, it's quite a bit easier to build something from this drawing set, than is usually the case. The reason for that being: in my experience, Merriman's a very motivating mentor. And not likely to put up with slackers, if he thinks they can be coaxed into doing more than they think they can. So, a few years back, in some Top Secret training sessions he was kind enough to engage in, his answers and pushes really sold me on the utility of having as many carefully-defined cross sections as can be squeezed into any given drawing set. Having been well and properly convinced of just how much head-scratching and needless work such a drawing set can save a builder, I've been going ballistic in defining many more cross sections than is the norm, with every set of working drawings I've generated since then!

Taking it a step farther: careful study will show I space each sectional drawing out, at exactly even intervals -- so, once you cut out a bunch of sections, you can treat them almost like "slices of bread". Just cut each "slice" out, using sheets of something that is as thick as the drawing's spacing. Line those "slices of bread" up, back to back to back, until they make a full "loaf of bread" ... and you'll find 90% of the shaping work is done for you, in those few easy steps. From there, it's just a bit of eyeballing and some carefully planned sanding (to eliminate the "stair steps" along each slice's "crust" area) and then some fiberglass layered over top of all that ... and you would have some useful hull halves to play with, and R/C to your heart's content.

Keep in mind, too, that while this crazy thing just begs to be a full submersible, that the original CSS Manassas wasn't. There's considerable evidence in the historical records of the day that say it could change it's freeboard at will, via water ballast and such ... but if a person was trying to cut complication way, way down, they could build their model as a surface skimmer instead of a submarine. Leaving just that armored portion, visible up there in the sunshine.

Having been a student of Merriman's for some years now, and studying his Cabal Reports in detail for a long time, and reading threads here, etc., I'd say that many of you could build a copy of this thing, with considerably less "blueprint" information ... and seeing how helpful I've tried to make the full drawing set, some of you might consider something like this to be a light-duty, fun, no-big-headaches, "in-between serious projects" sort of build. Heck, if folks here were interested enough in it, I'd bet someone out there could crank something like this hull's shape out before the summer's over, and the cold weather begins to set in?!? Anyone out there up for the challenge of seeing if you can crank one of these out, before the annual end-of-summer get-togethers take place?!?

[greenman407]

So the slot forward above the waterline, pointing forward is some kinda gun, I assume? 18" Naval artillery no doubt. Armour piercing and General purpose. Or Japanese Long Lance torpedo tube.

[greenman407]

You caught my attention Ward. Really nice, a modern Monitor. Looks like dual smoke stacks. That probably means dual steam engines. May I ask , If you plan on making the "more fun kind"? One engine for each shaft. If not , do you have plans to offer hulls for sale? Just asking.

[Steampunk]

I usually over-do the word count on most of my posts, so I'll reverse that trend here ... and will just let eight pics speak for themselves:



















The good news is ... if you want to build one of these river monsters for yourself, I've also uploaded the full set of working drawings to these forums. (Which I can do, since I'm the one who drew them up in the first place.) You can grab all of that info at the link below:

http://forum.sub-driver.com/showthre...by-Ward-Shrake)