USS Passaic
US Civil War Ironclad

by Sandy Moorman

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

While I normally build 'winged' things and armored treaded ground-pounder land vehicles, every now and then you've got to do something different.

I live in Virginia (USA) where a great part of the American Civil War was fought, both on land and on the water. Naturally I've always had a great interest in this history. A few minutes drive from my home takes you across a bridge spanning Hampton Roads, the site of the first battle between iron ships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (formerly the Merrimac). This battle was the definitive end of the wooden warship era.

This model is not the Monitor! This is the USS Passaic, one of a 10 ship class that followed the Monitor. They saw a large amount of combat in a number of battles. The USS Monitor was a one-off prototype. The lessons learned from the Monitor produced the 'Passaic Class' which was larger and more heavily armed mounting 11 and 15 inch cannons ( in most of them). Other improvements were made to the ventilation system, seaworthiness- remember the USS Monitor sank in a storm within a year of her famous fight with the Virginia, and moving the pilot house from the bow to on top of the turret.

This is the first release of a large scale series from Thoroughbred Models, http://www.thoroughbredmodels.com/ , who have for years produced a beautiful line of 1/600 scale civil war ships in white metal. The owner call this his '10 mm ' series as it is actually scaled to be compatible with 'N' scale railroad figures and scenery accessories.

This model of the Passaic is just under 10 inches long. The waterline hull is resin and the turret, cannons, etc, are white metal. The castings of all were nearly flawless.

This was a quick assembly and then right into painting and weathering type of project. The cannons have full carriages and mount in tracks on the bottom of the turret, two figures are supplied, and the turret top is a separate piece so you can detail the inside and leave it open for display.

Painting

I painted it with Floquil's Grimy Black and red. A black ink wash was applied and then it was weathered with pastel chalks. Polly Scale clear flat was used a final coat.

Markings

This was easy or hard depending how you want to look at it. It is known that some of the Passaic class ships had colored bands painted on them for identification purposes. That is about all that is known! Which ship had what and how much, is just not known.

Can you say 'artistic license'? I can!

This is my second attempt at a water scene.

I used artists Acrylic Gel mixed with some craft water colors. I like the ease of using the gel and will be exploring it boundaries more in the future.

Toby Barrett, who owns Thoroughbred is well along with the masters for other Civil War ships in this series. Upcoming will be the USS Monitor and Hartford, and on the Confederate side will be the CSS Manassas (now available), the Virginia, Ablemarle, Tennessee, Arkansas, along with others.

For anyone interested in ships, the American Civil War, or to just build something different, I highly recommend it. I purchased this from Thoroughbred whose owner photographed the finish model for me.
 

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2003 by Sandy Moorman
Page Created 01 May, 2003
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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