| The CSS Neuse was an shallow draft
ironclad ram built in Whitehall, North Carolina.Named for the river on
which she was built. The Neuse was damaged during construction in the battle
of Whitehall, and construction was delayed. She was floated downriver to
Kingston, where work progressed at a slow pace. Finally in April of 1864
she was ready for action. She proceeded downstream to assist in the attempt
to recapture New Bern. Unfortunately she grounded 1/2 mile downstream and
spent almost a month marooned on the sandbar until higher river levels
finally freed her.The Neuse remained at Kingston to prevent any Union ships
from coming up river. In March 1965 when Union troops were advancing on
Kingston, the Neuse held them off with her cannon fire. Later when the
conferderate troops were forced to withdraw, the Neuse was scuttled in
the Neuse river where she remained until being raised and preserved as
a museum ship almost 100 years later. |
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| HULL |
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| The Hull is cast with the superstructrure as one piece. The casting
is clean with only a resin runner along the keel that needs to be removed.
Some of the gun ports will need a little cleanup unless you chose to model
them covered. The deck planking is nicely done as is the iron clad plating
over the superstructure and hull. |
click images
to enlarge
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Rusty White writes:
| "The technical term (if there is such a thing) is "strap iron". The
Southern states were desperate for facilities to make plate iron. Lacking
facilities but not railroad rails, they pounded the rails flat into four
inch wide straps made the same way the iron straps (thus the name) for
water barrels were made. This is the corrugated looking effect seen on
the CSS vessels as opposed to the plate iron used on the Northern vessels.
As it turned out, strap iron was a very versatile medium that suited
the Confederate states. Most Confederate ironclads were literally built
and/or repaired in corn fields by the rivers. With few formal facilities,
the strap iron was easy to apply and repair in these less than sophisticated
facilities." |
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| RESIN DETAILS |
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| The only external resin structural parts on this kit is
the funnel, rudder, chocks, ships boats and cradle. The funnel is ringed
with distinctive metal straps and is well cast with a hollowed out appearance.
The ships boat has nice wood planking detail on the exterior and
pretty good interior detail. I would have liked to see the seat boards
replaced by strips of plastic or photo etch, but that is something that
you can do yourself if you desire. I like having the chocks as separate
parts, especially in this larger scale.
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| WEAPONS AND FITTINGS |
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| Anchors, vents, and gun barrels are cast in white metal with just a
light amount of flash on some parts. The anchors are well formed and will
look realistic with the real metal chain provided. The metal gun barrels
are pretty good. I would resist the urge to turn these as I believe these
canons were cast and would have had a somewhat rough surface. Two propellers
are included to power your ship. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| What would a Flagship kit be without Flagship Photo Etch. A new brass
photo etch is included to supply the details. This fret is also available
separately. A more detailed look at this fret is provided in the separeate
review. |
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| DECALS |
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| A decal sheet with flags and pennants from both sides is included.
Several styles of Confederate flags are provided so chose the one that
best fits the era you are modeling. These smaller flags scale out to 7'
x 6' in size. These are also available separately for your other projects. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The Instructions two pages with assembly notes. They are
well drawn and appear to show all the assembly steps. Also included are
instructions for adding items such as awnings for when your ironclad is
not in battle. I've included a scan of the box art as the three view drawing
is nicely colored.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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If you like building large models, this is a good kit for you. It's
small part count and minimum cleanup will make it a good first resin kit
subject. Especially if you are a fan of the Blue and the Gray, and enjoy
building kits you can actually see without your glasses! This is
kit #FM19226 1/192 CSS Neuse listed for $55.00, available direct
from Flagship
Models via it's online ordering system.
With such a simple shape the painting and weathering be what makes this
kit standout. Not to worry, as Flagship has a line of How to CD's that
will help you out in many topics from Building
Resin Ships and Working with Photo
Etch Parts to Making Realistic Water. |
