Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| One of the last ironclads built in America
was the Dunderberg. She was designed as a casemate ironclad ram with a
sharp protruding bow. She was 368 feet long and displaced over 7,000 tons.
She was armed with four 15" and twelve 11" guns firing from within the
armored superstructure. Dunderberg was built with two sails to supplement
the steam power and could make about 15 knots maximum speed on trials.
Unfortunately this large warship was completed in 1865, too late to help
in the US Civil War. The Navy no longer had a need for this large ship
and she was returned to her builder. In 1867 she was purchased by the France
and renamed the Rochambeau. The French had little need for this ship but
did not want to risk letting the Prussian buy her. She served with the
French fleet during the Franco-German War, but did not see combat. Due
to her poor sea keeping in high seas she was used for coastal defenses.
Her career was relatively short and she was broken up in 1874.
This latest kit is yet another example of technology at work. The ship was originally modeled on the computer by Orin Palmer, nice work Orin. His CAD files were then used to create a master for this kit. From there Combrig's great casting takes over. |
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| HULL | |||||||||||||
| The hull on this ship is typical of the fine casting that we have been seeing from Combrig lately. Surface detail is well done, and will really stand out if you lightly weather your ship. I especially like the locating holes being cast in to assist with parts placement. |
to enlarge  |
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE AND DETAILS | |||||||||||||
| What few parts that are in this kit are well cast. The funnel and mast platform look good. Ship boats are clean and crisp and nicely done. The vents and cannon barrels have nice well formed openings. |  |
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The only thing I can complain about are the masts, but
most of us replace these with brass rod anyway. I do appreciate that they
are included and you can use them as templates to make ones that are sturdy
enough to support rigging.
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| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||||||
The Instructions are pretty basic consisting of a plan
and elevation and an exploded view with parts list. These are adequate
for this kit as it is pretty simple.
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| REFERENCES | |||||||||||||
| More information can be found at: | |||||||||||||
| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||||||
This is a yet another example of a rare subject being offered by the resin kit company that continues to set the bar for quality. Priced at $32 on Pacific Front Hobbies website this is a great value for the modeler. Especially those who like to build these relatively unknown subjects like the Dunderberg. Thanks to Combrig for the review sample and for bringing another unique kit to the market. |
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