U.S.S. Monitor

Flagship Models Updated Kit. 1/192 Scale Resin

Reviewed by Devin Poore, October 2025


 
NOTE: This history summary of USS Monitor is exactly the same one I used for the Armory Models kit a few months ago. No need to re-write it; it hasn't changed since then. 

When Confederate forces captured the Gosport naval shipyard near Norfolk, Virginia, shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War, one of the prizes was the U.S. Navy frigate, USS Merrimack. Scuttled and burned to the waterline by retreating Union forces, the Confederates raised the hull, with the machinery as intact as machinery that'd been burned and sunk could be, and began converting her to what would be the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia. When word of this reached the US government, many plans were undertaken to come up with a ship that could counter the threat of the new ironclad. Of the designs considered, the one that would become USS Monitor was settled upon as the quickest solution. Approved in September 1861, and laid down on October 25th, she was launched just over 100 days later on January 30th, 1862. 

Monitor embodied many first, with over 40 patentable inventions, the most important of which to the crew was likely the first flushing toilet installed below the waterline. While rotating gun platforms and armored gun enclosures were not new concepts, USS Monitor was the first time they would be combined and tested in actual combat. After several short cruises as sea trials around her building ways in Brooklyn, NY, she made her maiden voyage, mostly under tow by a tug on March 6th, 1862, headed for Norfolk, Virginia. She nearly sank in heavy weather along the way, yet arrived at Hampton Roads on the evening of March 8th, only to find that CSS Virginia has been amongst the wooden Union fleet that day, dealing heavy damage. The following morning, Virginia sailed forth to the attack once again, only to find Monitor between her and the rest of the fleet. After closing and dueling for several hours, the battle was considered mostly a draw, with neither ship doing much damage to the other.

USS Monitor would continue to serve through the rest of 1861, but never again engage in her true purpose of ship-to-ship combat. After undergoing refit and upgrades for problems encountered during her duel with Virginia, she deployed as part of the forces ascending the James River towards Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign. After the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, where she had limited results against shore fortifications, she was withdrawn to be sent further south. On December 31st, 1862, while under tow towards Beaufort, North Carolina, USS Monitor sank in a heavy storm. Over the years her wreck had several close encounters with the surface world, one of which saw her depth-charged during WWII as a supposed German submarine. She was discovered again, 111 years after her sinking, in August of 1973. In the 1990s, salvage began, and parts of the ship, including her turret, guns, prop, anchor, and other artifacts have been recovered, all of which are undergoing preservation at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA.

This is an abbreviated history, as so much has already been written about USS Monitor. For those interested, I wrote a longer piece about her and Virginia several years ago HERE. 
USS Monitor in 1862

 
 
HULL 
Squadron purchased the Flagship Models line of ironclads after the passing of the owner Rusty White in early 2023. They have begun re-releasing some of the kits, with USS Monitor first on the shipway. While the resin hull and photoetched brass in the kit are much the same as when the original Flagship kit was reviewed on this site years ago, the smaller parts have been replaced with 3D printed components.

The hull comes cast as one large hunk o' resin, like the original kit. The resin used is a bit lighter, and white in color, but otherwise it's from the same mold/master. There's a noticeable casting gate that'll have to be cut off, and care will need to be taken to not damage the adjacent bolt detail (Civil War ironclad armor was held on by bolts, not rivets), but it shouldn't be too big of a chore. The rest of the hull is well detailed and clean. The only thing that caught my eye as being a little soft were the outlines of the stacks on the after deck, but those are merely locators for the printed stacks, so those outlines won't be visible. The rest of the hull sports good bolt detail, plating on the lower hull, and a hollow anchor well on the underside of the bow.

 
PRINTED PARTS 
The remainder of the resin parts are printed. As with most 3D prints, there are slight layer lines that are noticeable under magnification, but not so much to the naked eye. The turret is printed as a one-piece assembly, with nicely detailed deck planking and supports already attached. Other small parts such as the screw (propeller), gun carriages, Dahlgren guns, pilot house, anchor, etc, are all nicely represented and easily removable from their respective print rafts. My kit has several copies of most of these parts, so there's room for experimentation, or a replacement if a part disappears in the carpet, or a cat eats something. Several of the parts are replacements for items also included on the photoetch fret, such as the stacks and Hampton Roads era pilot house, so the modeler can decide which they prefer to use. If using the slope-sided pilot house, check references for the stacks. I'm sure there's a time frame when Monitor sported that sloped pilot house and retained the short funnels, before going to her later Y trunked funnels, but I'm not certain of when those changes were made.
PHOTO ETCHED BRASS and DECALS
The included photoetched fret is from the original Flagship kit, with no changes. Items such as awning supports, boat davits, ladders, the previously mentioned stacks and pilot house, as well as stanchions and wheels for a deck gun, are all nicely relief etched. The Flagship photoetch has always been top-notch, I've purchased many sets over the years for my own scratch builds and other kits. Again, the stacks and pilot house are duplicated between the photoetch and prints, so choose whichever you like.

A small bag includes the only decal in the kit, the US flag, as well as a short length of metal anchor chain.
INSTRUCTIONS
The included instructions are exactly the same as the old kit's instructions, the only changes are annotations that the company is now owned by Squadron, and that some of the parts have been replaced by prints. Other than that, construction is laid out in a straight forward manner, using CAD drawings, which should be easy to follow, as there aren't many parts to this kit, as can be seen with their simple, two-page, layout.
CONCLUSIONS
The Flagship Models Civil War warship kits have been around for years, and it's good to see that Squadron has picked up the line and is continuing with it. Besides this USS Monitor kit, the CSS Virginia and USS Choctaw have also been reissued. According to Squadron, they will continue to produce kits with the masters and molds on-hand, until they are eventually upgraded. Upgrades will include the 3D printed parts as in this kit, with an eye towards updating the hull masters in the future.

Recommended for fans of American Civil War ships. With the minimal parts and the larger scale, this would be a good contender for a modeler's first resin kit. There's a little cleanup required on the hull and some photoetch work, but slight enough not to be daunting; a good introduction to multi-media subjects.

Thank you to Squadron for the review sample. As of the writing of this review (October 2025), the kit retails for $124.99 on their website, which you can find by clicking on the logo to the right.

 

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