Confederate Canonneer
120mm Verlinden Canon and using various spare parts from the Verlinden 120mm range to make a figure
Article in Military Modelling magazine 2008
It's not often that I take the time to do a bit of sculpting.
I don't believe myself to be that good at it really, and there's plenty of
stock kits out there, just crying out for me to paint them, without going to
all the trouble of getting out the putty myself.
But here I am, with a very large cannon, sent through the post from
Francois Verlinden, having been passed on to me by the late Derek Holmes, a
matter of days before his death.
The cannon itself is big. Very big. Well it's sculpted to conform to a
120mm scale figure, although when I got it there wasn't anything in
Verlinden's range that could be said to complement it - I'll bet that there
is now though, seeing as I've been up to my neck in putty !
Anyway. The cannon.
Basically a large barrelled gun on a very small trolley, this latter sporting only two wheels. And could I find any references. Not on your Nelly !
But to my rescue came Osprey publications with a book all about the Confederate Ironclads. This showed several plates of different ships, and on ne of the illustrations, that of the CSS Virginia, was a tiny representation of this gun - a 9 inch Dahlgren smoothbore on a Marsilly gun carriage.
The history bit
The Confederate States of America were formed in February of 1861, and war with the Union was soon to follow. The unfortunate tactical disadvantage for the Confederacy being it's massive coastline, with many river inlets and it's total lack of a navy.
Sure, it had coastal defences, but even these were inadequate to stave of any persistent attack. So towards the end of that same February, a naval department was formed under the leadership of Stephen R. Mallory.
The Department was split into four sections covering supply, design and ordinance, details and orders, and medicine and surgery.
The test bed design was a new kind of ship, an Ironclad, and the first one was built using the USS Merrimac's hull and engines with a new casemate and ram on the upper hull.
The South had little capacity for manufacturing at this time, and this fact alone was a handicap that would dog all their forces, both land and sea, throughout the war with the North.
It was to be a revolutionary design, the armoured sides of the upper hull being sloped - in comparison to all it's contemporaries which were slab sided, vertical armour plates - and the bow and stern sections would be rounded. The added protection this gave was undoubtedly quite phenomenal.
The upper hull was built out of a wooden structure two feet ( 600mm ) thick, this being covered by two layers of two inch ( 50mm ) thick rolled iron plate.
Armament was provided by 6 Dahlgren smoothbores ( which were part of the Merrimac's original ordinance ), two new 6.4 inch Brooke rifles on conventional trolleys and two 7 inch Brooke's on swivel trolleys at the bow and stern.
The additional bow ram, a 1500 pound construction positioned three feet below the waterline rounded out a considerable weapons platform.
Further to all this, with the weight displacement of all that armour, the hull was almost totally submerged, giving a very low silhouette for the enemy to target.
On the down side though, the Virginia as she was now named, had very poor manoeuvrability, very low speed, and had a deep draft (23 feet ) all three undoubtedly causing problems in the coastal tides where she was deployed.
However, the Virginia's performance at the battle of Hampton Roads proved the design to be basically sound, and she was to used as the Confederacy's template for all future ironclad design. The main alterations of course being to rectify the power, manoeuvrability and deep draft flaws in subsequent ships.
Five further ironclads were built by the Confederacy using refurbished hulls from existing ships, followed by five further vessels which were designed "from the keel up" to be ironclads.
Even with this pro-active view of building their navy, the Confederacy were to struggle to hold any ground against the Union. More and more concessions were made to Union forces, from actually attacking Union shipping in 1861/1862 to the point in mid 1862 that the ironclad captains were discouraged from taking on enemy shipping singly, and then even to simply patrolling and supporting static sea defences such as minefields and coastal fortresses.
The Confederate Navy were on the back foot.
This is summed up really with a brief resume of the CSS Virginia's ending :-
Based at Norfolk she was taken out on a run to Hampton Roads on 8th of March 1862 where she met resistance from Union Naval forces. Her armour shrugged off the enemy fire, and she rammed the USS Cumberland, which sank shortly after. The Virginia then transferred her attention to the USS Congress, which she set on fire, after which the Virginia retired to Norfolk.
On the 9th of March, the Virginia again sortied, hoping to wreak further damage in a similar manner to the day before. Unfortunately she was faced this time with the USS Monitor, a Union ironclad.
The battle between these two ships, whilst inconclusive, was to be a turning point in naval battle. Though the Virginia failed to break the Union blockade of Norfolk, she set the enemy forces packing each time she steamed out of port.
The unfortunate thing being that although the Union forces retreated from her, they always returned once she had put back in to port.
Sadly, te Virginia's efforts came to nothing, as eventually ( May 11th ) the Confederates abandoned Norfolk, and as her draft was too deep, the Virginia was unable to withdraw further up the James River.
Her crew destroyed her before their withdrawal, but the legacy she left was to effect how naval battles were fought for a number of years after her demise.
The crews
Just a note about the crews of the ships, with particular focus on the gun crews.
Most of the naval captains of the Confederacy at the outbreak of the war had had commissions within the Union Navy.
They were men who, whilst new to the Ironclads, certainly were practiced in the running of conventional ships of the period.
Unfortunately the ironclad design provided a whole new set of strictures for the crews to cope with. For a start, the ship was nothing more than a mobile gun platform. A dark, hot and fume filled one at that.
Consequently the ironclads sprouted tents, awnings and in some cases even sheds when in port, for the "comfort" of the crews.
And this was the further problem. The "rank and file", "ratings" or "powder monkeys" were usually conscripted from the ranks of the land based forces. As this turned out, it was often used as a means by which a land based officer could rid himself of men in his command who were "less than desirable". Trouble makers, misfits and other dregs tended to end up in the navy. This is not to say that there weren't some fine seamen present also.
But seamanship was very thin on the ground in the south, and as the pressures and poor living on board the ironclads became widely known, the volunteers for service on these ships was obviously not very forthcoming.
The manpower needed to operate even a mid-sized gun like the one modelled here is mind boggling. A crew of 19 men would operate such a gun ( no thanks, I don't fancy sculpting the other 18 ! ), from the Gun Captain, master gunner and loader down.
The conditions caused by the heat from the engine, humidity from spray and leaks etc, and the outside weather ( summer particularly made conditions almost intolerable ) and coupled with the lack of any real exercise and a moderately poor diet, caused a huge amount of sickness within each ship's crew.
The darkness within the ships, and the fumes only worsened these affairs, and it is suggested that as much as twenty percent of a ships crew would be incapable of active duty due to sickness at any one time.
With that happy thought, let's have a look at the model !
The kit
I can't comment about the box or art thereon, as my example didn't come in anything but a plastic bag with plenty of styrene chips for packing. Nor can I comment on the instruction sheet - again none to be had at this time as this was a pre production "test shot".
What I can say is that moulding is excellent, fit of parts is - if possible even better, considering too the amount of shrinkage on resin parts this big, there were no fit problems to be struggled with at all.
The shafts for the sponge and loading block needed supplying - in my case a barbeque skewer - although in the full kit, Verlinden may well supply this.
Clean up was simple. Cut away the over-pour runners and blocks and then a bit of scraping, filing and sanding brings the parts to perfection.
The trolley must be assembled carefully as it is meant to taper slightly from front to back, and also make sure that it's assembled on a flat surface so that it sets up in a square and level manner.
I drilled out the bolt detail and added some small sections of brass wire. Before gluing these in place though I created a thread on them by twisting the wire in the jaws of a large set of mole grips. An effective way of putting a fine detail on the wire.
No real problems were encountered with the construction though, and I was soon searching for paints and the airbrush.
The wooden areas of the trolley were airbrushed with various browns, using masks to separate the different planks from one another, and using different colours to make it a bit more visually interesting. Once it had dried for a little while, I also used the "accidental" method I'd learned from painting the last Verlinden cannon ( Brooke Rifle vol.. no. ... ) and used a large brush and some White Spirit to drag the paint about and create a rough simulation of wood grain.
This was further enhanced a week later with the addition of oil paints - Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna - to add small knot and grain detail to the trolley.
Whilst the airbrush was out, I also tackled the cannon barrel. This was painted with Humbrol Matt Black enamels, over which I sprayed a variety of Testors enamel metallic paints, working from their dark "Burnt Metal" to their much lighter Aluminium.
This was allowed to dry for about half an hour ( the kettle went on again for a cuppa ) and then the cannon barrel was polished with a soft, and most importantly clean, cloth. This buffed up the paint to a smooth shine, and was left to harden off for a couple of weeks before treating it to the addition of a dirtying oil wash, again similar to the method used on the Brooke Rifle.
The details on the trolley were painted in with a small paintbrush, mainly these bits are metallic in nature, so the use of black and brown oils over silver / burnt metal acrylics is the order of the day. Silver ink ( Windsor and Newton ) was used to pick out some highlights on the ends of bolts etc.
In the references I have, the trolley is actually a green colour - for the woodwork at least, but I couldn't find any mention in the text of the Osprey book as to whether the colour was just used by the artist to make the cannon stand out from the rest of the deck area or whether these trolleys were actually painted.
Either way, with the conditions on deck, I should suppose that the damp and the heat would soon cause any paint to peel.
Now for a figure.
It would have been a mistake ( huge beyond imagining ) to begin to create a gun crew for this cannon. Not least because such a crew consisted, as mentioned, of around 19 men.
I also wanted to capture a quiet moment in the life of one of it's crew members, and perhaps - because I enjoy painting craggy faces - depict an older, more experienced fellow, sitting down charging up a pipe with some tobacco.
I'd had the fortune to be sent a box of resin figure parts by that most excellent and kind fellow Mr Lynn Sangster of Historex Agents fame. and within the parts he sent, I found the basic framework for the figure I wished to sculpt.
From the assortment of parts, I selected an upper and lower body/legs formerly belonging to a couple of different German WW II troopers. I also selected a couple of likely looking hands and some shoes from what looked to be a British WW II subject. Also picked out was a German head, which sported a cap, this latter being shaved off.
For the figure to sit on, I pressed into service the bucket supplied with the cannon kit, together with one of the cannon balls also supplied.
I glued the pieces together, using brass wire to strengthen the joints, and filled in the gaps with Milliput. This can be seen in photos #1 and #2
I left the head and arms so that they could be detached, and began shaving the detail off the body so that the braces and belt detail was removed along too with any particularly proud creasing.
Then I mixed up some Magic Sculpt and began adding new creases to the upper legs, and also the lower area of each trouser leg.
This was allowed to cure fully before working on the coat, producing this in sections, the left front half first, then the right front half once the left was cured, and finally the back of the coat.
To work out where the creases should be I used a particularly useful book called "Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery" by Burne Hogarth. It's actually a cartoonists book, but does give very helpful hints as to where clothing should have creases and in what direction they should run, dependant upon the subject's positioning and movement.
After the body had set, I added the arms, making these detachable for the moment, but attempting to make them look like a part of the whole.
Now for the head.
Even though I'd kept the additions of putty very thin, it had still bulked out the body to some extent. While the initial head had looked fine, even as far as getting the coat finished, by the time I came to finish up on the arms, the model was looking decidedly pin-headed.
Not to worry, thought I, there's more heads where that came from. And so there was.
If you've ever wondered what Napoleon would have looked like at the age of sixty, with a beard, then here you have him. Because it was the chubby Frenchman himself, or at least a model thereof that provided the final head.
Additions of Magic Sculpt hair were made, and I found the inadvertent advice from PiLiPiLi Lee Van Quang to be of help here. He once mentioned that he sculpted with an aim to get the form and feel of an object, rather than being totally concerned with a definite finished idea. Sort of seeing what comes out of the putty by pushing it and forming it, rather than a distinct aim to get a certain predefined object out. It works for hair certainly.
Thanks Quang.
I let the fuzzy bits harden off, and then trimmed some of the untidy bits back, generally looking the model over and seeing what needed refining.
Then I glued the arms in position, filling a few small gaps with more of the Magic Sculpt.
Buttons were plastic sprue, stretched thin over a candle flame, glued into pre-drilled holes and cut off quite proud, then the ends bevelled over with the application of heat from a cigarette lighter.
The shoulders were decorated with small additions of putty and twisted lead wire to form up to the reference sources I had, and I used some of the very small, but perfectly formed brass etchings for belt buckles and cap badges from Shenandoah Miniatures within these to add the motifs.
The pipe was a piece of wire with a small cylinder of Magic Sculpt glued in place.
Now, after a gentle sanding to round off any sharp creases, and followed by a wash with soapy water, our little cannoneer pensioner is ready for some paint.
Painting followed the fairly prescribed style that I normally use, that being oil paints over the top of acrylics. I'll not bother with any detail here, as I'll no doubt just be repeating myself, but if you glance through any of my articles detailing the paints used on stock kits, then that'll bring you up to speed.
Hmm. Somehow he didn't look right. I wasn't happy about those epaulettes in the beginning, and decided to take them off altogether. The main reason for this being that they made the frock coat look too much like a Union issue garment.
After their removal, I touched up the paint on the frock coat, and also painted in the crimson cuffs. Much more "Confederate" looking. I didn't add any marks of rank, my reasoning behind this being that an officer of any merit would probably be up on deck getting some fresh air.
No doubt, by the time this gets in print, Mr Verlinden will have furnished us all with one, if not several better and easier options for crew for this cannon. But I don't mind, I've had a bit of fun with the old putty, and hopefully, this'll get me to do a bit more in the way of sculpting.
Just as an occasional departure from the kits, it's sometimes nice to personalise a model. How much, and how complicated a personalisation is up to the individual of course. But it's certainly worth a go.
Yes, the easy option is to assemble and paint the offerings handed to us on a plate. and exceptional offerings they seem to be from most of the companies these days.
With the right reference sources, and a couple of books along the lines of the Burne Hogarth one, it's a lot simpler that you'd think to alter a figure to suit your purpose.
Particularly when you realise that quite a lot of the time, uniform and other regulation gear is not always available to the "rank and file" in a combat situation that has lasted for several months or longer. The clothing and weaponry pressed into use, particularly by the Confederates during the American Civil War is noted as quite varied.
As for the gun kit that was the starting point for all this, it really
is a good kit. And big. As I've mentioned in the past though, some background
for the model included with the kit would be nice, but that's the only
criticism I can level at this kit. The moulding is spot on, sculpting is too,
and it's impressive when finished.
Will there be more in this scale, as there have been in 54mm ( 1/32nd ) ?
Well, I'd like to think that there might. Although the production of a full crew might be a long time in coming - from this sculptor at least !
I've had fun doing this, and suppose it's a stepping stone for the next
project - the monitor turret from Verlinden - How many crew did it have ?
Oh heck !
Many thanks to Francois Verlinden for sending the kit of the cannon,
which is excellent. Also to Lynn Sangster at Historex for the time taken to
put together that box of bits and bobs that have come in so useful. And
finally to the hints and tips dropped - sometimes most inadvertently - by
Lee Van Quang and the late Derek Holmes.
Just as a footnote, this kit is sold as a Confederate Deck Cannon, but
as a lot of the cannon used on the CSS Virginia were salvaged from the
captured Union ship USS Merimac that the ironclad was built on to, any
figures put with the cannon could be from either North or South. Just a
thought.
References :-
Osprey, Warrior series no. 34
Confederate Artilleryman 1861-65 by Philip Katcher.
Illustrated by Bill Younghusband
New Vanguard series no.41
Confederate Ironclads 1861-65
By Angus Konstam.
Illustrated by Tony Bryan
Illustrated Poster book of the Civil War
By Michael Chappell
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