ACW Side Wheelers

 Having worked up a set of 3D models for stern wheel ACW transports I then decided to do the same for side wheelers. This part of the plan was initiated by a chat I had online with a friend in the US who is working on a Mississippi paddle steamer racing game, hence the first ships I made were inspired by steamers such as the Robert E Lee and Natchez, although greatly simplified - all being well they will be making an appearance in his game in due course. The last one I created was a side wheel tinclad gunboat, using the superstructure and casemate of the stern wheeler as a basis. 

Having sorted those I was asked whether they'd work in 1/600. An obvious question and one I should have asked myself since I'm as short of transports in that scale as I am in 1/1200. Step one of finding out was to simply print the 1/1200 stern wheel gunboat in the larger scale - looked good, but the lack of planking detail in the deck was beginning to show. A few hours later I'd figured out how to create a decent planked deck surface and so I applied it to one of the stern wheel transports and the sidewheel gunboat and printed them out last night. They've been in the paint shop and I'm very pleased with the results. 

So now, at very little expense other than a number of hours working 3D packages, printing time and a bottle of resin I have - to be honest - more ACW transports than I know what to do with :) Not that it will stop me tinkering with the models and creating more variants :D

If anyone wants models for themselves I've put them up in a couple of sets on Wargame Vault.