FR - Monitor Sölve, startup
This article was published Feb 09, 2019.
After John Ericsson did success with his USS Monitor at Hampton Roads in 1862, he started the race of a long row of other "monitors" or ironclads as these ships also were called. A similar class as the USS Monitor was built in sweden to, with two other classes which was a bit smaller. The Monitor Sölve which now lays in Gothenburg harbor was of the 3rd class which was 39.7 meters long and all 7 ships of this class had a fixed turret. There objective was to protect the nearest coast line, not to go out and meet the enemy. Instead of a moving turret they had two separate huge propellers and a rudder at both ends which made it move a bit like a tank, but on water.
I had a period with building model boats from 1998 to around 2003, there I did collect drawings, read books and built several models. First time I intent to build Sölve as a R/C model. For some reason that never happen, but now as a line model for my layout harbor this came up again. So far I have printed only a couple of hull pieces, but several further drawings are made already. Top image above is a paper model still available from PaperShipwright (used with permission).
the hull
She is 39.7 meters long, or 104 cm in my 1::38 scale so had to divide the hull in 10 pieces. So far 3 is printed, 4rd printing right now.
gun and turret
This will be a really cool piece!