For those interested in the Civil War era City Class rivertine gunboats, a friend & fellow Delta Queen fan sent me 30+ close up photos of the USS Cincinnati model that is displayed in the Cincinnati History Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. http://www.cincymuseum.org/explore_our_sites/cincinnati_history/default.asp   

As you can see from the following examples, they offer a lot of detail for anyone contemplating building this as a model.  I'll be more than happy to email the file to anyone who would be interested. 

Chuck

Nice looking Model. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to see those photos.

I remembered reading about these gunboats after doing some research on the CSS Arkansas and searching for other 'casemate' (ironclad) civil war vessels. This one seems to have ahd a rough life.

I can offer a couple links with more info for any others interested:

• Wiki photo and general dimensions
• USS Cincinnati at the Naval Historical Center

Hello PD's,

There is a Yahoo group dedicated to the U.S.S. Cairo (a sister ship of the U.S.S. Cincinnati) that has a PDF file of the construction of the "City Class" boats based upon drawings taken from the Cairo. These drawings show every timber, it size, and placement in the ship. Based on these drawings you could make a museum quality model of any of these vessels.

When the 7 vessels of the class were built, they were so identical that the only way the crews could tell the vessels apart was by the color band painted on the smokestacks (solely for the purpose of distinguishing the vessels apart). Even then it wasn't too uncommon for a sailor to end up on the wrong boat!

With that in mind, the only glaring error I can see in that beautiful model of the Cincinnati, is that the pilothouse should be octagonal and not round. I could be wrong, though.

Randy

Thanks for the excellent tip on the USS Cairo forum on Yahoo.  I signed up & was astounded to see what is available in terms of resource material.  The first plan set I downloaded is 24 pages in size! 

Am leaving on holiday this morning & will post more photos here once I have the chance.

Chuck