I didn’t feel like putting a few dozen ships in a diorama, so I concentrated on the sole Confederate ironclad present and the Union ironclad that was close by when the Tennessee surrendered. There are some paintings, drawings, and history of the battle that I found online and in books that helped with the layout of this simple diorama.
Thoroughbred Miniatures makes many 1/600th scale kits of Civil War ironclads, cast in white metal. U.S.S. Chickasaw and C.S.S. Tennessee by Thoroughbred, were used in this diorama. Both models are just under five-inches in length. As I’ve said before, the Thoroughbred kits are fantastic. The only modifications I made were to drill out the gun barrels on both ships, and to make smaller flags.
The wooden base was stained, clear coated, and then the blue and dark green of the water was applied with an airbrush. Gel medium was applied for the water effect, and after it had set for half of an hour, the ships were set into it. White acrylic paint for wakes, and then a coat of Future floor polish tinted with a muddy brown was applied over it all. Smoke and gunfire are from aquarium floss, like I used on the Columbia build.
This was a quick and easy build. Lots of fun.
