Slow progress as of late. Honestly it’s just been too damn cold to do any building, so I’ve been focusing more on writing. I’ve forced myself to eek out a little progress on Nautilus ever few days, though, and since most of it has been in the hack/cut/destroy department, I’ve made a little headway.
I’m definitely lighting the model. I picked up some LED tape, which is exactly what it sounds like: adhesive backed tape with an LED approximately every three-eights of an Continue reading
Being a swanky science-fiction-enabled underwater craft, the Nautilus has a Victorian lounge with large bay windows. The scale of the sub is in question, as I stated before, and the lounge area really brings this to light: the desk along the wall has sets of books that are quite large compared to the built-in book case contents. I’m telling myself the ones on the desk are log books, and thus larger, and the ones on the wall are paperbacks for casual reading. That doesn’t explain why a writing desk dwarfs a pipe organ, though. In retrospect, I should’ve scratch built a smaller replacement writing desk. Oh well, next build.
In the previous post I showed the brass ceiling beams that went in looking all Continue reading
NOAA doesn’t have the funding to support operations of the USS Monitor wet lab at the Mariner’s Museum. While the regular museum, and I assume the research library, is still open, the lab with the tanks that house the turret, guns, engine, and other artifacts, have had the lights turned off and the tanks covered with tarps.
You can read the full story in the Virginia Pilot’s Online Edition.
The Mariner’s Museum web page has the full press release and various links of use.
There’s also a Change.org petition on the matter.
One of my big areas of interest that I’ve yet to really delve into in Civil War history is that of the ferry gunboats. When President Lincoln immediately implemented a blockade in 1861, there simply weren’t enough ships in the Union Navy to seal off the Confederate ports. The government set to buying anything that would float, including New York City ferries. The idea of a Staten Island ferry, loaded with guns, sent south and made a Continue reading
The Nautilus from Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” is one of those iconic ships of fiction, up there with the star ship Enterprise and the Millenium Falcon. The Nautilus has been rendered many ways, the most recognizable the Disney version from their movie. This is a new interpretation from artist Greg deSantis, which to me is more in line with the vision in the original novel, and the mid-19th century experimental submarines — especially those of the American Civil War — that Verne would have seen, both in person and depicted in the French press.
The plan with this kit is for a quick build. But, isn’t that always the way at the outset? Several of us in the New Jersey Continue reading
“Pook Turtles, Armorclads and the Civil War on the Rivers”, my fourth piece for the New York Times “Disunion” feature, deals with the ironclads on the western rivers. Little know, these warships truly helped shorten the war Continue reading
Just finished is the Cylon Basestar from the new Battlestar Galactica television series. A simple design and fun build that really came together with a lot of paint work.
Final photos added to the Model Building section. View by clicking HERE.
“Shades of Blue and Gray”, an anthology of Civil War ghost stories, including my short “Spectral Drums” is now available online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.
Among the first units of the Army of the Potomac to pass into Pennsylvania on June 30th, 1863, the Iron Brigade enjoyed the cheering crowds and free food from grateful civilians that Robert E. Lee’s “Army of Liberation” had been expecting but never saw. The men that made up the Brigade — of the 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, the 19th Indiana, and the 24th Michigan — spent the night camped where Marsh Creek crosses the Emmitsburg Road (this area today is a non-descript dip in Highway 15, but if you know what to look for, you can find it). Members of the 19th Indiana pulled picket duty on the northern border of the camp, and found themselves the very tip of the spear of the Union Army, the furthest north and closest to the enemy. A few of the men on picket duty noticed a prominent hill in the distance that passing locals identified as Big Round Top, just outside of the town of Gettysburg.
The men had been told by those in charge that there were no Confederates about, and not to expect action on July 1st, but a detachment of John Buford’s cavalry passed through the camp late on the 30th and the horsemen spoke of going to greet some enemy infantry just down the road. Elements of Buford’s cavalry had fought with the brigade throughout the past year, and the Iron Brigade soldiers trusted their take on events more than any general’s. The troopers rode Continue reading
June 1863 saw messages and telegraph traffic explode to new levels as the North and the Army of the Potomac anticipated General Lee’s next move. Many expected Lee, fresh from victory at Chancellorsville, to go on the offensive. The North, wounds still knitting from that battle, reorganized and prepared to match Lee’s movements. Many enlistments in the Army of the Potomac had expired on June 1st, and many one year and ninety-day men went home. The draw down in man power and influx of new units saw the Iron Brigade re-designated as the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. They would now be first on paper, as well as first on the field, in the coming campaign.
The men of the Iron Brigade knew nothing of General Lee’s plans, and continued to rotate on and off of picket duty. Continue reading