by Arthur Macon
1/120 CSS David Torpedo boat (Scratchbuilt)
CSS David, a 50-foot steam torpedo boat of "cigar-shaped" hull design, was privately conceived and designed by Dr. St. Julian Ravenel. A number of vessels were built; some believe 4 to 50 versions, as the exact numbers are unknown. She made a daring spar torpedo attack on the Federal Ironclad USS New Ironsides at least damaging her enough to cause her to withdraw and make repairs. This was the first successful torpedo boat attack in history.
I started with a 1/48 scale F-4 Phantom wing fuel tank as the basic shape. The fuel tank is 5 inches long which is perfect for a 1/120 scale model of the 50 foot David. I overlade the tank with strips cut from Evergreen Plastic corrugated sheets to form the wood panels for the outer skin and for the interior ribbing. These panels were laid end to end, but I also used sheet styrene cut to form the metal plates over the boiler and crew area running left to right (port to starboard). Brass and aluminum tubing made up the smoke stack, air vents fore and aft, spar torpedo pole, and sold brass rod for the spar torpedo mounting supports. (The Torpedo design was based on the picture of the CSS Midge.) After an undercoat of gray I applied the Liquitex Basics Matt Acrylic’s by mixing various shades of black, brown, yellow and red, thinned to be somewhat transparent giving the effect of heavy weathered use in muddy brackish water as seen in the period photographs around Charleston Harbor.
Paint: Model Master Titanium Buffing Metalizer, Ghost Grey FS3620, Testors Model Master Enamel Wood 1735, Testors Model Master Acrylic Leather 4674, and various mixes of Liquitex Basics Matte 6 Primary Color Set for weathering.
The base of my model, made from scrap balsa wood, was inspired by the scaled version at the Old Santee Canal Park Museum Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
