by Edward Pinniger
1/144 USS Harriet Lane (Pyro)
The paddle steamer Harriet Lane was built as a Revenue Cutter (patrol vessel) for the US Revenue Service. Armed with three Dahlgren smoothbore guns and a Parrott rifled gun, during the US Civil War it served as a gun boat in the Union navy. After capture by the Confederates it was used as a blockade runner.
Pyro's early 1960s-vintage USS Harriet Lane kit, later reissued by Lindberg, is usually sold as the "Civil War Blockade Runner". It's a very nice kit for its age; all the basic parts are right, it's just a case of adding detail and replacing some of the smaller parts. This kit was heavily modified with scratchbuilt and spares-box modifications, including replacing the blocks, cleats and other rigging fittings with ones left over from Heller 1/150 sailing ship kits, and adding deck fittings such as bollards, fire buckets and shell storage racks (along with a ship's bell); the ship's name was added to the stern using Slaters styrene lettering. The hull, cabin, paddle houses and wheels, guns and carriages, and masts are all unmodified kit parts, however!
The scale of the kit is not indicated on the box, but from comparing the kit to the dimensions of the real ship, it is in the region of 1/144.
