Would it be good? It had to 11in cannons in a rovolving turret. It had 9 armour on turret and 5/8s on deck and sides. Only the turret and smoke stack were rather high above the water. From the pictures the hull looks only 1 1/2 ft to 2 1/2 ft above the water. It had a speed of 8 knots. Laid down in 1861 and was lost at sea in December of 1862.
Well JKN, it's outside the technically allowed time period for most clubs and, in 1:144 scale, is a little on the small side for armed Big Gun combat. However, don't give up! A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... ok, not so far away, since it was right here in California... a group of Big Gunners said "wouldn't it be neat if we could battle ships from the American Civil War?" So they wrote up a set of rules for Big Gun-style combat with 1:48 scale civil war ironclads and steamships. There are a number of those ships still hanging around in the club somewhere, just waiting for people to remember them and return them to service. In that context, let's take a look at the Monitor. It has a pair of 7/32" guns in a rotating turret. It is VERY shallow, which is an important consideration even in 1:48 scale. Low freeboard means little target area, and a lot of its underwater draft is steeply angled inward making it hard to hit. I don't recall the rules for ACW armor and speed, but it was based somewhat on the current Big Gun charts. How does this compare to confederate ironclads? That's a good question, and one that I can't answer very well. Armament and armor are actually not as big a consideration for model civil-war ironclads, because their hull shapes varied wildly. Most were shallow-draft. Some had steeply inward-angled hulls, that are nearly impossible to hit and penetrate, while others were slab-sided. Some even had their decks partially submerged, resulting in no penetrable target area above the waterline. It seems to me that ACW-era model combat would be more dependent on the shape of the hull than on number or size of guns, or thickness of armor. Personally, if I were to do non-period ships, I'd do Age of Fighting Sail ships. From the great galleons of the Spanish Armada to the mighty ships-of-the-line in Nelson's navy, the Age of Fighting Sail covers a vast range of fascinating ships and history that I'd love to re-create
Well some of the kids at school want to build some ships but the ones they want are rather small. So im thinking of making a group that has 1/48 ships. 20mm to 3in = bb. 3.1in to 9.9in = 1/4in ball bearing. 10in and greater 1/2in ball bearing. ships from 1800 to 1950. It would be called the Shelby County Navy. So far at least five besides me want to join.
There was a civil war battle set of rules (and I still have my Choctaw). but it never really took off. It was 1/4" scale.
Ralph Coles had a few civil war monitors in 2 different scales and a Merrimicak type ship too. These would make excellent RC combat ships for RC combat civil war style.
