USS Essex and USS Benton

USS Benton and USS Essex

USS Essex

USS Benton

USS Benton Under Construction

1/2400th USS Essex and 1/600 Peter Pig USS Essex

These are probably the last two scratch built 1/2400th scale ironclads that I'll be making for a while, as I have enough for my campaign and need a break! I started out making the USS Essex but realised that I'd used too thin a plastic card for the hull, so rather than binning it I reshaped it into the USS Benton. I then restarted the USS Essex with a thicker and thinner casemate.

It was all going really well until the gun ports when I decided to use a thinner plastic card rather then my usual 0.2mm. The problem was that as soon as the glue was applied the plastic card melted or the hull itself deformed, making a right mess of the front end of the USS Benton and one side of the USS Essex. 

Then some of the little buggers decided to fall off and had to be reapplied, which made it even more of a hassle. I've tidied it up as much as I can but it has spoiled the overall finish of both models, so I'll go back to my previous approach of thicker card, lightly sanded down once applied. At least they're both spot for scale!