Sheer Madness

I added the side armor panels to the hull. By cutting the panels to the appropriate shape I was able to add the sheer curve to the hull.  Sheer is the measure of longitudinal main deck curvature. Although the hull of an ironclad Monitor type hull looks like a flat raft, it actually has sheer and camber. My hull has both. I think it really helps the appearance of the hull, making it look much more like a ship.

The Passaic Monitor class ships were designed to be trimmed with the bow higher than the stern. This allows water to drain through the bilge to the rear where pumps would eject it from the ship. The Nahant almost sank because the trim was off  when they loaded too much ammuntion in the forward holds and some of the drain holes were plugged with construction debris. The Nahant's officers caught the problem in time to prevent sinking. Unfortunately, the USS Weehawken sank due to essentially the same problem, taking the lives of much of the crew.

The side armor panels have engraved detail and a base coat of black primer. I probably need to add 3D rivets to the side panel, but there are so many.... The rivets on the deck surface were counter sunk and are fine as just engraved detail. Whew, thank goodness..

The ventilators are probably a bit large, but look cool. They were added later to the ships to improve airflow. They may have not been on the ship in December 1862.