HOME | DD

Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly tabletop war gaming model created by Patrick Woodard. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Mr. Woodard's original STL model as part of his Confederate Ironclads Pack at the link below but be warned! STL models normally come untextured because they're made for use with 3D printers, with the end user expected to hand paint the 3D printed model. Furthermore I've added extra parts to this one in order to soup it up a bit and make it look somewhat better. If you want this to look the way it does in the above picture (or even better if you have the skill), then you'll have to round up your own textures and extra parts and do the job yourself, just like I did. Here's that link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:3179…

CSS Charleston was yet another ironclad ram built by the state of South Carolina for the Confederate States Navy (CSN) during the American Civil War (1862-65). She was a follow-on to CSS Chicora (see separate entry) and was built as a Richmond class or type, save she was built larger. She was also informally known as the "Ladies' Gunboat" as most of the funding for her construction was donated by the upper class women of the city of Charleston through a special association. Her armament consisted of four muzzle-loading 7-inch Brooke naval rifles on her broadsides (2 per side) and two pivotable 9-inch Dahlgren guns, one each fore and aft, the latter being among the best naval weapons of their time. Like all Confederate ironclad rams Charleston's full gun battery was mounted inside an armored above-deck casemate fitted with firing ports for each gun (three each for the pivotable fore-and-aft Dahlgren guns). One of the key things we don't about her to this day is what kind of engine drove her propulsion, as that data was lost during the war and no one volunteered the information afterwards. All we know about it is second hand, and it was reportedly weaker and more unreliable than those used with Palmetto State and Chicora. Upon completion in late 1863 she immediately became the flagship of the Charleston [Harbor] Squadron, and together with the older Palmetto State and Chicora made up a formidable Confederate armored naval flotilla for its day that was very effective in keeping the Union Navy from attempting to take Charleston by sea. Because of that threat Charleston never had to engage the enemy and was never involved in any major battles of any kind. As for the Union, it eventually abandoned all efforts to take Charleston by sea and instead came around from behind and over land to take it near the end of the Civil War. All three ironclads of the Charleston squadron were set on fire and blew up on the night of 17-18 February 1865 in order to prevent their being captured by Union forces. The wreck of the Charleston was located in the Cooper River channel and was later salvaged in the early 1870s. What was left of her after that was later destroyed in subsequent years by repeated routine dredging of the channel in order to keep it clear for navigation.

While this model is missing certain details (such as the anchors and bow-mounted spar torpedo) and may be somewhat inaccurate in others, it should still give you a good idea in 3D form what CSS Charleston was like. My apologies for it being a waterline only model, but that's the way Mr. Woodard made his original. It'll do for now until a better CSS Charleston model comes along. There also seems to be some confusion in the surviving/reconstructed source materials as to whether or not Charleston had wood planking overlaying the armor on her fore and aft decks. That's why I'm showing it to you both ways in the above preview piccy, with the wood planking overlay version at the upper left.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. If you use, mod, re-release in original or modded form or do anything else with Mr. Woodard's models, please give him credit for his original handiwork, okay? Thank you.

Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly tabletop war gaming model created by Patrick Woodard. Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. You can download Mr. Woodard's original STL model as part of his Confederate Ironclads Pack at the link below but be warned! STL models normally come untextured because they're made for use with 3D printers, with the end user expected to hand paint the 3D printed model. Furthermore I've added extra parts to this one in order to soup it up a bit and make it look somewhat better. If you want this to look the way it does in the above picture (or even better if you have the skill), then you'll have to round up your own textures and extra parts and do the job yourself, just like I did. Here's that link:

www.thingiverse.com/thing:3179…

CSS Charleston was yet another ironclad ram built by the state of South Carolina for the Confederate States Navy (CSN) during the American Civil War (1862-65). She was a follow-on to CSS Chicora (see separate entry) and was built as a Richmond class or type, save she was built larger. She was also informally known as the "Ladies' Gunboat" as most of the funding for her construction was donated by the upper class women of the city of Charleston through a special association. Her armament consisted of four muzzle-loading 7-inch Brooke naval rifles on her broadsides (2 per side) and two pivotable 9-inch Dahlgren guns, one each fore and aft, the latter being among the best naval weapons of their time. Like all Confederate ironclad rams Charleston's full gun battery was mounted inside an armored above-deck casemate fitted with firing ports for each gun (three each for the pivotable fore-and-aft Dahlgren guns). One of the key things we don't about her to this day is what kind of engine drove her propulsion, as that data was lost during the war and no one volunteered the information afterwards. All we know about it is second hand, and it was reportedly weaker and more unreliable than those used with Palmetto State and Chicora. Upon completion in late 1863 she immediately became the flagship of the Charleston [Harbor] Squadron, and together with the older Palmetto State and Chicora made up a formidable Confederate armored naval flotilla for its day that was very effective in keeping the Union Navy from attempting to take Charleston by sea. Because of that threat Charleston never had to engage the enemy and was never involved in any major battles of any kind. As for the Union, it eventually abandoned all efforts to take Charleston by sea and instead came around from behind and over land to take it near the end of the Civil War. All three ironclads of the Charleston squadron were set on fire and blew up on the night of 17-18 February 1865 in order to prevent their being captured by Union forces. The wreck of the Charleston was located in the Cooper River channel and was later salvaged in the early 1870s. What was left of her after that was later destroyed in subsequent years by repeated routine dredging of the channel in order to keep it clear for navigation.

While this model is missing certain details (such as the anchors and bow-mounted spar torpedo) and may be somewhat inaccurate in others, it should still give you a good idea in 3D form what CSS Charleston was like. My apologies for it being a waterline only model, but that's the way Mr. Woodard made his original. It'll do for now until a better CSS Charleston model comes along. There also seems to be some confusion in the surviving/reconstructed source materials as to whether or not Charleston had wood planking overlaying the armor on her fore and aft decks. That's why I'm showing it to you both ways in the above preview piccy, with the wood planking overlay version at the upper left.

For non-profit, non-commercial use only. If you use, mod, re-release in original or modded form or do anything else with Mr. Woodard's models, please give him credit for his original handiwork, okay? Thank you.