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Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly waterline 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 Union 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 the guns 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:3184…

USS Dictator, originally named Protector but Monitor creator John Ericcson wanted a more aggressive name for her, was the only ship in her class of American Civil War (1862-65) era turreted monitor-type ironclads built for the United States Navy (USN) or Union Navy at that time. She was a one-off because she was intended as an experiment in building a fast ironclad; that is, a Union monitor optimized for speed. Sound familiar, modern battlecruiser fans? Yep, you guessed it. USS Dictator is the great-great-great grand-daddy of the battlecruiser, even though that type of warship hadn't even been conceived yet and Dictator was little more than a tentative first step in that direction. To achieve her designed purpose she was given a significantly longer hull than a typical monitor (again, does this sound familiar battlecruiser fans?) as well as a new and more powerful steam engine intended to drive that hull at a maximum top speed of 15 knots. She still kept the same standard battery as all Union single turret monitors of twin 15-inch late model smoothbore Dahlgren guns (that sounds familiar too!), the slightly larger and longer versions used with later Union ironclads (with greater range) that protruded slightly from their gunports due to their length (and which prevented any gunport shutters present from being closed). Where Dictator differed from the modern battlecruiser concept is that she retained the full armor of a typical Union single turret monitor of 15 inches on the turret, 6 inches on the hull (4-6 inches was typical), and 1.5 inches on the deck. Dictator's pilothouse was also given 12 inches of armor to protect the ship's pilot. Again, not a true monitor style battlecruiser as we might term it today, but a tentative first step in that particular direction.

Dictator was finished and commissioned into Union naval service on 11 November 1864; however, her Civil War service was brief due to the war coming to an end in early April of 1865, just four months later. She also never saw combat, with all of her duty spent on northern Atlantic coastal patrols so she could remain close to the shipyard that built her (Delamater Iron Works of New York) because her new power plant gave her lots of trouble and frequently broke down during her first few months in service. Because of this and other issues (such as the weight of her armor, far more than a normal monitor due to her larger hull) Dictator never achieved her intended top speed of 15 knots, with the best that she could do in a calm sea being 10 knots or so. That was still 1-2 knots faster than a typical Union monitor of the era, so her designers knew they were on the right track with regards to making a fast monitor. They just needed to figure out to build a better and more powerful engine that actually worked as designed (wink).

Dictator was decommissioned once the Civil War ended and laid up until 1869, when she was recommissioned and assigned to serve with the USN's North Atlantic Fleet as a coastal patrol ship. By this time her engine problems had been largely solved, although it still remained temperamental, and she was able to serve for three more years until signs of wood rot became evident with the wooden part of her hull. The USN decided that it was cheaper to remove her from service for good rather than rebuild her, so Dictator was decommissioned for the second and last time on 1 June 1887 and laid up at League Island to await her fate. She was eventually sold for scrap in 1883.

This model is missing many of the finer details of the original Dictator, in particular the catwalking or hurricane deck around her main stack you see in some surviving photos and lithographs of her (as well as on other modern model recreations). That's because this was originally created for use as a small naval war gaming miniature and for that purpose the fewer "unnecessary" details the better (wink). I textured it and added the guns so it wouldn't look so plain but that's about it. That said I think this is still decent for what it is, and it will do nicely as a placeholder for now. I hope you have fun with it too once you download it and start playing with it yourselves. XD

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.

TRIVIA - Dictator holds the unique distinction of being the largest monitor type warship to be built for and actually serve with the Union Navy during the Civil War at 312 feet (95.1 m) in length. That's about half the size of the World War II era USN "Standard" battleship USS Nevada. That's damn big for a Civil War ironclad! In comparison CSS Tennessee was the CSN's largest ironclad at 209 feet (63.7 m).

ASIDE - Remember, folks. Dictator is not a battlecruiser in the modern sense. She's a fast ironclad in the sense of her time. She's just the first step down the long road that winds up with the battlecruiser but a long way from being one in final form.

Description

Ported to OBJ, textured, and further modified from the STL format low poly waterline 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 Union 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 the guns 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:3184…

USS Dictator, originally named Protector but Monitor creator John Ericcson wanted a more aggressive name for her, was the only ship in her class of American Civil War (1862-65) era turreted monitor-type ironclads built for the United States Navy (USN) or Union Navy at that time. She was a one-off because she was intended as an experiment in building a fast ironclad; that is, a Union monitor optimized for speed. Sound familiar, modern battlecruiser fans? Yep, you guessed it. USS Dictator is the great-great-great grand-daddy of the battlecruiser, even though that type of warship hadn't even been conceived yet and Dictator was little more than a tentative first step in that direction. To achieve her designed purpose she was given a significantly longer hull than a typical monitor (again, does this sound familiar battlecruiser fans?) as well as a new and more powerful steam engine intended to drive that hull at a maximum top speed of 15 knots. She still kept the same standard battery as all Union single turret monitors of twin 15-inch late model smoothbore Dahlgren guns (that sounds familiar too!), the slightly larger and longer versions used with later Union ironclads (with greater range) that protruded slightly from their gunports due to their length (and which prevented any gunport shutters present from being closed). Where Dictator differed from the modern battlecruiser concept is that she retained the full armor of a typical Union single turret monitor of 15 inches on the turret, 6 inches on the hull (4-6 inches was typical), and 1.5 inches on the deck. Dictator's pilothouse was also given 12 inches of armor to protect the ship's pilot. Again, not a true monitor style battlecruiser as we might term it today, but a tentative first step in that particular direction.

Dictator was finished and commissioned into Union naval service on 11 November 1864; however, her Civil War service was brief due to the war coming to an end in early April of 1865, just four months later. She also never saw combat, with all of her duty spent on northern Atlantic coastal patrols so she could remain close to the shipyard that built her (Delamater Iron Works of New York) because her new power plant gave her lots of trouble and frequently broke down during her first few months in service. Because of this and other issues (such as the weight of her armor, far more than a normal monitor due to her larger hull) Dictator never achieved her intended top speed of 15 knots, with the best that she could do in a calm sea being 10 knots or so. That was still 1-2 knots faster than a typical Union monitor of the era, so her designers knew they were on the right track with regards to making a fast monitor. They just needed to figure out to build a better and more powerful engine that actually worked as designed (wink).

Dictator was decommissioned once the Civil War ended and laid up until 1869, when she was recommissioned and assigned to serve with the USN's North Atlantic Fleet as a coastal patrol ship. By this time her engine problems had been largely solved, although it still remained temperamental, and she was able to serve for three more years until signs of wood rot became evident with the wooden part of her hull. The USN decided that it was cheaper to remove her from service for good rather than rebuild her, so Dictator was decommissioned for the second and last time on 1 June 1887 and laid up at League Island to await her fate. She was eventually sold for scrap in 1883.

This model is missing many of the finer details of the original Dictator, in particular the catwalking or hurricane deck around her main stack you see in some surviving photos and lithographs of her (as well as on other modern model recreations). That's because this was originally created for use as a small naval war gaming miniature and for that purpose the fewer "unnecessary" details the better (wink). I textured it and added the guns so it wouldn't look so plain but that's about it. That said I think this is still decent for what it is, and it will do nicely as a placeholder for now. I hope you have fun with it too once you download it and start playing with it yourselves. XD

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.

TRIVIA - Dictator holds the unique distinction of being the largest monitor type warship to be built for and actually serve with the Union Navy during the Civil War at 312 feet (95.1 m) in length. That's about half the size of the World War II era USN "Standard" battleship USS Nevada. That's damn big for a Civil War ironclad! In comparison CSS Tennessee was the CSN's largest ironclad at 209 feet (63.7 m).

ASIDE - Remember, folks. Dictator is not a battlecruiser in the modern sense. She's a fast ironclad in the sense of her time. She's just the first step down the long road that winds up with the battlecruiser but a long way from being one in final form.