Cottage Industries 1/72
C.S.S. H. L. Hunley
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History
On the evening of February 17, 1864 the Confederate
States Ship H. L. Hunley sank the United States Ship Housatonic, which
was part of a Union force blockading the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina
during the American Civil War. This was the first successful attack upon
a surface vessel by a submarine. Something happened, we don't yet know
what, to Hunley on its return to harbor and it sank with the loss of all
hands - nine in total; the Captain, Lt. George Dixon, and eight crew whose
main function was to be the sub's engine. The sub was driven by a screw
at the end of an eight-throw crankshaft with a crewman seated at each
trhow of the crank. Dixon controlled the rudder and the diving planes.
Hunley sank Housatonic with a 135 pound explosive charge, which she attached
to her victim's hull by driving a barbed lance attached to the charge
(called a torpedo) into Housatonic's hull. The torpedo was at the end
of a 22 foot long spar mounted on Hunley's bow. Dixon detonated the charge
via a long lanyard that permitted the sub to back off to a safe distance
before triggering the explosion.
Hunley lay lost on the ocean floor until an expedition
funded by popular novelist Clive Cussler found her in the Spring of 1995.
On August 9, 2000 she was raised and is now in the process of being preserved.
The crew's remains have been removed and given proper military burials
ashore.
The Kit
You've undoubtedly examined Revell AG's new 1/72 Type
VII submarine and marvelled at its three foot length. The Hunley, to the
same 1/72 scale, is not quite as big - it's only 12 3/4 inches overall;
7 inches being the vessel and 5 3/4 inches being the torpedo spar and
lance. The hull with its hatch cupolas and ballast weights is a one piece
resin casting of fair quality. 17 white metal castings of indifferent
to poor quality are included along with two pieces of aluminum tubing
and four lengths of brass rod. Three pages of history and instructions,
which include an exploded
drawing, are included.
 The
main hull casting requires quite a bit of detail clean-up and local filling.
Mine had bits of blue RTV mold rubber stuck in corners and crevices here
and there indicating the life of the mold is about finished. There are
many irregularities in the detail where mold rubber had previously torn
away. RTV molds by their nature are fairly short lived.
The hull can be worked into a very nice piece with several
hours of filling, filing, sanding and priming. The same is true of the
white metal parts although I think it will be quicker and better to make
replacements for most of these parts from styrene, tubing, &c. The
screw is a total disappointment being thick, two-dimensional and having
neither twist nor leading and trailing edges; I'll carve a new one from
.040" brass sheet. No painting instructions or suggestions are given;
you're on your own here. I'm inclined to paint it flat dark gray and finish
this with graphite powder rubbed into it overall with lots of rust spots
generously applied with pastel chalks.
Conclusion
 It's
a fun kit of an interesting and historically significant subject. It will
be several years before the physical details of Hunley will be fully determined
by the crew working on her so we are left to speculate about and imagineer
some of them if we build a model now. The kit, for example, has the torpedo
spar mounted low on the hull with a jib boom projecting from the upper
part of the hull supporting it while a contemporary painting of Hunley,
by Conrad Wise Chapman, shows the spar cantilevered from the upper surface
of the hull. I'm inclined to think the kit has it right as 135 pounds
is a lot of weight to hang on the end of a 22 foot long, unsupported,
pole.
The kit cost $29.95 directly from the manufacturer at
the recent IPMS-USA Nationals in Atlanta. You can order it from Cottage
Industry Models' website. You can also see their other products there.
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