More Virginia
More progress on Virginia. Replaced the appropriate Dahlgrens with Brooke rifles (not that it shows at all), added the upper platform rail, textured the chimney and adjusted the main casemate texture to make sure it lines up properly with the angled gunports, fore and aft. I also replaced the texture on the ship’s boat; the white will stand out better against the dark hull. (Even when striving for as much accuracy as possible, there are lots of situations where, absent actual historical data, there’s room to apply some personal aesthetic.) I’m quickly running out of work above the waterline, and soon will have to dig into the forecastle.
Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
Any detail on the prop? Would be interesting to see early prop design up close. Looks like a step between paddle-wheel and modern propeller, and I’m guessing it didn’t spin too fast.
Sorry, I don’t have good detail on the prop. What’s there is a placeholder I pulled off another model, and will be replaced. I need to do some more digging.
But yes, they did turn (relatively) slowly, as there was no gearing, and the boilers were usually low pressure, often not more than 1.5 atm above ambient. The actual cylinders had to be very big to generate a given amount of force, because the pressure acting on them was small.
Added: The prop in the renders is pretty advanced for the early 1860s. I’m fairly certain that Virginia‘s screw — which was not changed from her days as U.S.S. Merrimac — would have been substantially more primitive.
[…] Posted in Uncategorized by Andy Hall on September 10, 2010 TheRaven asked about the propeller (screw) on the Virginia model and caught me out — it’s a […]