Aye Candy
More work on the Denbigh model. The major changes from last time are the addition of the wheelbox, aft companion and deck houses. The latter are entirely new elements. And a new Red Duster, as well.
I tweaked the paddleboxes to get the emblem correct, and I’m happy with the result. (That was the biggest weak spot on the old model.) We’re fortunate to have an original 1864 portrait of the ship in her blockade-running guise (published in color here and here), that seems to show a fair amount of gilt on the paddleboxes, including the Prince of Wales feathers at the center. All that brightwork seems like an unlikely feature on a vessel intended to operate by stealth, and I don’t really know if the painting is (1) accurate, (2) depicting as gilt what was actually yellow paint, or (3) entirely fanciful on the part of the artist, Thomas Cantwell Healy (1820-89).
Fortunately, strict adherence to the primary source material coincides with good aesthetics — the paddleboxes add a much-needed splash of color to the vessel — so I’ve carried them over to the model, in all their ultramarine blue-and-gilt glory.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
No pintel on a rudder that large?
You’re quite correct — it’s a roughed-out stand-in. We don’t know exactly what DENBIGH’s rudder looked like, so I will probably use this as a model for it:
It’s very similar to that on ELISSA (built Aberdeen, 1877), which gives me an additional example.
That makes sense structurally – without the pintle, there’s a great deal of strain on the trunk. This schematic actually shows two pintles. I’m such a nerd……
The illustration is from Paasch’s Marine Dictionary — very handy reference for both wood- and iron-hulled vessel structure.