USS Cairo 1862 by MPB521 – FINISHED - Scale 1:48 - American Civil War Ironclad - First Scratch Build

[wefalck]

There is a good deal of fashion of the day and tradition involved in how ships and boats were painted, but also practical considerations.

 

I have not searched for this for other navies, but I suspect that instructions were published in official (navy) gazettes or similar government circulars on how to paint the ships and boats. In this way we are, for instance, quite well informed on how boats of the Prussian/Imperial German Navy were supposed to be painted from the late 1860s on.

 

Many ship's boats were painted white or a cream colour inside. The main reason is to protect the wood from the exposure to the sun-light and salt-spray, when stowed uncouvered. The rowing benches usually were only scraped and left bare, so that the men would not slip on them while rowing. The outside was usually painted either white or black. The white is presumably due to the fact that the superstructures of (naval) ships at the time were painted white and black boats would have stuck out too much. The black may have been chosen for practical reasons, because from the 1850s on harbour waters became increasing polluted by oil, coal-tar residues and soot coming from the steam-ships and domestic/industrial effluents - white boats would have been difficult to keep so.

 

Oars could have been painted, but often were just scraped and oiled. There would bee leather sleeve in the area of the row-lock, which would be kept well-greased to keep it from cracking. The handles were normally kept scraped and bare to provide a good grip.

 

The round thingies dangling from the sides of the boat in the picture above are indeed boat-fenders. They were made from leather and stuffed with sea-grass or horse-hair.

[Canute]

Of note, that last picture is the USS Onondaga, a twin turret monitor, launched in 1863.  She supported Union forces along the James River till the end of the war. She was sold to France in 1867.

[mbp521]

Wefalck,

 

What a great bit of information, and it is very much appreciated.

 

It does seem that a lot of the worlds navies employ some of the same procedures and methods, I would think that this would have held true in the 1860's as well.

 

Here is a question that I just started pondering as I was writing this. When the City Class Ironclads were designed and built, they were done so under the U.S. Department of the Army. It wasn't until later on in 1862 that they were transferred to the U.S. Navy. Originally, they were crewed by the Army with several Navy men on board to assist. I wonder that if when they were built and commissioned, did the Army follow Navy standards or did they develop their own. If the latter is the case, then they may not have the standard paint schemes as Navy vessels.

 

The only known picture of the Cairo was taken shortly after her launch which would have placed it under the Army at the time. This picture clearly shows the boats had black hulls and white interiors, which follows the standard listed in your previous post. However, in the pictures of other City Class boats, some of their boats have white hulls and and white interiors while others others have black hulls with dark interiors. None of the pictures that I have been able to find that show the ships boats have a date on them, so it is hard to tell what timeframe they were taken. This makes it difficult to determine if they were still under the Army or had already been handed over to the Navy. There are also several other pictures that clearly show some of the modifications that took place over time, one would assume that they were after the Navy took possession late in 1862, but none of them show the ships boats in them.

 

USS Pittsburgh. Ships boats with black hulls, white stripe and white interiors.

 

USS Cincinnati: Ships boats with white hull and white interior and another with a black hull and white interior.

 

USS Cairo: Ships boats with black hulls and white interiors.

 

USS Louisville: Ships boats with black hulls and what looks to be black interiors.

 

The more I think about this, the more I believe I'm headed down a rabbit hole where it may take a whole bottle of red and blue pills to get out of. It really seems that the possibilities are endless as to what the colors actually were so I believe that I may just keep it simple and paint the hull exteriors black and interiors white with the oars stained a somewhat dark natural color. I'm contemplating either a rope wrapped handle or simulated leather sleeve just to add some additional detail and leave it at that. For the floor boards, I'll keep the stained wood look to offset the white interior and throw in some rope coils and possibly a few other odds and ends. I apologize for being long winded on this, and thanks for bearing with me. Sometimes it helps me make a decision when I write out my thought processes. 

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

7 minutes ago, Canute said:

Of note, that last picture is the USS Onondaga, a twin turret monitor, launched in 1863.  She supported Union forces along the James River till the end of the war. She was sold to France in 1867.

Ken, 

 

Thanks for stopping by and for the info. I thought it was a Monitor, I just had not researched which one. Nice little tidbit of history to file away.

 

-Brian

[wefalck]

The German regulations actually stated that the floor-boards were to be painted 'stone-grey', whatever that means in reality.

 

The leather parts would be a tan colour, which includes the leather fenders. I think this adds a bit of colour detail, because otherwise the navies at the time had the habit to slap (white) paint on almost everything (there was an old sailor's wisdom: what moves is being saluted, what doesn't move is being painted ...).

 

BTW, are you aware of this building log: 

It's a New York-built naval cutter acquire by the Italian navy prior to 1861 to replace a storm-loss. The original is preserved in the naval museum in Venice.

 

[bdgiantman2]

In my opinion, and I admit that I don't know much about this class of ships, I am thinking that the small boat interiors and especially the oars would be the natural wood colors looking mainly at the USS Cincinnati picture. It's so hard to guess with these old black and white photos, and how much the interiors of any small boats actually were painted back in those times.

 

Keep up this great model of Cairo, your work is impressive and it's great learning about these vessels.

 

Brian D.

[Keith Black]

 Painting a boat or ship's interior white or a light color would have been beneficial for night vision and the ability to see items within.  If a boat was to be used only during daylight hours, interior color wouldn't have mattered. 

[mtaylor]

I think I'd go with what's in the photo of the Cairo since that's the ship you're building.  

[Roger Pellett]

I have had a long term ambition to build a series of 1:32 scale warships boats.  After finishing three boats, I decided to finish my Benjamin Noble model, but I have done considerable research on Civil War era ships boats.

 

The City Class gunboats were an early Civil War project involving three organizations:  The Army that “owned” the boats, the Navy who provided one or more constructors to supervise construction, and Samuel (?) Pook who designed and built them. As the need to secure the river’s was urgent I don’t believe that anyone waited for generation and approval of formal specifications and these backwoods boatyards were used to building river boats with minimal paperwork.

 

From the photos that you posted these appear to be typical US Navy small boats and could have been requisitioned from East Coast Naval Shipyards, assuming that rail connections were available to the Ohio or Mississippi rivers.  They could also have been built onsite from drawings provided by the supervising Naval Officer.  Drawings for typical Civil era boats are published in Chapelle’s American Sailing Navy Book.

 

Antebellum US Navy specifications specify that boats’ interiors be painted in either Straw or Lead colors.  Instructions for mixing these colors can be found on websites dealing with antique paint colors. 

 

Roger

 

[wefalck]

Would you have any references for those "ante-bellum Navy specifications" ?

 

I am actually wondering whether "Web-sites dealing with antique paint colours" would know what is meant by "straw colour" ?

 

For another (German) project I have tried to establish what the 'yellow' could have been with which ships' masts, funnels, etc. where supposed to be painted and found that no reliable recipe for the composition could be established, given the variability of the main incredient, namely ochre. That is is likely to be the case for the 'straw' colour as well.

 

"Lead" colour presumably refers to 'white lead' the most common good quality white pigment of the time.

 

[Keith Black]

 When I think what straw color looks like, my minds eye sees this. 

 

[mbp521]

On 11/15/2021 at 11:45 AM, wefalck said:

The German regulations actually stated that the floor-boards were to be painted 'stone-grey', whatever that means in reality.

 

The leather parts would be a tan colour, which includes the leather fenders. I think this adds a bit of colour detail, because otherwise the navies at the time had the habit to slap (white) paint on almost everything (there was an old sailor's wisdom: what moves is being saluted, what doesn't move is being painted ...).

 

BTW, are you aware of this building log: 

It's a New York-built naval cutter acquire by the Italian navy prior to 1861 to replace a storm-loss. The original is preserved in the naval museum in Venice.

 

Thank you for the excellent info Wefalck, this gives me some direction to take with my oars. As for Druxey's build, this was my first time seeing it and it has definitely sparked the creative juices to flowing. There look to be several ideas of inspiration to use in my boats.

 

-Brian

 

 

[mbp521]

On 11/15/2021 at 12:44 PM, bdgiantman2 said:

In my opinion, and I admit that I don't know much about this class of ships, I am thinking that the small boat interiors and especially the oars would be the natural wood colors looking mainly at the USS Cincinnati picture. It's so hard to guess with these old black and white photos, and how much the interiors of any small boats actually were painted back in those times.

 

Keep up this great model of Cairo, your work is impressive and it's great learning about these vessels.

 

Brian D.

Brian, 

 

Thank you for the kind words and stopping by.

 

This seems to be one of the hardest parts of this build, interpreting the color scheme from old black and white photos. The lack of documentation on these boats surely has it's challenges. The good part is that there are so many knowledgeable people on this forum willing to share their expertise and help point you in the right direction. I think that my course of action is going to be taking bits and pieces of all of the info and suggestions that I have been given, piecing them together and seeing what I can come up with. 

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

On 11/15/2021 at 1:16 PM, Keith Black said:

 Painting a boat or ship's interior white or a light color would have been beneficial for night vision and the ability to see items within.  If a boat was to be used only during daylight hours, interior color wouldn't have mattered. 

Keith, this makes perfect sense, and most likely the route that I am going to take. There has been a lot of great input on this discussion. Time to compile it all and see what I come up with.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

23 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I think I'd go with what's in the photo of the Cairo since that's the ship you're building.  

Mark, I totally agree. I am going to stick with the black hull and go with a light color (white-ish)  for the interior. This will allow me to put a little darker stain on the oars so that they somewhat stand out in the boats.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

3 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

From the photos that you posted these appear to be typical US Navy small boats and could have been requisitioned from East Coast Naval Shipyards, assuming that rail connections were available to the Ohio or Mississippi rivers.  They could also have been built onsite from drawings provided by the supervising Naval Officer.

Roger, I think I would have to agree more with the first part of this statement (not discounting the second part). During the build of the City Class boats they were scavenging pieces and parts from everywhere to outfit these boats. There was a hodgepodge of armament initially installed on them just to get them going, so it would make perfect sense that the boats would have been requisitioned the same way. The supervising Naval Officer probably sent out the rec that he needed 28 ships boats in the 25' range and accepted everything that was sent his way. This would partially explain the variety of different colors and shapes the different ironclads have in the photos. That and over time some of them would have been replaced from battle damage given their location on the ships. Real easy targets.

 

-Brian

[wefalck]

To me it looks like what the navies called 'buff' or in French 'chamois'. This seems to have been a popular colour also in merchant shipping around the middle of the 19th century. It's easy to mix up with lead-white and some yellow ochre as pigment. However, everyone's perception of the hue will be different and even, if you have a recipe that says take so and so many pounds of this and so and so many pounds of that and mix with so many gallons of lineseed oil etc.

 

Incidentically, there is an interesting article published in 2020 or 2019 in the Mariner's Mirror I think on the paints sampled from HMS VICTORY. They discovered that there was a surplus of red pigment in the ships' allocation after the Admiralty decided to switch from red internal painting to white that the ships used up their red ochre by mixing it into yellow ochre, which resulted in the pinkish colour in which the ships appeared apparently during the Battle of Trafalgar - so much for regulations vs. practicalities

 

[gak1965]

5 hours ago, mbp521 said:

This seems to be one of the hardest parts of this build, interpreting the color scheme from old black and white photos. 

 

-Brian

Modern AIs that attempt to do this turn out to be almost laughably bad. There are some very old color photographs made by using 3 plates with color filters that can be used.to evaluate how well the AI works, and they tend to do poorly. It's not surprising really, it's like a mod function, there are multiple identical color schemes that will generate the same grayscale image, so how can you possibly reconstruct with the available data?

 

George K

[mbp521]

3 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Incidentically, there is an interesting article published in 2020 or 2019 in the Mariner's Mirror I think on the paints sampled from HMS VICTORY. They discovered that there was a surplus of red pigment in the ships' allocation after the Admiralty decided to switch from red internal painting to white that the ships used up their red ochre by mixing it into yellow ochre, which resulted in the pinkish colour in which the ships appeared apparently during the Battle of Trafalgar - so much for regulations vs. practicalities

Wefalck,

 

I recall reading something about that in Daniel's "Victory and Beyond" build here on MSW.

 

This has gotten me taking a long hard look at my paint scheme. While I am satisfied with the red-oxide color that I used for my hull, I have been contemplating a repaint of everything above the waterline. The more I look at my build, the more I think that it is too black and not realistic looking. Since experimenting with the weathering, I have played around with toning the black down a bit by adding a touch of white and brown into the mix. I haven't quite come up with a color that I am completely satisfied with yet, and now that the topic of lead white coloring has come about, I'm also starting to consider toning the white port doors down as well. These were something that I have not been happy with since I installed them. The seem to stick out way too much.

 

Personally, I am not 100% positive that these boats were painted pitch black at all. Looking at the pictures, you can see how much darker the ships boats are compared to the ship itself. I am thinking that they may have been a more grayish black instead. But the pictures could be skewing the colors according to the sheen of the paint as well. Some of the more glossy areas would tend to show up lighter than the matte features due to the light reflection. Just more things to ponder as I move along.

 

-Brian

[mbp521]

1 hour ago, gak1965 said:

Modern AIs that attempt to do this turn out to be almost laughably bad. There are some very old color photographs made by using 3 plates with color filters that can be used.to evaluate how well the AI works, and they tend to do poorly. It's not surprising really, it's like a mod function, there are multiple identical color schemes that will generate the same grayscale image, so how can you possibly reconstruct with the available data?

 

George K

George, how right you are. I ran across this one during my research. It's not near as bad as some of the ones that I have seen. Some are just downright comical and cartoonish. 

 

 

-Brian

[mtaylor]

Have you come across any paintings of the ironclads?  They might be a better source for figuring out colors.   I think the iron plating was basicaly black cast iron.  

[wefalck]

Black paint was quite cheap to make and basically consisted of soot mixed with lineseed oil and some turpentine to improve the flow. However, the quality of the paint depends very much on the quality of the soot. Lamp-black and that from charring bones makes the best qualities, I believe, but any other soot can be used. Hence, the war-time black paint could be quite rough and not so covering, particularly, if not soot, but rather charcoal was used. A common practice for walked-on surface was also to add some quartz sand to the paint to give a better foothold.

 

Cheaply made black oil-paint or such paint with (coal-)tar added is likely to attain a colour after a few weeks/months akin to that of an asphalt road, so a (very) dark grey.

 

The decks of my current project were treated as mentioned above and I painted them in 'Panzergrau RAL 7021' (Vallejo ModelAir 71.056). Still a bit light, but I will tone down the less walked-on areas with black pastels.

 

You might lighten up your black armour etc. with some dark-grey pastels.

 

Today, most white paints are based either on titanium or zinc oxide, while the traditional lead-white has been phased out due to the (eco)toxicity of lead compounds. The lead-white may have been inherently less brilliant white than the modern pigments. Some paint manufacturers offer off-white, bone-white, or parchment-white shades, but these may be actually too yellow or too beige for the purpose. You could tone down the white with a very light oil- or acrylic wash with yellow ochre.

 

On the colourised historic films that pop-up on e.g. YouTube: while they sort of give an impression of how things might have looked like in the old days, they are often outright wrong, particularly, when the AI is not supported by research and intelligence on the subject matter. For instance, I watched some early 19th century footage taken in Vienna and the trams were colourised in blue, while they always had been painted red to my knowledge ...  

 

 

[Keith Black]

 I use FolkArt acrylic craft paint, Vintage White # 515. It's not a brilliant white and has very little yellow pigment. 

[Cathead]

I have nothing intelligent to add but feel the need to thank all the smarter people out loud for such a fascinating discussion. 

[mbp521]

21 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Have you come across any paintings of the ironclads?  They might be a better source for figuring out colors.   I think the iron plating was basicaly black cast iron.  

Mark,

 

I’ve seen a few of other ironclads, but none of the City Class boats. The ones that I have run across show them painted in an almost battleship gray or some even with a brownish hue. None that I have seen show them as pitch black. The only City Class renderings I have been able to find have been sketches, drawings and lithographs. Of course all of these are black and white. I would presume that the same painting techniques would have been used on the other boats though, so these could be useful. 
 

-Brian

[mbp521]

18 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 I use FolkArt acrylic craft paint, Vintage White # 515. It's not a brilliant white and has very little yellow pigment. 

Keith,  

 

I’ll have to give that one a look and see if it can tone down my brilliant white doors. 
 

-Brian

[mbp521]

14 hours ago, Cathead said:

I have nothing intelligent to add but feel the need to thank all the smarter people out loud for such a fascinating discussion. 

Eric,

 

Good to see you back! This discussion has definitely proved interesting to say the least. I sure have a “boat load” of info to help me along (insert cringes here). I can’t thank the experts enough for their input. 
 

-Brian

[mbp521]

19 hours ago, wefalck said:

You could tone down the white with a very light oil- or acrylic wash with yellow ochre.

Wefalck, 

 

Another method that I just thought of and may give a shot, is to paint a couple of coats of satin varnish over the white. That may add a slight yellowish color to it as well. Generally the more coats of varnish  the yellower the color tends to get, especially over white. I wouldn’t think that a coat or two wouldn’t add too much depth to the color. Worth a try anyway. 
 

-Brian

[gak1965]

On 11/16/2021 at 11:27 PM, mbp521 said:

George, how right you are. I ran across this one during my research. It's not near as bad as some of the ones that I have seen. Some are just downright comical and cartoonish. 

 

 

-Brian

 

Yeah. Somehow there is this crazy expectation that real life was sepia toned in the past, when, if anything, color choices were often much more bright/garish. Athenians would be disappointed at all of those unpainted lintels on our federal buildings, Civil War soldiers went out and fought in red and blue Zouave uniforms, and through much of medieval Europe there were (generally ignored) sumptuary laws to keep the lower classes from dressing up too much. I mean, look at the Vasa for goodness sake. 

[mbp521]

On 11/17/2021 at 12:20 AM, mtaylor said:

Have you come across any paintings of the ironclads?  They might be a better source for figuring out colors.   I think the iron plating was basicaly black cast iron.  

Mark,

 

I was digging through some of my pictures and ran across this little gem from my visit to Vicksburg back in 2014. It is one of the information plaques from around the Cairo display showing a painting of her being torpedoed. I'm going to have to go back and do some research on the painting itself to find out if it was Civil War era painted by an eye witness or something done more recently for the exhibit. However it does give a good look at the coloring of the ship (not sure of its accuracy), and it brings about another interesting detail that I might want to add to my build. The sandbags added around the pilot house. I have read that there were many boats that used cotton and hay bales as a armor, mainly a lot of the tinclads and converted packet steamers. So it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the ironclads to use sandbags for additional protection from enemy fire. Going to have to play around with this idea some more.

 

-Brian