The Demologos was an American experiment in steam built toward the end of the War of 1812, and living a few miles from Robert Fulton's birthplace, I've always been fascinated by it. She wasn't finished by the war's end, but it sure would have been interesting if she was...

As an interesting aside, the company that built her hull was the same company responsible for the 74 that was being built for use on the Great Lakes.

This is the beginning of my attempt to scratch-build a 1/1000 model.

First, I found a set of plans from the Smithsonian. I used them to make templates on cardstock. One template gives me the general hull shape, and the other gives me the gunport positions. The hull is made of stacked styrene. The bottom hull layer is 2mm. The gunport layer is 1mm, as is the the deck above. I anticipate another 1 mm layer above that to represent the ring of wet cotton bails that were to be used as an alternative to the hammocks used on conventional warships. I intend to make the ring smaller than the outer hull diameter, so that template does not exist yet.

Name: Demologos 1.jpg Views: 962 Size: 97.4 KB