1/600 CSS Columbia

CSS Columbia, largest of the Charleston ironclads, was laid down at Charleston in 1863 and finished in 1864. She was a very powerful ship, emphasizing a low casemate, heavy armament, and reinforced bow. Her draught was, unfortunately, much deeper than intended, and during her shake down cruise she ran aground on an obstruction (possibly the wreck of a US Gunboat sunk during the Union attack the year before). Her captain attempted to reverse engines, but did so at too high a speed, hopelessly grounding her. She had not yet been extricated, and was sitting there for months, before Union troops arrived and captured her. Plan was to repair her and place her into service with the US Navy, but the war ended before she could be repaired, and she was lost in the demobilization of the navy, post war. A move that some contemporaries regarded as quite foolish, given her exceptional design. We have no records of her historical color scheme, so in my example I've opted for a dark lead grey scheme, weathered, with a red waterline.  Sister ship CSS Texas was very similar, and you could use Columbia to represent her, though I do plan to produce a model of Texas in the near future. She is often confused with CSS Columbus, the Confederate monitor, but the two are in fact completely different ships.