This box is in the collection of Darryl Audette

From Sheperd Paine: The Life and Work of a Master Military Modeler and Historian by Jim DeRogatis (Schiffer Books, 2008)

J.D. The output of your boxes slowed considerably after “Matthew Brady’s Photographic Gallery;” and it was several years before you finished your penultimate effort, “In the Casemate of the Merrimac.”

S.P. Right. I had started the Merrimac and dropped it, and then I picked it up again three or four years later. I’d gotten involved in the militaria business, and that was taking up more of my time, but I always thought the Merrimac would make an interesting companion piece to the Monitor. I also liked the idea of doing the bow gun, because of the enclosed sight lines. The other thing I liked was that the bow gun was under the platform on which the captain and the helmsman stood. The sailors were mostly in dark blue. At first, I thought they were going to be in gray, but the Confederate Navy did not adopt gray uniforms until later. But even with the same color uniforms, it still worked as a companion to the Monitor.

J.D. Was it as much of a challenge as the Monitor? The Merrimac wasn’t round.

S.P. The scene was round, because the bow is round. The casemate walls have a very distinct slope, which complicated the design process. I built it by layering a series of blocks of wood, which were sandwiched together vertically all the way around to form the walls. Then the inside was sanded smooth with a power tool.

J.D. Was there better documentation for the Merrimac than there had been for the Monitor?

S.P. No, not nearly as much. There were some basic deck plans for the Virginia—it was rechristened CSS Virginia, but to this day most, people still call it the Merrimac, so it’s easier just to go with the flow. There were some deck plans that showed how the guns and hatches were laid out, but there were certainly no interior photographs, or even drawings, because the life of the ship was so short. She was launched; she attacked the Union fleet, and a few months later, she was scuttled and sunk. They’ve pulled bits and pieces of her up over the years, but she was burned before being scuttled, so there’s probably not a lot left. And I’m sure the Confederates took the guns off first—cannon were scarce in the Confederacy, and they couldn’t afford to lose them.

J.D. Was lighting a problem?

S.P. It was done with spotlights. I couldn’t use light from outside, because there was only one open gun port. The Monitor had the open top. The Virginia also had an open top, but it actually began aft of the scene shown here.

JIM’S NOTES ON RESTORING THE BOX IN 2023

Above: The tray with the inner-scene removed from the box, and the dome roof taken off. Note the sailor in the center rear: Shep didn’t bother sculpting his arms, because they would not be seen. Below: the back of the scene, which also isn’t seen.

Above: The roof of the bow, a beautiful piece of woodworking by Shep. Below: The original reveal, with two incandescent bulbs illuminating the entire box. I replaced those with four LEDs up top, and two on each side, all set in spotlight tubes, with diffusing gels to soften the light, and controlled by a new dimmer in place of the oxidizing aluminum one seen on the side here. I also placed one LED outside over the gun port seen at right in the photo above.

Barely visible outside the gun port is a glimpse of the waterline—the same photo of Lake Michigan that Shep used in the Monitor. (I love that!)

Above: A crack had developed on the left side of the roof structure, which I repaired with some wood putty and paint, but the figures were, thankfully, undamaged, except for a few pieces that had come loose: the shell the two sailors at right are hoisting and a pistol on the hip of the officer. Then, in back of the cannon, were the pair of mystery legs seen here. I have no idea what Shep intended with these: His photos only show the legs of one man in the top structure, and they didn’t make sense anywhere else in the box. I saved them for its new owner, Darryl Audette. Below: The scene relit (and brightened some by the cell phone). The reveal is slightly off center, hence the wood at right. I soon fixed that.