Plum Run Point - Part the Next: Confederates!

Picture from Pithead Miniatures' website

Thank you, Pithead Miniatures!  In such timely fashion they have released the Confederate Mississippi River Defense Fleet, in 1/1200.  These are of course, or maybe not of course for those who do not have knowledge of Plum Run Point, the ideal opponents for my burgeoning fleet of Thoroughbred's Cairo class river ironclads.  

I was tipped off by a post on The Wargames Website that these lovely resin castings had been released, so I immediately rushed to place an order, cost before shipping being about $50.00.  Phil Ireson, the owner, contacted me to let me know if I didn't mind a bit of a wait that he would send me a corrected version of the CSS General Bragg, as the first casting he offered was actually the Bragg that the Federals captured and modified and not the version used by the Confederates.  Of course I did not mind a wait for the correct model!

After a couple of weeks I received my order from the U.K.  While these Pithead castings might not quite on par with Thoroughbred's gorgeous models, they are darn close!  As mentioned, they are mostly resin, with metal guns, stacks, and masts, to go along with resin hulls and superstructures.  

I have started putting a few of them together.  Four of the smaller vessels have separate superstructures that need to be glued to the provided hulls.  The four separate hulls are identical  The guns are tiny and a bit fiddly to work with, but that is because I do not have quick setting superglue to hold the guns into place.  Once I pick up some different super glue mounting the guns by using tweezers should be a breeze.

In summary (for now, more as I build, paint, and rate up these vessels for Smoke on the Water), this range from Pithead is not only a nice addition to the 1/1200 scale offerings currently on the market, but they really fill in an often overlooked area of the Civil War, the early battles on the interior river, like Plum Run Point!

Plum Point Bend - Part I: The Union

A multi-part series for my first foray into 1/1200 Civil War naval gaming....

I have settled on the Battle of Plum Point Bend as the basis for for my Civil War naval gaming.  

While the new range of Thoroughbred 1/1200 scale American Civil War vessels is currently a scattered mix of brown water and coastal offerings at the moment, I do want to start focusing my efforts on the first project I will work on using these ships and Smoke on the Water rules.  I have already purchased seven Cairo class ironclad gunboats from Thoroughbred, and using these as the basis for scenarios, will start a Plum Point Bend project.  Plum Point Bend sees six Cairos in action (Mound City, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cairo, and the St. Louis). Of course I am going to need a lot of other ships for this battle, and there are other companies offering some proxies for the various Confederate gunboats and the USS Benton, but I would hate buying other ships to only replace them in the future with further release from Thoroughbred.  I do have a few of the Titan resin ships, and they are rather inexpensive if I need to purchase more to fill in any holes until Thoroughbred releases the appropriate castings.  I would need to pick up their Benton, and that would complete the Union vessels needed for Plum Point Bend.

Titan's USS Benton

A Blatant Attempt to Steal Another's Work

The Greek battle cruiser Averof

Some months ago I picked up some 1/3000th scale ships to recreate the Battle of Lemnos (Greeks vs. Turks during the First Balkans War) from a chap on The Miniatures Page.  He in turn gave me info to contact another gamer to obtain some rules that would cover the period, simple enough to run at conventions, yet with enough historical flair to give the battle a period feel.  Those ships are still in their baggies, waiting to be mounted on stands and painted.  Living in a condo with limited gaming space, air and naval games appeal more and more to me.  So I believe it is time to start focusing on some of the naval actions I have collected ships for but have never progressed past the purchase phase.

In this particular case, in doing a bit of research, I came across this website, linked from the Battle of Lemnos WikiPedia page.  Thomo the Lost has done a great job with his work on Lemnos, I am not certain there is much more for me to do other than to steal his thoughts and get my ships painted!

Navwar Greek ships are HERE and their Turkish ships are HERE.

More on this as I pull the ships out, mount them to bases, and start to get them painted!

New Thoroughbred 1/1200 ACW Naval Releases!

I just came across this on a gaming website, and I am stoked!  I will be certainly picking up a CSS Arkansas and a USS Neosho to go against my USS Cairo classes I have already purchased!  All of these look great, but I am trying to focus on brown water operations.

Toby is also running a deal with 10% off of orders greater than $50.00 and 15% off orders greater than $100.00.

Pictures from Thoroughbred

left to right - CSS Virginia, USS Canonicus, CSS Arkansas

left to right - CSS Richmond, USS Neosho, CSS Neuse

Unboxing Day!

The opened box of goodness!

In yesterday's post I received a small box from one of my favorite manufacturers, Thoroughbred Figures.  I had placed an order for their newish line of 1/1200 American Civil War vessels.  Over the years I had purchased many of their 1/600 scale range, but having smaller space to game and to store gaming materials, plus the fact that my gaming friends, particularly The G Dog, has about every 1/600 scale vessel known to man, I thought heading towards 1/1200 would give me the scale that worked for my space limitations, while also allowing me to focus on specific projects without hopefully getting overboard (pun intended).  I have a few other 1/1200 scale resin vessels from Titan Military Miniature Products, but haven't really done anything with them, and when I saw that Thoroughbred had released 1/1200 scale ships, I knew they would be the premier range to own (nothing against Langton Miniatures but I have never purchased any of their 1/1200 ships).  So, I sent an email to Toby Barrett and placed my first order for his 1/1200 scale ships.

I decided that I would stick with the brown water navy, meaning mostly riverine actions.  Currently Thoroughbred only offers the USS Cairo for river battles, and seeing that the Cairo is probably my favorite class of ironclads from the war, I decided to go big and buy seven, one for each ship in the class, the main distinction being the colored bands painted on their smokestacks.  This will allow me to use the correctly painted ship for any of the actions I want to game.

After just a few days of placing my order with Thoroughbred, I received my goodies.  I eagerly opened the box to find not seven, but eight little boxes with ships! Toby has a history of providing me with excellent service and on occasion some extra goodies, and in this case added in a little something extra as he delayed shipping my box by one day!  Really, he was that concerned about not sending out the package one day sooner that he added a surprise for my "troubles."  Amazing service!

Here are a few pics for viewing to give you an idea of what to expect when ordering these little gems from Thoroughbred.  They are superbly cast, no mold lines or flash, perfectly scaled, and really should paint up nicely.

A stack of Cairos, anyone?

What's this?  An extra ship?

She's a beauty

Sizing up the Cairo

A "super" CSS Albemarle was included in my order

1/1200 American Civil War

I have always thought the 1/600 scale Civil War vessels from Thoroughbred Figures to be some of the nicest ship castings available, no matter what period and what scale.  But my gaming buddy The G Dog has about every 1/600 scale vessel known to man, and with living in a condo with limited and temporary gaming space (the dining room table) that scale is not just too large for me.  Toby Barrett from Thoroughbred has provided a potential solution...go small with great quality with his newish 1/1200 scale range.

Admittedly the offerings at this time are limited, but Mr. Barrett already has several more castings in the works, so this promises to be the epic range for 1/1200 scale Civil War naval gaming.  He also provided me a couple of pics of his current offerings.

CSS Albemarle, USS Cairo, CSS Atlanta, USS Passaic

USS Monitor (early), USS Monitor (late), CSS Tennessee, CSS Super Albemarle