Hi all,
Aeronef had me looking around for models suitable for conversion when I landed onthe Peter Pig website and found ACW ship models. Wow! thinks I, these would be grand. Wrong scale though - pity (1:600, as opposed to 1:1200 for Aeronef).
Up in Sheffield I discovered the Wargames Emporium, and in a corner were shelves of plastic in-trays with Peter Pig range models. They have a wide variety of stuff, from WW2 in different scales to science fiction - as well as these ships.
There are close to 50 models, including forts (found none of these, regretfully), all of historical ships and vessels (ok, and forts) which took part in the ACW. Starting with the obvious, the Monitor is a metal model, the Virginia, its confederate opponent, resin with a metal stack. The rest are mostly resin, with a few metal ones and some metal bits thrown in. Some of the vessels are incredibly weird, ungainly, and downright bizarre - the slab-sided armoured paddle steamers appear to be refugees from a Squat armada! And yet they existed!
Models still to be painted of course. They're cheap - most are 3-4GBP, with one or two going up to 6.50GBP. The detail is very good, although some of the resin bits have some defects - patience and green stuff are the cure. The Virginia, one of the large models is around 13.5cm long - not bad! The great exception is a resin model of the entire Fort Monroe, which is larger and more expensive.
I've also bought the rules, which are a bit old, simple - and apparently fun - especially if you throw in fireships, bomb ships, mines, coastal batteries. Could this be a 'new' Man O' War? Anyone played it?
By the way - guess how many ACW ship battle players there are in Malta...
