Monthly Archives: April 2016

Administrative, General

Wishful Thinking

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The weather is nice outside.   There are large and small angry dogs barking.  But no one is berating me for my stupidity or anything else at the moment so the day is a passable one.

I have returned from a lengthy ocean voyage to find little changed.  There is sadly a bottle of milk in the refrigerator.  The tiny band of Muscovy ducks has been whittled down to two.  The neighboring housing complex has put up traffic signs where they do not belong.  But overall, things are where I left them.

So now it is time to return to the modifications I have been hoping to make.  About time, too.  With all the visitors to the house gone, there may perhaps be just a little bit of time to do some work like pull out all the 1/32 plastic figures and set up a game with them or photograph some of the old figures that cross the line between toys and wargaming miniatures.

The red cat suggests my hope for the future.  I am not sure whether he will have an impact or not.  We will see.

Past, Vehicles

Thoroughbred Figures 1/600 ACW Vessels

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The USS Roanoke triple turret monitor alongside a Union tin clad gunboat. The models dwell in that limbo between the more common 1/1200 scale for naval models and 1/300 as a lower limit on ground forces.
The USS Roanoke triple turret monitor alongside a Union tin clad gunboat. The models dwell in that limbo between the more common 1/1200 scale for naval models and 1/300 as a lower limit on ground forces.
Two Confederate ironclads. Top is the CSS Charleston. The lower ship is listed as CSS Columbia/Texas.

Thoroughbred miniatures ACW vessels are just a bit on the large size for gaming but I doubt that will stop anyone from using these, especially if they have enough space.  The range is extensive and the models well-detailed with many small pieces for some ships like the Hartford making these more of a project than most.

I first encountered these when with nothing to do on a weekend in Columbia, SC, I wandered into a toy soldier convention.  It was a small but interesting gathering.  The Thoroughbred display drew my attention more than any other.  I have been slowly gathering them since then.  ‘Then’ was likely about 12 years ago.

There are a reasonable number of rule sets available for ACW ironclads.  One likely candidate is the Ironclads games originally offered by Yaquinto.   The size of the larger ships, though, make these unlikely candidates for hexagons on all but the largest game mats.

Of course, the charm of these miniatures is the careful attention to detail.  These miniatures straddle the line between display and gaming.  Since the reality of gaming is that most gamers select a scale based on space available and cost of the miniatures, that most of these battles involved small numbers of ships and occurred in a limited area, the large size will not seem out of place.