USS Hartford and Friends

 Six more ships have joined my 1/600 ACW collection as I continue to churn through my lead mountain while participating in the AHPCV. A few of these models will see active duty in my upcoming game at Historicon.  All of the models are from Thoroughbred Miniatures - the models are all superb and I can not recommend Thoroughbred more.  If you want to do ACW Ironclads, that's the place to go!

First up is the USS Hartford a heavily armed screw Frigate and flagship of Farragut's fleet at the Battle of Mobile Bay.  I haven't really done the model justice but it was a ;lot of fun to put together.  It had 40 pieces and was a bit tricky but well worth the effort.  My apologies for displaying her with out rigging but I've run out of thread and have some on order.

 Her armament included a number of rifled guns which will give her a range advantage over the Warrior in their upcoming battle.  Who will prevail? - that will be up to the players at Historicon!

 Next up is the Itasca, on of 23 Union 90 day gunboats that were built during the war.  At least one Itasca class ship served in ever major naval action, including the class namesake which served in the Gulf blockading fleet and fought at Mobile Bay.

 The las Union ship is the ill-fated Indianola - a casemate ironclad that was poorly built and lost at Vicksburg.

 Hopefully she has a more successful tabletop career.

 The first Confederate ship - the CSS Gaines.  The Gaines (along with her sister ship, the Morgan and the ironclad Tennessee) made up the bulk of the Confederate navy at the Battle of Mobile Bay.  After sustaining heavy damage, the Gaines was run aground by her crew and set afire.  Her remains now form a fishing reef in Mobile Bay that I visited many times as a kid growing up in the area.

I have two longer term naval hobby goals - build the entire Trafalgar fleets in 1/1200 and the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1/600.  In terms of Trafalgar I've finished 41 of the 73 ships.  For Mobile Bay I've only got 10 of the 22 ships that fought there - so a bit more work to do for both projects.

 The last CSS ship is the ironclad Missouri.  Yet another ill-fated ship - she was built to Shreveport, LA and intended to serve on the Red River.  Unfortunately, low water levels kept her trapped in the dock for the majority of the war so she really didn't do a lot.  The Missouri had a very interesting and ungainly propulsion system design - a centrally mounted and largely unprotected paddle wheel.

Lastly, a generic river transport that will be used in convoy or escort games as a moving objective marker.  I just received a few more of these to build.