1/2400th ACW Naval: Some recent additions....

Thought I'd share some photos of a few recent acquisitions from the nicely re-vamped online shop over at Tumbling Dice; in particular from their 1/2400th naval ranges:

http://www.tumblingdiceuk.com/product-category/12400-naval

The new interface makes it much easier to shop with them, and more importantly, the online catalogue now lists some miniatures that although available for purchase for some time, were not previously shown in the online listings - the ACW ironclads in this post come under that category.
There are also some new models available in the already excellent Victorian Naval Range, so worth a look if you haven't visited recently.

To kick things off then, from their pack ASV60, the Confederate CSS Albermarle and the CSS Manassas:

As with the majority of the range, the models in and of themselves are nicely proportioned and fit well into their separate bases, however, there are I believe problems with historical accuracy that similarly affect other ships as depicted in the ACW range.
Whilst the Manassas has a great domed shape, characteristic of the original, it appears with only a single funnel; I have certainly seen depictions that have her with two - I don't know enough about the period to really be a good judge of which is correct; but obviously if you were expecting two, then a bit of conversion would be necessary:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-mr/mansas-m.htm

http://www.cityofart.net/bship/manassas.html

The Albermarle is pretty decent, although I suspect that the rear of the casemate was sloped at a similar angle to the front face in the original, whilst this model has it flat.

Next up the pair of vessels from ASV50, the USS Roanoke and USS Keokuk:

The larger of the pair looks to me a pretty decent facsimile of the original at this scale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uss_Roanoke_1855_Ironclad.jpg

whilst the Keokuk, I think has some problems with the turrets - I think in the original these had a noticeable slope to the armoured sides, giving almost a conical aspect that differs from the straight ones in this miniature:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-k/keokuk.htm

That is not to say, however, that these are necessarily bad models, they are good value reproductions in the spirit of the originals, and given that I would tend to also want to use them as part of wider, VSF- style campaigns, don't particularly bother me, but might offend the purist or dedicated ACW fan...

As to their sizes, they both sit up well against other craft from the range; here a sternwheel tinclad:

and also the Roanoke against a slightly converted Monadnock class monitor in the colours of the Peruvian Navy:

Finally we have the rather smaller craft that populate the pack ASV90, that contains six assorted Spar Torpedo Boats and 'Davids', two of each type; from the right the submersible, the spar torpedo boat and then a picket boat:

These are nicely modelled, and give enough variety to use them in a number of differing guises; I think both a CSS David and a CSS Hunley would be possible at this scale, whilst the picket boat type trailing a dinghy is generic enough to be of use as a number of different craft - one very small criticism is that the spar torpedo apparatus is not actually visible out front in the sculpts themselves.

Overall, then, I'm happy enough with these few additions to my VSF fleets, a project that I am hoping to firm up somewhat in the course of this year, and give me the option for the odd ACW battle if I am not too fussy about the exact historical types....

Certainly, as I would like to field a few 'what if' vessels like the CSS Scorpion from ASV57, here menaced by lots of pesky craft, I'm not going to be too much of a stickler for historical accuracy!