Last year Peter Pig miniatures began releasing vessels of the American Civil War in the larger scale first popularized by Toby Barrett's Thoroughbred Miniatures. Since the time of the first list published by the Pig's American distributor, Brookhurst Hobbies in southern California, the Imie has grown to an impressive thirty-eight vessels, nearly double the size of the Thoroughbred line.

During my reconnaissance mission to Brookhurst (I was operating 'in secret - my cover being a visit to Disneyland, three miles away. Pretty clever, eh?) I viewed each of the models and picked up a fair number of ships. Others I looked at and stayed far away from. Let me share with you my observations.

First, these ships are made from resin, with ship fittings in pewter. There is some pitting from air pockets in the resin. You can fill these in and sand them, but it is a pain. The ship fittings are nice, but they don't fit as well as the Thoroughbred fittings. The one spiffy aspect of the fittings are the guns and mounts, because they have miniature crews, and nicely done ones at that. However, a gun is a gun is a gun. The planking is nice, and usually clean, it is where the three dimensions come together, such as where the wheel houses and cabins Join the decking, that things don't look quite clean.

Second, these ships seem a tad on the small, narrow and delicate side. They are not big, ungainly and slab-sided as many Civil War ships seemed to be. It seems to me that some of the ships struggle with proportion and don't have the right 'look'. I noticed this particularly with the Nashville, Essex, Tuscaloosa and New Ironsides.

Having alerted you to the shortcomings of this line there are many positives. First is the size of the line and its apparent growth. The Pig offers many ships, and some accessories, that Thoroughbred does not. If you are a Mississippi River enthusiast, there is a beautiful General Bragg and Little Rebel to supplement your Thoroughbred cotton- clad gunboats. There is a nice (but too narrow) Commodore Morris to go with your Thoroughbred Onandega. There is also a very serviceable stem- wheel tinclad to match the Thoroughbred side-wheel tinclad. Another positive is cost. Piggy ships are lots cheaper than Thoroughbred ships. The resin vessels run from $3.85 for the Manassas (and any number of other ships) to $8.75 for the Benton.

If you are considering purchasing 1/600 scale ironclads, my suggestion is to choose your ships carefully, and put out the money for Thoroughbred, because the models are more exact museum-quality. They are, however, more expensive and the line is limited. When Thoroughbred does not have what you need, look at what Peter Pig has available. They are very good supplements.

Note Thoroughbred has issued more of their superb vessels, going with some larger ships and the first of a planned line of sailing vessels. I have received New Ironsides and a Milwaukee-class monitor and they are superb. Hartford is also available and on my list. Alabama and Keararge are in the building and are not far away. The later is especially welcome as it will serve as a model for the myriad classes of 2nd class screw sloops employed by the Union navy during the war.