The latest additions to the Thoroughbred Miniatures 1/600 ACW line are a set of mortar schooners and rafts. These craft were present at most of the naval battles on the Mississippi River from Ft. Jackson to the fall of Vicksburg. Though not,as glamorous as the ironclad warships, the mortar vessels were often the real reason the fleets were present. Thoroughbred's castings are a welcome addition to their line, as well as the only commercial source for a 1/600th-scale mortar raft.

The Mortar Schooner

The mortar schooner kit consists of a hull, two masts with booms, a small bowsprit, two deck guns and a mortar. The casting is very clean, with no flash to remove. The hull measures out at 52mm long by 12mm wide, which scales to approximately 104' by 24' in dimension. The casting is somewhat "generic," representing a diverse range of acquired vessels, as opposed to the typical naval "class'of similar vessels. A comparison of the dimensions of the casting against those of actual mortar schooners listed in Paul Silverstone's "Warship's of the Civil War Navies" places the casting near the middle of the distribution of actual dimensions.

The mortar schooner is a snap to assemble. The booms are easily attached to the masts, which in turn slide into place in the hull. The wire mounting rods on the mast were a tad long, but easily trimmed with a pair of pliers. Following painting, the remaining parts -- bowsprit, mortar and guns -all fit in easily. Overall, an easy kit to assemble.

The finished model is superb, and is easily identifiable as the photograph of the unnamed mortar schooner found in Silverstone. The detail is crisp and clear, with painting highlighting the etching of the mortar's turntable, the decks and wheelhouse. Overall Grade: A

Mortar Rafts

The mortar rafts are -- if anything -- easier to assemble than the schooners. The "hull" of the raft is a rectangle 30mm long by 12mm wide, which scales out to 60' by 25'-- the exact dimensions of the raft as listed in Jack Coombe's "Thunder Along the Mississippi." This raft is topped with a two part armored shield (one half for each end of the raft) and the mortar.

Assembly was a breeze, with a small amount of gap filling super glue bonding the shield halves to the raft deck and the mortar mounting on the firing platform. The gap filling glue is needed as the shields don't quite match up with each other, but clean up nicely after painting. Primed and painted black, the rafts were ready to go.

Determining the exact match of the casting to its historical counterpart is a bit of a chore. Beyond the dimensions given in Coombe's work, any real detail on the mortar raft is suspect. At various times, Coombe lists them with either VIII-inch or XIII-inch mortars. If you compare the assembled casting to a picture of the mortar raft found in Silverstone, you will conclude it is an accurate example of this type of vessel. Overall Grade: A

Bibliography

Coombe, Jack D., 1996, Thunder along the Mississippi. Sarpedon, New York.
Silverstone, Paul, 1989, Warships of the Civil War Navies, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland.