Ship History Tuscumbia is yet another recent addition to Peter Pig's line of 1/600 scale American Civil War ironclads. Designed for service along the Mississippi River, Tuscumbia was heavily armed and armored. She mounted three 11" smoothbores on the bow, with a pair of 9" guns mounted in the stern. This configuration best suited the riverine operations of the ACW, where both sides closed with the enemy bow on, as opposed to the broadside tactics of the blue water navy.

Tuscumbia had a short, if busy career, participating in four major operations. These included the recapture of Ft. Heiman and the bombardment of Grand Gulf, MS, in 1863. Tuscumbia was hit a staggering 81 times at Grand Gulf, but survived to participate in the Union attack on Vicksburg in May of '63. She spent the next year being refit, and did not participate in any major actions for the remainder of the war.

Figure Review

The Peter Pig casting is a good representation of Tuscumbia. Not perfect, but good. The casting scales well, and is almost exactly the correct size for 1/600. The features of the casemate, pilothouse and wheels match the picture of Tuscumbia in Silverstone's "Warships of the Civil War Navies." The stacks are the generic metal stacks that come with almost every Peter Pig casting. Eyeballing the photographs, you'll need to snip about a quarter inch off each chimney, i.e. smokestack, to get the correct height. My major quibble with the model is that the hurricane deck doesn't extend out from the casemate sides far enough. As sold, the casting looks like the Indianola, which it is most certainly not! This flaw can be corrected with the addition of a piece of thin sheet styrene to each side of the hurricane deck, creating the overhangs so clearly visible in the photograph.

A nice touch on the Pig's part is the inclusion of pilot holes for mounting the posts for the "hogging" chains. These posts supported chains that provided additional stability and rigidity to the hull and added to the distinctive appearance of the Tuscumbia. With the holes to use as guides it was easy to add a series of styrene rods topped with thread to model these posts and chains.

So, should you run out and buy this kit? If you are gaming mid-war river battles -- then yes! Peter Pig's Tuscumbia is a good model of a rare ship and would make a solid addition to your fleet. The kit requires more work than most of the Pig's offerings, but the end result makes the effort worthwhile. Bring on the Rebs!

Overall grade: B