Essex Figures Essex Miniatures has released a new line of 15mm ACW figures that are definitely a step up from their old line. The castings come in a variety of poses and equipment. The detail is very good and all of the figures I have seen are well proportioned. They are about the same size as Stone Mountain's range, and I think that they would mix well together, although there are indeed some differences. The main difference that one would notice is that there is a greater thickness in the rifles on the Essex castings. Most of the packs contain identical poses, but there are two sets of skirmishers and one of Rebs that contain different poses. Essex figures can be obtained in the United States from Wargámes, Inc., Box 278, Route 40 East, Triadelphia, West Virginia, 26059. The phone number for credit card orders is (304) 547-0000. It is worth noting that my experiences with ordering from Wargames has been fantastic. They can n6rmally fill your order and ship it the same day they receive it. Compared to some other companies I have ordered from, this is certainly fantastic service! Scenics Paper Buildings An interesting piece of news for my fellow Civil War gamers involves a company called Scenics. They have put out three sets of paper 15mm scale ACW buildings. Each set contains about ten sheets. Some of the sheets have two or three buildings on them, so when you are finished, you have a selection of over ten barns, houses, sheds, and a couple of specialty buildings such as a church, Cotton Mill, or train station. Assembly of these buildings is not hard. If you line the inside with heavy cardboard or paper, the buildings will be sturdy enough to survive many a battle. The buildings are printed in black and white, but with magic markers, water colors, or even crayons, they can be spruced up quite nicely to fit with your other terrain pieces. The best thing about these paper buildings is their price. Each set is $9.95 - and that's less than one dollar per building! Compared to the price of other buildings on the market, that's a cheap price. If you are a perfectionist about your gaming table, this probably won't satisfy you. However, if you want some inexpensive buildings that look pretty nice on a typical ACW table, this is the thing for you. The address for Scenics is 209 Henrick Drive Kettering, Ohio 45429 USA. They can be reached by phone, (513) 436-3775. Back to The Zouave Vol IV No. 2 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com