"New Orleans Fleet " Topic

Pithead have just released their fourth set of Confederate warships. This time it is the turn of the Rebel fleet defending New Orleans . Eight coastal steamers and cottonclad towboats converted into rams and deployed in the defence of Forts Jackson and St Philip near the mouth of the Mississippi. We are confident that this set is representative of the ships that took part in the battle, the vessels have been carefully researched and we are grateful to the many knowlegeable contributors who have helped put together the evidence that we have used in the making of this unique set of models.

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Nice work especially on the cotton armor.

Dammit, thats another hit to the bank balance…..

If they would only be 1/600 which is what all of the ones I have are. They are nice though.

They look nice, but I'm waiting on the Lissa ships.

I want the Lissa fleets too.

I'm still on the fence about 1/1200 ACW ships. It's the right scale for big battles with lots of vessels, or just big vessels (like sloops, corvettes, frigates, etc.), but 1/600 is a better scale for gunboats and small riverine actions.

- Ix

That's why I use both :)

"They look nice, but I'm waiting on the Lissa ships".

I have been producing 1/1200 models for only a year now and I have made over 100 prototype models which is a lot of ships . The way this works is that models will only go into production if customers write to me stating their intentions to buy them . The same goes for the Lissa ships , I have made several of the ironclads but only three people have asked for a full range to be produced so the project gets put on hold.

I am making Civil War ships currently because they are something I am personally interested in making. I also intend to finish off the Pacific war ranges despite my lack of personal interest because I know they will sell , and I know this because customers have written to tell me.

I don't mind what I make as long as it's not in 1/600 but if you don't ask for it then it won't get made , at least not by me as it costs too much to make models that nobody wants to buy . For example, I spent many hours making a complete range of Brazilian ironclad prototypes but only a couple of people wrote to me and asked for them so they sit on my workbench now doing nothing .

Markets are consumer led , this is what startup projects are all about , all you need to do is ask in enough numbers (in this case 12) and its yours. In the meantime I will just go on making the models that I am interested in for my own use.

I'm interested in the Brazilians, in case I hadn't mentioned it before :)

Yes David, you are one of the two that I mentioned I'm afraid . Its a shame really because you could game some intereting "what if" battles assuming the Paraguyans got their hands on the ships that they had ordered from the European shipyards .

Looking at the Confederate Navy page, I just noticed the proposal for the North Carolina Mosquito Fleet. I'm interested in that one. I've actually been looking at your other groups of ships with an eye toward putting together the fight for Roanoke island, but buying the entire Confederate fleet in one go would be a huge head start.

- Ix

In the case of the North Carolina fleet I have to agree with you that 1/600 would have been a better scale for a fleet of Tugboats . However the Union vessels in those battles are so obscure and different that you are never going to see them being made in 1/600 but its possible to make them in 1/1200 and still break even on your costs. I will register you as a supporter for this set if you email me at vanilla….

I'd actually rather game Roanoke Island in 1/1200 scale. The boats may be small, but there are lots of them, plus numerous batteries and a landing zone to fit on the table.

I sent an email through the "Contact Us" link on the Pithead site to register my interest in the NCMF.

It might be easier to get commitments from potential buyers if the email link is right in the product description for potential products.

- Ix

I have sent my email about the Lissa ships. While I understand you are a small operation and work on what you like, it would be helpful if there was an estimate of price. I'm not trying to lock you in to a price, but, since I don't have unlimited funds for gaming, it would help me make a good decision about where to spend my money.

I suppose it would be helpful to give you a rough price guide although you could do an estimate of projected costs by looking at the models I have on sale currently. A large model like a sloop or a smaller model with say 10 or more parts like CSS McRae would be sold at between $7.00 USD to $8.00 USD and this is likely to be as high as I would go and the smaller ironclads would be less than this. This is all a bit academic though as the wooden Lissa ships will not be made on current levels of support but I will be putting photos of the Ironclads on my webpage as soon as they have all been made just to see if I can stir some interest.

Have you tried putting any of these projects on Kickstarter?

Your pattern of making these ships in groups of actual historical flotillas seems ideally suited to the Kickstarter model, and the Lissa project in particular might actually get some traction there.

- Ix

Hi Admiral , I am ignorant about kickstarter so feel free to put me right. The way I see it, naval wargaming is only a niche topic and 1/1200 ACW is only a small part of this. If I can't get traction on the worlds biggest wargaming site (TMP) that has a board dedicated to this subject then where else. What I don't want to do is spend ages making Lissa wooden warships only to find I have wasted my time like I did when I was pursuaded to make Brazilian ironclads. Okay I might not be able to sell some of my more unusual ACW models but at least I will have a set of models that I have always wanted for my own use so it won't have been a complete waste of my time.

I am interested in the Brazilian ironclads also. Just a question of allocating $ to them with the holiday season coming up & all…

I am ignorant about kickstarter so feel free to put me right.

I think the Kickstarter FAQ describes it better than I can, but here's my one sentence synopsis: You advertise a project you want to complete, people pledge money, if the pledges accumulate past the minimum investment you specified, you collect the money, execute the project, and ship the product.

As far as I can tell, the nice thing about Kickstarter is that it's a centralized, pre-built, self-measuring, regulated system for managing pledges of financial support.

I've only used Kickstarter as an "investor", so I can't comment on it's pros and cons to a creator.

- Ix

only three people have asked for a full range to be produced so the project gets put on hold.

Make that four for Lissa.

LT