Jackson Gamers' 15mm Home made Ironclads


A Monitor fires!

The Union fleet moving upriver and the Confederate ships moving downriver mainly interpenetrated each other, firing as they went, doing suprisingly little damage. This was during our game Up the Lazy river played at HOBBYTOWN in north Jackson, spring 2002.

The target is a home-made Rebel ironclad, with a casemate of Evergreen scribed plastic on a foamcore hull. The stack is a black soda straw from a long-ago fast food meal. The opening at the top of the casemate is closed off with gridding made from "plastic canvas" - find it at any needlework store.


A cast metal 15mm Frontier steam launch with spar torpedo projecting forward steams foolishly by itself towards two union monitors.


A small steamer serving as a "mother ship" to the Frontier steam launch. A pointed piece of balsa serves as the hull of the steamer, with a block of balsa topped with cardstock serving as the superstructure and deck. Two dowels for stacks and a tiny balsa block for a pilot-house top the upper deck. A part of a cardboard cylinder forms the paddle wheel housing at rear. This is my most basic ship. It works for a minor player in the game.


The double turretted Federal monitor. The rear turret's roof is removed to show the innards. Guns and crewmen by Frontier, turrets courtesy of Crystal Lite soft drink containers. Pringle's potato chip cans also are often used in monitor-building shipyards. The stacks are pieces of brass tubing, and the small boat is a plastic hull that a friend gave me.

The hull is a piece of 1/4" wood cut on a small jigsaw. Balsa or Foamcore would work as well.


The "iron plates" are drawn onto the painted surface with a thin permanant marking pen. Notice that the captain has come out of the pilot house for a breath of air. the pilot house is a piece of cardboard tube, open at the top to insert the pilot or captain figures.

These ships were constructed in 1986 after playing "Steam Iron & Tin" games at the "ORIGINS 1985" gaming convention. Since I began built these ships, Minifigs (later Greenfield/Garrison) and Now Merrimack minitures has come out with a line of 15mm Resin ships. I believe that "Outland" games also make some usable resin 15mm ships.

We have had a lot of fun with these guys and I have the old "Steam Iron & Tin" rules on the web site now. - Jay Stribling

Go to the "Steam Iron & Tin Rules

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