Le Kriegspiel - Part 5 - American Civil War variant

I'm not sure whether this is complete or if my photocopy is missing the last two pages of the book.

The Combat at Pigeon's Ranch by Chares Grant

This version of this article is from Wargamer's Newsletter #77 August 1968, athough it is reprinted from an earlier Wargamer's Newsletter. I don't have this earlier version so I don't know in which issue it first appeared.

It is of particular interest as it relates to Charles Grant's earlier American Civil War gaming, which as I understand it predated the SYW set up represented by The War Game.

Plastic Artillery Conversions by John Edgecumbe

This article from Miniature Warfare magazine February 1970 just about scrapes in to the Airfix ACW theme as these German WW1 guns and equipment are converted from the Airfix ACW set.

At a time when pretty much anything you want is available from a range of manufacturers and in a range of scales, and where you can often view and buy them on line, this article reminds us of a different time, when modelling, converting, bodging and other ways of making do were necessary even for some mainstream items.

This will be the last ACW Airfix related post for a while. I do intend to add further articles to the series on Juhn Tunstill's Miniature Warfare ACW Campaign in Ireland (see earler posts here)

An Airfix ACW army for beginners

From Miniature Warfare magazine 1972, this article by A. Mason goes into how many boxes of Airfix ACW troops you need to buy (at 17p per box)to get a matched pair of starter ACW armies, although distressingly he allows the idea of buying some metal command figures.

The pictures are unrelated to the article but support the general theme.

American Civil War with Airfix - Part 2 The Battle of Rogersville

Airfix ACW wargaming reached as far as Denmark. This May 1973 article from Miniature Warfare magazine reports on a battle fought in Copenhagen over Christmas 1970. The story of putting the game on is interesting and the battle report, while brief, is well illustrated with photographs of figures and terrain.

Posted earlier but relevant to this thread are Terry Wise's Airfix Magazine articles on making ACW buildings

bungalow and farm house here

court house, general store, and Southern farm house here

American Civil War with Airfix - part 1

As the start of a short series on American Civil wargaming with Airfix, here is an article by Malcolm Knott entitled An Airfix Army, from the Subaltern's Corner feature In Miniature Warfare Magazine from February 1969.

As the article itself states, the importance of the Airfix ACW range (Union Infantry, Confederate Infantry, Artillery, US 7th Cavalry, plus Cowboys and Wagon Train) was to provide the basis for a complete wargame army of all arms plus logistics at a reasonable cost.

I'm sure lots of people must have started off with these figures, inspired by articles like these, the ACW ones in Terry Wise's series in Airfix Magazine on Buildings for Wargames and his Airfix Guide no 24 American Civil Wargaming (though this last was published five years after this article).

The figures though basic still are reasonably available and can be turned out very well - have a look at Matt's Command Group converted from two of the Cowboy figures here. Matt has a project to build Airfix ACW armies which will be interesting to follow.

I'm intending to mine the Airfix ACW seam from Miniature Warfare further with a few more posts, including a battle report and some more photographs.