ACW – Which Rules & Miniatures?

[Klingsor]

I rather fancy a go at the naval, specifically the brown water side, of the American Civil War. Are there any particular rules and miniatures the list would recommend? There are three British manufacturers that I am aware of:

Peter Pig seems to have a decently sized range of ships for both sides in 1/600th scale but they do not look fantastic in the pictures.

Tumbling Dice have a fair few miniatures in 1/2400 scale but they are rather small though keenly priced because of that. I did buy a few but find it hard to get enthused about them.

Langton Miniatures range is 1/1200th scale and looks to have by some considerable margin the best looking models. A bit more expensive but still the most tempting.

Any suggestions chaps? I would prefer a British supplier for the miniatures to reduce postage costs. This is less important with the rules of course.

[Quickdraw]

That's a time period I haven't looked into too much. I'd be interested in what kind of stuff you find.
I'll be taking a look at some of those miniatures companies too.

[Yarkshire Gamer]

Not a period I am familiar with either, however anything by Langton is top drawer regardless of price. It's not a fleet action period so not needing hundreds of ships I'd spend the extra dinar on quality.

[Ruckdog]

I don't have a ton of experience in this period, like the others! However, a similar question was recently raised on the FB Naval Wargaming group, and these were the rules that were mentioned:

 Sail and Steam
http://www.wargamevault.com/product/116844/Sail-and-Steam-Navies

 Ironclads (appears to be OOP)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2800/ironclads

Smoke on the water (free!)
http://www.rapiermedia.net/acwnaval/sotw2/Default.html

'Hammerin' Iron
http://www.peterpig.co.uk/rules.html

[McKInstry]

In my opinion, Thoroughbred along with Langton make the finest 1/1200 anywhere. The Thoroughbred 1/600 are beyond magnificent but as gaming pieces, you need a lot of room.

http://www.thoroughbredmodels.com/OddsNEnds.htm

I use Smoke on the Water or simply Ironclads on a hex mat in 1/2400 with a mix of Tumbling Dice and Panzerschiffe. David Manley has a set of rules that are very much a larger fleet battle type set for quick resolution specific to the Battle of Lissa  called Broadside and Ram available as PDF on Wargames Vault that is very adaptable to ACW.

[Klingsor]

Thank you for some very good and helpful suggestions.
I knew of Thoroughbred by name but nothing more so I have just had a quick look at their website and their miniatures are lovely looking, nice and crisp and not at all badly priced.
The Ironclads boardgame, that I have heard of, very well thought of and long out of print.
Hammerin' Iron. I bought these a year or two back at Salute, this time I must try and remember to get a good look at the models. I do fear they might be a bit big even if they do not turn out to be as ‘soft’ looking as the photographs suggest.
In my experience anything by David Manley is well worth a look.

Got to go, there is an automatic restart on this machine kicking off imminently.