Civil war dioramas.

This one is from the Sloan Museum in Flint , Mi.

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It was my love of dioramas that got me interested in museum work. I served as curator of exhibits at the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City, Missouri, where I created this diorama of the May 22, 1863, assault on Stockade Redan at Vicksburg. The Stockade Redan is shown in the left background with the Union assault column charging down the Graveyard Road. In the foreground is the redan later known as Green's Redan, named for Gen. Martin Green, 2nd Missouri Brigade, killed there on June 27. In a brother-against-brother situation, Missourians helped defend Stockade Redan and Green's Redan against Missourians in the attacking column. The Missouri Monument, honoring both sides, stands on the site of Green's Redan. The figures in the foreground are all approximately six inches tall. The terrain is based on photographs that I took there one winter.

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This diorama (also in the State Museum) depicts the skirmish at Island Mound, Bates County, Missouri, Oct. 29, 1862. A scouting party from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was attacked by a superior force of mounted Confederates. Charging through the smoke of prairie fires, the Confederates fought hand-to-hand with the Kansans until driven off by reinforcements from their regiment. The skirmish was significant as the first time during the war that African Americans proved themselves in combat. The 1st Kansas Colored was actually raised before the Emancipation Proclamation by Kansas senator James Lane, a man who tended to do things his own way in spite of government disapproval. In this diorama the figures are only 54mm tall.

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It was my love of dioramas that got me interested in museum work. I served as curator of exhibits at the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City, Missouri, where I created this diorama of the May 22, 1863, assault on Stockade Redan at Vicksburg. The Stockade Redan is shown in the left background with the Union assault column charging down the Graveyard Road. In the foreground is the redan later known as Green's Redan, named for Gen. Martin Green, 2nd Missouri Brigade, killed there on June 27. In a brother-against-brother situation, Missourians helped defend Stockade Redan and Green's Redan against Missourians in the attacking column. The Missouri Monument, honoring both sides, stands on the site of Green's Redan. The figures in the foreground are all approximately six inches tall. The terrain is based on photographs that I took there one winter.

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This diorama (also in the State Museum) depicts the skirmish at Island Mound, Bates County, Missouri, Oct. 29, 1862. A scouting party from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was attacked by a superior force of mounted Confederates. Charging through the smoke of prairie fires, the Confederates fought hand-to-hand with the Kansans until driven off by reinforcements from their regiment. The skirmish was significant as the first time during the war that African Americans proved themselves in combat. The 1st Kansas Colored was actually raised before the Emancipation Proclamation by Kansas senator James Lane, a man who tended to do things his own way in spite of government disapproval. In this diorama the figures are only 54mm tall.

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Fantastic dioramas, really detailed. Thank you for sharing. :thumbsup:
 
yes, all too much cool, so driven by the curiosity i'm checking for price of a miniature and .. do i have to pay this amount ? http://www.firstlegionltd.com/confederateartillery.aspx
a battery would cost me about 500$ ... crazies !! i've to be a milioner to make a scenario !! i didn't expect these amounts ... :frown:
You get what you pay for, if you want figures that are already hand painted then it’s going to cost some serious money, some of the best dioramas that I’ve seen use 1:72 scale, you have to paint them yourself but that’s a big part of creating a diorama, also 1:72 scale is reasonably cheap to buy.:thumbsup:

Something like this in 1:72 is a great way to get started.
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If you want pre-painted check out Britains . First Legion is very well done but very expensive . I have some Britains but usually paint my own, 1/24th (75mm) and larger now . To start , go with what Waterloo50 says . Inexpensive and a great starting point .
 
The 5th NY ( Gaines Mill ) that I posted was an unpainted limited edition by a company called Time Machine . I'm sure they are now out of business. It sat around for years until I finished it for one of my late father's doctors who was a collector .
 
hi @Kurt G
Toy soldiers was my best hobby when i was a kid. Anyway, idea to paint plastic soldiers never come to mind until now, but 3 years ago, during a cleaning of the cellar, i lost all my toy armies-ww2 (i'm not guilty for that), so i definetly lost a chance to do it now .. it's always like this, and in italian we say : 'who have the bread does't have the teeth, and who have the teeth doesn't have the bread'.
Anyway, because subject, over be basically a natural scheme, remind me to an old glory and wonderful records, i can't be un-interested in this matter. Metal already painted figures are extremely cool and detailed, my favourite in my web researches, but, like you and @Waterloo50 noted, they are very expansive. Reading in wikipedia a brief explatation about plastic soldiers, i found this list of manufacterers (if needs) :
A Call To Arms
Accurate
Airfix
Almark
Armourfast
Atlantic
Barcelona Universal Models
Baravelli
Britains
Caesar
Canè
Coates&Shine
Czech Master's Kits
Dark Dream Studio
Emhar
Esci
Evolution
Forces Of Valor
Fujimi
GerMan
Gulliver
Hasegawa
HaT
Heller
HYTTY
IMEX
Italeri
Legio]
Lucky Toys
LW
Matchbox
Metch
MiniArt
MIR
Nexus
Nikolai
Odemars
Orion
Pegasus
Pobeda
Preiser
RedBox
Retrokit
Revell
Strelets*R
Valdemar
Valiant
Waterloo 1815
Zvezda
I'm not surprise to have check severals are located in Italy, which is excellet for me for shipment costs, instead, in some kind of orders is free.

I remeber to have found this pic below in this forum
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i add this unique pic which show the several angles of that mini-diorama


'Diorama', is this term in italian language ? i never listened before here

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Good luck , Ariete . This hobby can be very addictive . Beautiful diorama of the 5th NY . Looks like it may be 28mm.
 
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very cool @rebel brit
I'm studying around in internet this hobby, just for curiosity and regrets, like i said in the previous post.
Now, i don't know if who makes diorama then use them for wargame, anyway the concept is similar.
About figures, i was amazed by the fact many people use or play with 1:72 scale, the same of the diorama above, even if, as far as i understood, the 1:32 scale is much widespread. In fact, though paint soldiers so tiny (20mm) should be a very hard job !
Visit several websites, that with much contents is surely michtoy.com, which is good for the public here about the shipment costs, i found the best ACW soldiers in scale 1:32 under Expeditionary Force Toy Soldiers mark and in scale 1:72 under Strelets R Plastic Figures mark. Living in Italy, i though to buy them eventually through Amazon or any other web retailer for which shipment cost in my country would be free (obviously over a certain amount of order), like 1001modellini.it or soldatinionline.it. Would you suggest me any other in the specific ? I check Italeri official website, because is italian, even if the above cited brands would be better, and i checked their products on Amazon are cheaper !
 
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