Close Ranks

Harold Odden is the King of Mega-size representations of actual Civil War Battles in the 1/30-1/32 scales. He's had an obsession with the Cyclorama at Gettysburg and has done an amazing job of recreating it with miniatures. Thousands of figures.  Rank upon rank. Firing Lines...Pickett's Charge...Carnage....Intensity...well, you get the idea. His work inspired me to try to figure out how to get ranks of figures into my set ups. Because I use the Diorama Drapes, it's hard (and intensely frustrating!) trying to get figures to stand up too close together.  So I had my wife put a strip of double sided tape down on a little piece of Balsa wood and then I attached my plastic marching figures close together in ranks.  This series of photos is me playing with that idea...and expanding on it as I bring up more bins of figures and accessories from the basement. These first pictures are like rough sketches of what is to come.

The camera on my phone was also giving me fits during ths time. Nothing was really working.

I'd take one or two shots and my battery would be drained.

I also was having big problems with sunlight coming in through the garage windows. (It is sort of cool in it's own way...)

I started adding painted metal figures to the foreground, making the ranks of figures the background feature. Ranks of figures give breadth and depth and realism, but the foreground is about character, drama and action.

And then I started getting a little serious. I pinned down a road to the drape and set up turnpike fence on both sides and pulled out the wonderful Britains fence climber sets. I also brought out the battle damaged farmhouse made by Dick Mayhew and lit it on fire. (Not really...just in my imagination.)

Now I was beginning to feel it...We got some drama goin' on!

I can't imagine what it would have been like to march into cannon fire and musket fire.

I still am not sure how I ended up with this effect. I love the right two thirds...the left 1/3 bothers me.

 I had painted up a half dozen of my new Speira Confederate figures so I put them into the foreground so they could make their debut.. Click on the picture to continue the story of the 2020 Civil War Set Up.