Since I am a son of the south I have always been interested in the cival war
All of my male ancestors at that time were members of different divisions
most of them served with Holcombe Legion CSA so naturally a few days ago I began a diorama of a confederate campsite
there are no kits on the market that I can locate of a 20 pounder cannon with casson nor can I locate anyhing else that I needed
there fore I began to look up the objects needed on the web and found pictures of cannons, gatling guns a conesatago covered wagon and a mortor so here is the beginning of the dio]

By no means am I saying this dio is bad, I'm am just saying stuff to make it more realistic.

The bad:

The tents:
Sorry man, they (the small ones) need something to hold them up. I've slept in one and they have two poles on the end usually sticking through a grommet. They also look way too rigid like cardboard. I know canvas can be strung tight but youd have two have a super-rebel for something like that! Also there are stakes that hold the sides out to make more space and keep the rain from flowing in. One last thing is that most tents wouldn't be painted with a CSA. Paint was valuable and the south wouldn't waste it on labeling small tents.

Ok, the big tent: This looks good (And I'm assuming this is 1/35) but it seriously needs some front flaps. This might be the one thing to let the CSA thing slide on, it's habitant might have been a little arrogant and didn't mind them new-fangled "balloons" flying around
You can easily find pics to help you on the internet with the tents.

The Good:
The Flag: Dude, this looks great. Especially that you have it flapping in the wind. It adds more realism.

The wagon: Really good job on this. The only thing I can say that is bad is that you need some wooden supprot beams to show through as the canvas didn't magically float.

The Cannon: That's amzing too. good job.

The groundwork: Looks good.

I am in no way trying to bash you, I'm just giving you some advice that will make it more realistic. Maybe you can also add some personal gear in the tents to really draw some attention to it.

Rich

BTW: Reason I really want to help you with this is that I have a big interest in the civil war too. My heart says Dixie but my mind says Union (He says while searching for cover)

granted everything that you say is factual
I myself while on active duty and during training manuvers pitched pup tents and spent many a night in that tent while rain water poured through the ww2 surplus tents
as far as the command tent I am going to rebuild the entire campsite as soon as I get over my open heart surgery scheduled for tuesday of next week apr 28th
the covered wagon does have the ribs as you mentioned but I cut the cloth too big and haven't had the time to make another one
as I mentioned in my post this is just the beginning on a much bigger diorama that I have in the planing stages
eventuilly I want to build a union campsite with a river seperating the oposing armies
my great grandad who served with the South Carolina Vol. Holcombe Legion told me a lot of stories about the war
and one of them sticks in my mind

Two Companys , one confederate the other union happened to be camped on either side of a small but fast flowing stream and the soldiers of both sides were sitting on their respective banks calling to each other across the water
" Yank, you got any coffee?" a reb yelled
"I got coffee if you got goobers"
"We gave out of coffee two days past!" the reb yelled "But we got a ton of goobers"
"Trade?" the reb yelled
"Trade!" came the reply
then two soldiers , deadly enemy in war , waded to the middle of the stream.
one carrying a can full of coffee beans the other a large bag of peanuts
my grandpop was the reb and his cousin was the yank
true story
thus the tradegy of an unfogiving war, for a time, was diverted

grandad43

That is a really cool story, and hope the surgery goes OK.

Looking forward to the larger diorama, maybe you should post some in progress pics. This is a pretty cool thing you're doing. What's the scale of this?

Good luck on the project and the surgery,
Rich

Richard
I have no idea what the scale might be.
the cannon barrel is about 4 inches long
the wagon is 6 inches tall I just starting cutting the wood and trying to get the scale the same as the cannon (Firts Build)
I know that the gatling gun didn't come along until the cival war was over but I have built one nevertheless
trying to locate a photo of an 18th centry mortor
I know that they were utilized on battlements during the war and I am also building a ships 20 pounder (Not to be used in the diorama
thinking of making a few swords and muskets
anything else???????

Grandad43

Actually, the Gatling Gun, saw limited use in the Civil War on the Union side.

"The Gatling gun was first used in warfare during the Civil War. The gun was not accepted by the Union Army until 1866, but a "sales engineer" of the manufacturing company demonstrated it in combat."

Mischa & Kitsune, The Notebook of Modern Firearms