I’m not sure where this would fir better so I’ll post be posting it both on the figure boards and in dios.
I hope you guys don’t mind.

Any way I plane on staring a 1/72 civil war dio sometime next year and want to start buying the kits for it but don’t know witch ones to get.

The dio will be of Union Calvary charging a Confederate artillery position with a grope of confederate soldier trying to hold the line. It will be in 1/72 scale and the base will probably be about 6 to 7 inches by 12 to 16inches.

Anyway I’ve been looking at the available civil war sets online but don’t know which ones to get (really don’t know what’s in them and I don’t want to buy a set and find out its useless) So I’m hoping you guys can help me.

For the Union calvary I was looking at both the Imax and Italeri sets and was wondering which one would be better for depicting a calvary charge about to meet the enemy and how many useable figures are in them?
And dose anyone know if these 2 kits would look right with each other?

Also I was thinking of getting an Confederate infantry set to make the men defending the guns but don’t have a clue witch kit or kits would be best to use? Theres so many out there but I couldn’t find anything telling me what the figures in each kit are doing.

I also thought about getting the Imex Confederate and Union infantry set as it seems cheap and would
give me some dis mounted union solders to use in the charge but I don’t know it they would be correct with the calvary?

And one last question. I was wondering if I should get Imax’s Confederate Battlefield Redoubt set? And how large it is and what comes with it?

I would appreciate any help and sorry for the many questions

Sorry i can't help you with the sets.

Cavalry and infantry would not be charging together. 2000 pounds of horse at 30 mph and 160 pounds of man at 5 mph is not a good match. Also, cavalry was used either in scouting roles or as elite shock troops.

sorry, I have barely nothing to contribute to that time frame, but I have a nice webpage for you with many to all available sets in 1/72 as review:

Hit me!

You mean dismounted, fighting near the Confederate Artillery after losing their horses to cannon fire, etc...? Also, the uniforms for regular infantry and cavalry wouldn't be the same, but I'd imagine with the right conversion techniques (cavalry torsos on infantry legs) they just might work out fine. Plastic Soldier Review is a treasure chest of information on 1/72 scale plastic figures, so as Patrick suggested, you will definately want to check that site out.

- John

Thanks guys.

Patrick thats a fantastic site and should show me everything I need for the kits. Thanks for posting it.




Thats a good point so I’ll drop the idea of dismounted troops and just use any that may come with the calvary set for a few men that lost there horses.

As for the use of calvary (and I admit I may be wrong here) I believe I remember reading that at least the Union at times still deployed calvary charges against infantry a few times even considering the risk involved with the new infantry weapons.

If you are willing to work in metal rather than plastic, you can go with any number of companies that make all manner of ACW soldiers. Generally these will be denoted by th height of the figure, for example 28mm (which is fairly close to 148th scale. This is an ongoing argument within the military miniatues community.) you could try Sash and Saber at


http://www.sashandsaber.com/catalogACW.php4

Or Redoubt



http://www.redoubtenterprises.com/shop/?page=shop/browse&category_id=ffde61eb8243ee6a271642c091c663e5&ps_session=402096f4802b71b127b154787adab404

You can get mounted/dismounted cavalry from either, along with infantry and artillery. Bear in mind that these are meant to be handled, so some compromises are made, for examle weapons tend to be a little out of scale, but the level of detail in these soldiers tend to blow Italeri and Imex away.

Thanks John but I think I’ll be staying with plastic on this one.

Its not that I don’t want to work with metal (already have a few of them) but that I’ll need a good many figures for this project and am afraid metal would become too expensive.

Dismounted cavalry will deploy very differently than infantry. The general tactic for cavalry would be a skirmish line with three of four troopers deploying a specified distance form each other with the fourth tending the four horses. Cavalry had revolvers, carbines and sabres. Cavalry generally wore boots. Cavalry often wore shell jackets but some also had infantry style sack coats, just shorter than a modern suitcoat.
Infantry fought in company sized batttle lines shoulder to shoulder. Infantry fought with muskets and bayonet. Only officers had revolvers in the infantry. Infantrymen wore ankle high brogans.