Hi Rob
Welcome to one a hell of a war in fact the first "modern" war.
I've collected toy soldiers for years and like you and a lot of other forum members went hell for leather straight into WWII, knocked up some pretty good looking dios if I dare say so myself but after building a couple of dozen or so I got struck down with the same "drabness" I was continually depicting (bear in mind these were the days before K&C/Conte etc had hit the market) just khaki/olive drab figures scurrying around destroyed buildings trying to blow up tanks that were out of scale to the figures. I "foolishly" sold the lot due to being utterly fed up with the dullness of them
On one of my many trips to the States I saw a couple of dioramas at a show that a guy had built one of 2nd Manassas the other of Waterloo and what immediately struck me was the kaleidoscope of color, uniforms, horses, banners, bronze artillery etc. His figures were both plastic and glossy, I dont do either, but I was hooked, having been a student of the ACW since college and with the introduction of the ACW matte series by a host of manufacturers I never looked back.
Couple of points raised in your post that might help you The Iron Brigade is one of my favourites; Hell of a fighting unit in practically all the major scraps up to Gettysburg where they were almost annihilated on the first day of fighting trying to keep Lee's Rebs at bay while the rest of The Army of the Potomac were rushing to the field, the Brigade was disbanded soon after.
Conte do a superb range of IB and Ken Osen has introduced them for Britains in this years catalogue. Those black Hardee hats and the early wearing of white gaiters make them quite distinguishable on the battlefield. Also look for The Bucktails a couple of good fighting Pennsylvania regiments who wore a white roebuck tail attached to their kepis. Another good range is the Irish Brigade.
Dont get too hung up on collecting a particular State for the Rebs, by the end of 1862 most rebs were wearing whatever they could steal and the gray uniforms for the ordinary soldier had almost disappeared (forget how Hollywood depicts them, that's just for the benefit of the audience). The only way of distinguishing Texan brigades from Virginians on the battlefield would have been by their State and Battle flags.
Enjoy collecting these cracking figures Rob I assure you when your collection reaches a 1000 you just gotta keep going.





Reb