Carnage in the Cornfield (1 Viewer)

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Hi All,
Next weekend is the W. Britain event at the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum in Madison Wisconsin. Below is the information:

American Civil War Day
Date: September 15, 2012
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: 30 West Mifflin Street
City: Madison, Wisconsin

On Saturday, September 15, 2012, the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and W. Britain Military Miniature Company will host an American Civil War Day that includes the unveiling of the second in a series of Civil War figures based on flags and artifacts from the collections at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

At last years event we held a silent auction for W. Britain Civil War figures I converted to make a donation to the museum. I just finished 11 new conversions, some of which will be used for this event. Here are a few pictures for you...

Hope some of you attend!
All the Best,
Ken Osen

 

[Terp152]

Wonderful looking figs Ken. Should be a great event. Chris

 

[jazzeum]

Nicely done Ken.

 

[mestell]

Thanks for sharing these conversions with us Ken. You know I will be attending this event and I hope I will be able to acquire some of these figures . . . the proceeds go to a great cause. I chatted with Richard a little bit earlier in the week and I understand that you and Ericka will not be able to attend due to a War of 1812 re-enactment . . . . . have fun
:smile2: Mike

 

[lancer]

The conversions look great. I just saw this post after reading my morning paper which had a large insert section regarding the Emancipation Proclamation and the events, specifically the Sharpsburg Campaign, surrounding the issuing of it. One of the sub-titled sections on the battle at Antietam was 'Carnage in the Cornfield'! Deja Vu. ^&grin -- Al

 

[AIDMAN]

Ken

Nice figures, and a kind gesture!!.

Steve

 

[Iron Brigade]

This is a relatively small museum, but a very nice one indeed! I have been there a few times in past years. They have a life size diorama of Union troops going through a corn field at Antienam. I would go to the 15 September event in Madison, WI but for the fact of a 50th wedding anniversary party I have to go to with my wife.
"Iron Brigade"

 

[Lo1863]

Great work there Ken! Keep it up!!!! {bravo}}

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped early on during the conversions. Heads were cut off all of them and two had their legs swapped too.
The necks were ground off, and holes drilled into the stem of the neck on the heads and shoulders. Brass pins and superglue reattached the heads to various bodies, then the same epoxy putty I use for sculpting the original figures is used to restore the necks and other areas that were modified.
The last step was to restore and tweak the paint and use a clear flat sealer to establish the finish.

I hope you enjoy the sneak peek from my bench.
Ken

 

[Lo1863]

Just how I like my Yankee's...with their heads off.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

It may be painful for you to see the six Rebs on my bench with their heads and arms off then...
Ken

 

[Lo1863]

It may be painful for you to see the six Rebs on my bench with their heads and arms off then...
Ken

Yeah, don't post those pictures. haha

 

[playsetaddict]

Britains had a fantastic dio of the Iron Brigade in the cornfield made by Ken. I added a backdrop to give some depth.

 

[mestell]

Very nicely done Joe . . . .
:smile2: Mike

 

[playsetaddict]

Very nicely done Joe . . . .
:smile2: Mike

Thanks, Mike! Great seeing you at the show and great seeing your goodies in your pictures afterwards!

Here's another of Britains' dioramas..with a background picture I took about a quarter mile from my house.

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Great pictures, thanks for posting them!
Ken

 

[Woody66]

Thanks, Mike! Great seeing you at the show and great seeing your goodies in your pictures afterwards!

Here's another of Britains' dioramas..with a background picture I took about a quarter mile from my house.

Great scene. What did you use for the smoke/haze?

 

[mestell]

It might be a little out of season for this, but I have been "planting corn" on my 4' x 8' diorama table for the past two days. My inspiration has been the "Miller's Cornfield" diorama (W.Britain & Ken Osen) that was on display at the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum and also a similar one on display in the W. Britian room at the Chicago OTSN show this past week.

Interestingly, today when us TS collectors decide to make a diorama most of us create a scene using ideas and mental images that are familiar to us. Take a cornfield for example. The first thought perhaps would be to create a field of corn in tightly packed rows. After all this is a common sight that we see quite often. How many of us would even think that agriculture practices have changed considerably since the time period we were trying to create. In talking to Ken Osen about his cornfield layout and the placement of the cornstalks, and also doing a little on-line research myself, I have learned that there is a big difference in the cornfields of the 18th and early to mid 19th centuries than the cornfields we are used to seeing today. At the time of the Civil War a very common agriculture practice for growing corn was to palce it in mounds. Mounds were placed about 4 feet apart in straight rows. In alternating rows, the "corn mound" was staggered so that it would be in between the previous row's corn mounds parallel to it. Several kernals of corn were placed in each mound and would be thinned down to 3 to 4 stalks after germination. Also, another common practice was to grow beans and squash with each mound of corn. The agricultural term "three sisters" refers to the growing of corn, beans, and squash together. What a great use of land . . . beans used the cornstalks as a trellis and the corn and squash/pumpkins shared the same harvest season. One must also understand that the use of herbicides was unknown back in the "old days" so there would be plenty of evidence of wild grasses and weeds growing between the rows. This method of planting corn aloud the farmer to freely move about his crop easily while tending to it by hand and harvesting his produce. It would not have been all that difficult for a Brigade of ACW soldiers to move through a cornfield planted thusly. I would think as tighly as corn is planted today that it would be extremely difficult to do the same.

In any event I decided to remove the cornstalks from all my W. Britain 18th-20th century corn row sets (#17614) off their bases and individually pin each stalk to my playtable/diorama. This took a little bit of time since there were 179 cornstalks which I placed one-at-a-time in clumps of three and four. I ended up placing the "corn mounds" at about 5 feet apart in scale instead of 4 feet apart in order to accomodate the bases of any figure used within the corn. I feel that the resulting cornfiled is much better than what I had originally (stalks mounted on thier bases). Without the bases, the corn stalks certainly look more natural and I can now easily place my figures within the corn rows and between the corn mounds.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished project. The 6th Wisconsin has come through the cornfield and is now in a firing position (first photo) while the 2nd Wisconsin is still moving through the cornfield to take up a supporting position on the 6th's left flank (second photo). An interesting detail for those who have not seen the regimental flags from the WB "Chosen Ground" or "Miller's Cornfiled" LE sets, the regimental flags are accurately detailed with each regiment's number.

:smile2: Mike

 

[Terp152]

Nice to see your growing collection Mike. Two Regts in action! We're moving closer to a full brigade. :smile2: Very nice dio, that's a lot of corn to "plant." Chris

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Very nice Mike!