Civil War sets (1 Viewer)

tommy416

tommy416

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Aug 24, 2006
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Anyone know what conte is planning on with the union sets and when they plan to come out.
 
tommy, whatever Union sets will be released five will get you ten they will be in the new gigantic 70mm size. Just ditched 5 sets of SoS due to them looking like oversize behemoths amongst my 800 metals diorama of the first day at Gettysburg.

Complained in writing to RC himself received back a very apologetic e-mail admitting that my point of oversize bloated Rebs was valid and he will ensure that future releases of ACW align with the original 54mm sets. Do I believe him? Well I have just ordered the complete Collectors Showcase ACW Range from Marktheviking (UK distributor) who assures me that he has personally measured them and they align with ONWTC Antietam Rebs which I have in my diorama and they are spot on 54mm. That's the way I'm going and also sticking with Britain's Jackson in the Valley series even though the sack-coats are a bit dated for 1863.
No more Conte ACW giants on my battlefield!
 
I find that interesting that he would admit that they were larger as he claimed just the opposite on the Hobby Bunker forum, he would only admit to the standing firing a rifle pose to being larger and that was done on purpose.
 
Relevant parts of the e-maill received from Richard Conte after receiving a scathing letter from me on the 60-70mm size of Conte's SoS Rebs.

.....your concerns on the size are valid ones and I will be doing my best to make certain that all future ACW releases remain on the smaller end of the size range rather than on the larger end...................In the SoS range most of the figures are similairly sized to past releases although a few such as the standing loading, the officer with 2 pistols, the standing firing guys and 2 of the advancing rebs etc are on the very large end of things....................... Thanks for your support and your criticisms
Yours truly
Richard Conte

But he's wrong the whole of the range is more in line with K&C size, what he is referring to and should have said is due to the poses of the figures such as "grape shot", "double canister" and the "prone officer" etc the difference is not so noticeable as the standing figures Trust me I purchased 5 sets and have handled every set in the range they are all between 60-70mm and nowhere near 54mm as advertised. And worse still is that all those 30 odd Sons of the South had to have been the most well fed troops in Bobby Lee's entire army.
If a collector is just collecting metal miniatures per se it matters not a jot but if you have masses of previous Conte releases laid out in a diorama as I have it matters a lot. When I placed those Rebs on my battlefield it looked like The Iron Brigade was being attacked by giant ogres from LOTR. Hellish and a complete waste of my cash.

I do believe Mr Conte is receiving more complaints about sizing than he is admitting to and no I do not believe his next releases of opposing Union troops will be smaller than SoS because if they are the two sets together will look as ridiculous as they do now against previous releases. Let's wait and see but I'm not buying!
 
I have no doubts that you are 100% correct, I have seen a few of them and they were huge in comparrison to his early figures, Andre the Giant does the Civil War? I also noticed that their weapons seemed to be well fed too.
 
Well at least RC has finally admitted that they're is a size problem with the new SOS figures compared to his previous releases. I bought all of the new SOS sets when they were first released, and voiced my complaints on the Hobby Bunker board. (RC doesn't post here probably because Tree Frog doesn't carry his line) I was basically told that I was crazy, and that the size differences were in my head :). I even posted a few side by side pictures. I was an avid Conte ACW collector, but the latest SOS sets will be my last. I'll stick with Britain's & K&C.
 
Yes, I remember that whole discussion very well, I also remember the word conspiracy being bandied about as well as bashing, now what amounts to an admission. Interesting.
 
UKReb said:
tommy, whatever Union sets will be released five will get you ten they will be in the new gigantic 70mm size. Just ditched 5 sets of SoS due to them looking like oversize behemoths amongst my 800 metals diorama of the first day at Gettysburg.

Complained in writing to RC himself received back a very apologetic e-mail admitting that my point of oversize bloated Rebs was valid and he will ensure that future releases of ACW align with the original 54mm sets. Do I believe him? Well I have just ordered the complete Collectors Showcase ACW Range from Marktheviking (UK distributor) who assures me that he has personally measured them and they align with ONWTC Antietam Rebs which I have in my diorama and they are spot on 54mm. That's the way I'm going and also sticking with Britain's Jackson in the Valley series even though the sack-coats are a bit dated for 1863.
No more Conte ACW giants on my battlefield!
Click to expand...

You have any pictures to wow us with? Love to see them:)
 
The field is laid out on a 20ft x 10ft base in my loft. I had to construct it in modules, the terrain took me 6 months to design and model following two visits to your hallowed ground and endless hours of studying old photographs/drawings and maps of the McPherson's Ridge area (it sure don't look today what it looked like in July 1863)
I have the time frame pitched between 1000hrs-1130hrs July 1st Archers Rebs have crossed Willoughby Run only to run smack into Meredith's Black Hats which as we know they weren't expecting to be there.

I realised sometime ago that my digi could only capture limited parts and to get the whole field in shot I would need a camera the size used by Laub and the 20th Century Fox camera department back in the 50's. However, one of our local toy soldier exhibitors has asked me-after viewing the display himself-if I could write a text on the build and the battle it's depicting for his local toy collector's magazine with him supplying a pro-lensman to take plenty of pictures. When that happens over the next few weeks? I'll gladly post some of them here for you.
 
A life-time of studying your civil war that started when my Ma took me to the movies-primarily westerns- and I got confused on why some guys in blue were shooting some guys in grey where normally the boys in blue were shooting indians. I took it from there and really got involved when I discovered how **** close it came to us Brits sending the Royal Navy to break the anaconda. Lincoln's emanicipation doctrine took care of that!

Allegiance to the Confederacy? I was always a sucker for a Lost Cause and avidly read the marblelisation of Lee by the likes of Early and Gordon years after the war deservedly so if you base it on the way he ran circles round those be-fuddled Yankee generals 62-63 who always had armies twice the size of Massa Robert. Great military history and never tire of reading it. Some of my US pals tell me his battles and tactics are still studied at West Point? apparently!
 
Oh Yeah! the capture of Mason and Slidell Confederate diplomats when the USS San Jacinto boarded the British ship Trent. Palmerston was all for declaring war on Lincoln's government and with France sent an ultimatum to Secretary of State Seward but a dying Prince Albert softened that ultimatum and it was diplomatically resolved resulting in both diplomats being released to continue their journey to Europe.
As Lincoln told his cabinet "One war at a time"
 
I would be very interested in seeing images of your diorama too. I have a picture of my massive Pickett's Charge diorama posted under the "How to Section" - Dioramas in this web site. I could not post the picture myself because it was over the posting size storage limit so, Treefrog had one of there technicians do it from an e-mail attachment. It took me 4 years to complete construction. I had done about 1 year of research before starting design and construction. My landscape was based mainly on old photos, paintings and descriptions from eye-witness accounts through my readings of several books and one trip to the battlefield, itself. My diorama was built in sections as well. It's 16 feet by 10 feet and depicts the area around the Angle at the moment in time when Armistead is rallying his men at the wall for the final push.
 
Thanks for the compliment! I hope to exhibit again with a slightly expanded version and some more detail. Not sure when this will happen as I haven't had much time to organize and get sponsorship. I will contact you when it happens. Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial is in 2009. Hopefully, interest in this period of history will gather steam... Definitely, history and geography need more emphasis as a subject in schools...
 
Yes, it was at the Seattle Center in August of 2005. I got nothing but, compliments for it and several outstanding praises. One woman who came in actually shed tears. Definitely, hit an emotional cord with her. Once people see it, they are glad to have come. It's much harder to get people interested enough to make the effort to want to come. Anyway, hopefully it will be exhibited again soon.
 
Superb diorama would love to see it and discuss in depth with you, how many figures displayed? I'm in California this October but that would be some hike to Seattle and my itinerary is pretty tight.
I have also been told by many colleagues that I must dismantle mine out of the loft and display it at The London Toy Soldier Show in December, but as you must be aware the effort to dis-assemble and re-assemble would be enormous and I am not too sure whether the interest in the US Civil War is that prevelant in the UK let alone Brits coming to view a toy soldier depiction of the first day of a battle the majority have never heard of.
How do you find the interest in the civil war amongst the public at large in the States? as I did notice a "little angst" in one of your posts re: getting them interested in coming to view.

However, an outstanding achievement leaving this UK civil war buff (maybe the only one) mighty impressed.
 
Hi again,

I have about 2000 figures in the diorama. I tried to make it as accurate as possible, so it can be seen as a museum piece. I think Civil War subject matter would be better received on the east coast of the U.S. where the events actually occurred. I had several people visit the exhibit that were from the east coast and they loved it. One actually had an ancestor that served at Gettysburg. There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in Civil War history in this area of the U.S. I must warn you that I do not have a permanent set-up due to space restrictions. I can only display the entire model when I'm exhibiting. I have constructed the model to be easily transported for exhibits. I had to work out several issues during design and construction and then again after completion to accomplish this... Thanks for your compliments!
 
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