The American Civil War Diaries (3 Viewers)

[The Lt.]

By far Bob the photos taken of Rufus Bowen are some of the finest you've ever taken. The set is also by far one of the best I've ever seen an beautifully photograph. Thanks once again for the time an effort you spent in providing us with another of your tales from your Civil War Diaries.....Joe

 

[Njja]

Excellent! would love a few shots of you setting up some of these great

scenes!

The master director/storyteller at work!

 

[6th Wisconsin]

Reb, just when I think your dioramas have hit there apex and can,t get any better you prove me wrong!

I love this one, it really tells a story without words needed,these really should be gathered together and made into a table top book.

I second that!!! The battle scene is absolutely superb, but the scenes with the wounded and dead are as good as it gets. They really portray the cost of war, and the ones with Rufus carrying his son on his shoulders down the road are the best I have ever seen you do. They not only create a great scene about the Civil War but say a lot about war in general. Beautiful in a haunting way. Four thumbs up if I had that many hands.

 

[Louis Badolato]

I vote we lay siege to the History Channel and put Reb in charge . . . the man should be directing and producing movies.

 

[jazzeum]

Not having experienced war, I'm sure it is terrible, but a civil war is more terrible I believe. When I lived in Spain in the mid 60s, I stayed with a business associate of my father's for awhile who survived the Anarchists' control of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and he had many terrible stories to tell and some he said he couldn't tell me.

Well done Bob

 

[Rob]

Bob once again I find myself short of words to describe just how moving and real your work is,you somehow manage to not only create a diorama setting that grabs your attention with its realism but the narrative is as sad as it is gripping.Thanks for sharing these with us Bob,your labour of love for the conflict is producing the best dio's I've ever seen.

Rob

 

[Firebat]

Excellent Series....

 

[aujj65]

By far Bob the photos taken of Rufus Bowen are some of the finest you've ever taken. The set is also by far one of the best I've ever seen an beautifully photograph. Thanks once again for the time an effort you spent in providing us with another of your tales from your Civil War Diaries.....Joe

Bob, I think Joe has just about summed it up for me. Once you have finished the "Diaries" how about giving the book idea some serious thought.

Jeff

 

[Scott]

 

[lancer]

I second that!!! The battle scene is absolutely superb, but the scenes with the wounded and dead are as good as it gets. They really portray the cost of war, and the ones with Rufus carrying his son on his shoulders down the road are the best I have ever seen you do. They not only create a great scene about the Civil War but say a lot about war in general. Beautiful in a haunting way. Four thumbs up if I had that many hands.

Another vote for best yet! Rufus fading off in the distance is the most poignant scene in the whole series. Superb work. -- Al

 

[Spitfrnd]

Whoa mate, you are pushing into some serious cinematic territory with this episode. Your battle scenes are always immersive and vividly blood curdling but your post battle scenes are among the most evocative and memorable. No doubt this is one of the best you have done so far. It simply but effectively presents both the breaking point of one family's courageous suffering and a poignant representatation of fact and the cause of the South's sad collapse from within as the war progressed and the North pressed ever onward. I don't really know what more to say other than I am supremely impressed and I am deeply moved.

As good as it is however, I have little doubt that you will shock and awe us again with the battle near that oddly named little town.

 

[debrito]

BEST EVER scenes you shot.....did you painted the last two guys, wounded?

SUPERBE.

ROD.

 

[mikemiller1955]

Bob...one of your best threads to date...this story is really provoking...it gave me chills when I read it...such great work...

 

[FirstLegion]

Wow. Very VERY well done. Not sure how you manage it, but your series of photos evokes a level of emotion and story telling that is rarely captured in photos of toy soldiers. There are many people on this forum and elsewhere who can take fantastic single photos. But the combinations of photos showing the progression of the story that you put together coupled with the narrative are really second to none. What you seem to accomplish with such ease is not simple, but I really wonder if people actually realize just how hard it is to do, much less to do it so well.

 

[Firebat]

The work that goes into something like this is incredible, Nick and I have been contemplating something like this, but you need a vast collection and lots of time. We can really appreciate this work, just knowing what it takes to do one well planned scene. Especially because not just one or two settings are being used, a new enviornment is being created for each scene.

We are supposed to do a WWII series for a prominent manufacturer, with a lot of surprises, but for some reason it never gets off the ground....we are quite puzzled ( It is not Figarti, Frontline, Collectors Showcase or K&C )...Lets see what happens....But once again what is being done here is way over the top....... EXCELLENT. Alex

 

[marco55]

I bet I know who it is.He is a legend in his own time.
mark

 

[Firebat]

i bet i know who it is.he is a legend in his own time.:d
mark

hmmm...

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

Man, those are great scenes.

 

[UKReb]

Guys

Many many thanks for all your very kind comments-as you now know they are always appreciated by the Reb. This last chapter took quite a bit of time setting up the several scenes-over three weeks in total but I wanted to try and portray the sheer hopelessness facing most of the Confederate soldiers toward the end of Grant's Overland Campaign and Sherman's march to the sea in 1864.

The characters of Rufus and Millard Bowden are an amalgam of hundreds of soldiers of the South who were torn between continue to fight for Lee and the cause or returning to their families who were in a vast number of cases literally starving. Personally I would have done exactly as Rufus did.

Mark-The Reb casualties are a mix of both-three sets of Conte dead (imo the very best Confederate casualties ever released-so far) one set completely repainted; a number of Britains; a few metal kits; even some conversions of a few TSSD plastics that Ed (eborris) sent me-eg The ubiquitous "Big Swede" has a bare chest courtesy of a Sioux Indian Ed also forwarded-removed the Swede's hat and massive knife-metal puttied a mop of hair and a torn and ripped open shirt and we finish up with a reasonable figure of a gut shot Reb Infantryman.

Thanks again guys and am real pleased some of you find the thread entertaining.

Bob

 

[eborris]

Another great chapter, you do have a knack for adding the human element to diorama's as well as making it historically accurate and interesting. Well done!!!!!!