There are many sets of Confederate Infantry on the market.  The first set was made by Airfix, but they are so toylike in appearance as to be unusable for the serious miniature modeler.  Many followup sets have been made.  Revell made an excellent set, Esci's is decent, Imex's, though lacking detail, is very good.  Italeri's set, released last year, is beautiful.  A Call to Arms has released a new set combining four poses scaled down from their 1/32 set with four poses from a company called Marxman.

		Italeri Civil War Rebel Infantry

Here are some of the figures from the Italeri set, in all their glory.  Facial details are the highlight of this set.  Just look at the faces on these figures!  The colorbearer has had the original colors removed and replaced by a paper flag from warflag, as the original flag was too small.  The officer has the cords from his sash, but the sash itself does not wrap around his waist.  As the scan shows, the remainder of the sash can easily be painted on.  Of special note is the figure advancing in Texas slouch hat.  With the figures from four boxes I was able to field Hood's Texas Brigade.  The drummer boy actually is a boy, and is noticeably smaller in stature than the other figures.

These are the A Call to Arms figures.  The standing-firing figure with the patch on his knee is one of the very best 1/72 figures I have ever seen.  The figures paint up nicely, but there are too many exaggerated poses to make a convincing diorama or wargaming unit.  The set is not much of a value: 32 figures (four of each pose) for $9.00 companred to Esci's set of 48 figures for $4.00.  That's $.28 per figure for ACTA compared to $.8 per figure for Esci.  The A Call to Arms figures also seem slightly under-scale.  Compare an Italeri figure to a ACTA figure below, scanned at the same magnification.
 

Last updated on 08 August, 2002
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