Military miniatures galore this weekend at Gettysburg as part of flag conservation effort. A painting class gets things started

Joshua Chamberlain, 20th Tenn., 146th NY (Courtesy of Mike Stelzel)

Visitors to Gettysburg National Military Park this weekend will see up to 300 military miniatures at an exhibition that will support efforts to conserve the park’s 2^nd North Carolina Infantry flag.

The park, the Gettysburg Foundation and the Artist Preservation Group (APG) are putting on the event at the museum and visitor center on Saturday and Sunday.

The APG – made of historical artists who support preservation efforts – will donate nearly $15,000 at the end of the weekend to cover all conservation costs.

“The main effort of the miniatures exhibition will focus on educating visitors about the history of the Civil War, the interpretation of the conflict through miniature art, and the material culture used by both sides in the conflict,” the park said in a news release.

A large part of the flag funding will come from a sold-out miniatures painting class that kicks off the four-day event. Funding also comes from raffles, sale of other art work and donations, founder Mike Stelzel told the Civil War Picket. (The APG has invited artists to exhibit their work during the Gettysburg event).

A new Berdan’s Sharpshooters figure (left) and supplies will be sold to 30 participants in the Thursday and Friday painting class, Stelzel said. “Artists like to paint the uniform as it is different than the normal ACW (American Civil War),” he said. “It's also a popular unit with many ACW miniature enthusiasts.”

The class, sponsored by Scale 75 USA, will feature artist Julio Cabos as instructor.

“Julio is one of the best in the world,” Stelzel said. “(He) paints a piece and donates that to us for one of our auctions. His work demands a very high price at auction.”

Stelzel said the nonprofit APG wants to promote the miniatures hobby to the public.

“We all enjoy engaging with the public taking about our art form. The most common remark we here is, ‘I had no idea something like this exists.’ We hope, too, that this might draw people to the park and (expose) them to our American history. Everyone wins.”

Officials said the 2^nd North Carolina likely carried the flag at Gettysburg in July 1863. The regiment brought 243 men to the field and suffered 61 casualties in three days of fighting.

Park spokesman Jason Martz says the current condition of the banner “is fair, yet stable.”

The flag was likely issued shortly before the battle  (GNMP)

“Older stabilizations from the 1980s, however, detract from the presentation of the flag while on exhibit due to their age and color. This project will vastly improve the stabilization and appearance on exhibit,” Martz said in an email.

The flag has typical characteristics of third bunting issue flags produced by the Richmond Clothing Bureau (RBC) from British-produced wool bunting for issuance to the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1863.

It was on exhibit at the park from 1987 until 2008 and then briefly from 2010 to 2012.  It has been on rest and in storage since 2012. Officials say conservation will allow for future display at the visitor center museum. (The flag will not be shown this weekend).

“A new conservation treatment will include unmounting the flag from its current support, removal of old encapsulation and underlays, documentation, (and) custom dying of new underlays/overlays for improved appearance and protection,” the park said.

The flag lists some of the battles in which the 2^nd North Carolina fought. The appearance of the Chancellorsville battle honor suggests an issuance of this flag to replace the regimental flag captured at Fredericksburg, the park says.

The regiment, formed in 1861, was part of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.

Cushing's battery in action at Gettysburg (Mike Stelzel)

The late Angela Rosensteel Eckert and Lawrence Eckert donated the flag to Gettysburg National Military Park in 1987. The couple operated the Gettysburg National Museum and Electric Map for many years.

The exhibition will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Gilder Lehrman Institute Special Exhibits Gallery in the visitor center. Combination tickets for the film, museum and Cyclorama are $18.75 for adults, $17.75 for seniors and veterans, and $13.75 for children 6-12. Children 5 and under and active military have free admission.

Building cool toys for big kids: How a military miniature-diorama maker in Ohio does his exacting work

Bert Floyd customizes from similar molds (Napoleonic, Civil War)

Our May 2010 post about a NASA design engineer in Ohio who crafts military miniature figures and dioramas remains among the most popular Picket articles. We recently caught up with Bertram Floyd, 60, of Victory Miniatures, and asked him to provide more details on how he does his work. Floyd works from his home in Sheffield Village; most of his products are available online and two larger dioramas have been featured at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio. His responses have been edited for context and brevity.

Q. Who are your customers these days?

A. This is a small hobby. The newer generation coming up has played video games and is not so used to playing with toy soldiers. Most of my buyers are between 50 and 60 something. They want the quality. They want unique stuff. Everything at the (trade) events is mostly unique.

Bert Floyd (all photos courtesy of Floyd)

Q. How does your profession fit in?

A. I work at NASA’s Glenn Research center and do a lot of space communications and quantum communications. I started off in electrical engineering, which led to fiber optics. I do mainly fiber obits for the space station, mission to Mars. When you are working with fiber optics you have to have patience. Everything is real small and tiny. That translates to working with the miniatures, even though fiber optics is smaller than soldiers.

Q. What time periods and conflicts do your miniatures cover?

A. I go back to Roman period all the way up to modern times. (Floyd’s dioramas include knights, World War II, the American Revolution, French and Indian War and the Anglo-Zulu War, including the Battle of Isandlwana). My biggest selling thing is the Civil War stuff. Then next would be the Napoleonics. I try to do everything historically accurate. The cheapest dioramas go from $150, all the way $1,000 or more. Some may have one figure, some may have several. Some people buy unpainted figures. People like the Napoleonics because of the color of the uniforms. They are uniforms to die in.

Q. You have some molds and you often buy manufactured figures and customize them to a particular conflict. How does that work?

A. Most are all-metal, made of lead, tin or pewter, especially the 40 millimeters figures. The bigger figures are made of metal and resin. If there is a pose I need, I may cut legs and arms and run wire to get the pose. For hands, I put the gun on and mold the hands around it. I may change the face around, add beards, take a hat off and put a different hat on. Small figures typically sell for $35 to $65.

Q. What about the dioramas?

A. For most of the larger dioramas, I use 40 millimeter figures. They look better and are easier on the eye. You see more detail on them. The dioramas with one or two figures, they are usually 54 millimeters and up. I start off with a green blanket, put figures and roads and add terrain pieces. I populate them with trees. I use crushed foam for bushes. I talk to the individual on what their needs are and whether it is a permanent diorama. All the trees, houses and fences are handmade. I make everything from scratch.

Q. How much time do you put into this and where do you work?

A. I put in about an hour a day. In the winter time there is a lot more time I put into it and I paint. In summer months, I design what I want to do. I do the painting in the upstairs morning room. I have dioramas set up in the basement and do most of my sculpting there.

Q. Tell me about your re-enacting, thoughts on Confederate monuments

A. I am with a group 5^th U.S. Colored Troops out of Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Columbus and Youngstown, and Pittsburgh. Most events we do are living history. You have to get the history out there. Attending re-enactments is like a family reunion and picnic. As for the Confederate battle flag, the one (appropriate) place is in the museum and on the battlefield, the field of honor (re-enactments).

Q. You’ve been making miniatures since the mid-1980s. Why do you do this?

A. It’s a love that I have. When I was a kid I played with miniature toy soldiers. After I got married, I became a homebody and you go back to what you did as a little kid. I plan on doing this until I can’t do it anymore. You are never going to be compensated for your time. The hobby pays for itself.

• More photos of Floyd's work

His military miniatures stand tall in Chickamauga diorama at Garfield home

Standing only one to two inches tall, Bertram Floyd’s creations capture the tension and drama of combat.

A gap-toothed soldier snarls at the enemy. Another bearded figure rushes headlong into glory, perhaps death.

Floyd painted between 150 and 200 soldiers and created a diorama of the Battle of Chickamauga for the James A. Garfield National Historic Site (JAGNHS) in Mentor, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

The 3 feet by 6 feet diorama went on display May 29 in the visitor’s center at the 8-acre home and farm that belonged to the U.S. president, who died of assassination wounds 18 years to the day after the Georgia battle.

Chickamauga was the most-famous moment in Garfield’s Civil War career. He rode from a “disorderly retreat” to carry news to another Union general who would earn the sobriquet “The Rock of Chickamauga” for saving the army that afternoon.

Floyd uses a sharpened No. 3 brush, a magnifying lens and plenty of patience to craft soldiers and scenery through his business, Victory Miniatures, in Sheffield Village, Ohio.

The design engineer at NASA Glenn Research Center has been painting figures since 1985.

Floyd says the 25 millimeter (1 inch) men in the Chickamauga diorama “have plenty of detail.”

He has a system when painting a large number of figures.

“I may do all the pants and jackets one day.”

Napoleonic figures are more challenging to make, with incredible detail. A uniform collar, for example, may have three colors.

Floyd expects a 12 feet by 18 feet diorama of the Battle of Waterloo, with 2,000 figures, to fetch about $10,000.

James Garfield served as chief of staff to Union commander William S. Rosecrans at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga. Then 31, he withdrew from the field with Rosecrans during a hasty retreat when Confederate troops overwhelmed the Federals.

Scott Longert, park guide at the Garfield site, said the general rode back six miles through heavy fire back to the front to bring news of the calamitous situation to George H. Thomas.

“Someone had to get to the battlefield to tell Thomas what happened” to the collapsed Union center and right.

Thomas probably knew no reinforcements were coming and that it was up to him to hold Snodgrass Hill and allow the Union army to safely withdraw to Chattanooga, Tenn.

Thomas managed to prevent a Union route. “It was a key moment that could have turned the tide,” Longert says of Snodgrass Hill. Garfield later told the disgraced Rosecrans that Thomas “was standing like a rock.”

Historians are divided on whether Garfield brought or relayed critical information that actually saved the army. The citizen-soldier was promoted to major general for bravery that day.

Garfield, who saw combat in Kentucky early in the war, left military service in December 1863 and served in Congress. The Ohioan liked to attend military reunions with the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was a friend of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

The dark horse candidate won the presidency over fellow Union general Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880, but was assassinated less than a year later. He was only 49.

JAGNHS will host a number of Civil War-related exhibits and talks in conjunction with the war’s upcoming 150th anniversary. An encampment is planned for July 31-Aug. 1.

Admission to James A. Garfield National Historic Site, where the president lived from 1876 to 1881, is $5. The property includes barns and a telegraph office. The Chickamauga diorama will be on display through September.

• Click here for more information on the Garfield home.
• Click here for more information on Victory Miniatures

Coming up in Picket: Miniature soldiers

I will post by this weekend an item on a Battle of Chickamauga diorama that will be at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Ohio this summer. Garfield, who rode to Snodgrass Hill during the Union's moment of crisis at the battle, went on to become U.S. president after his military service. I've spoken with an official at the home and the diorama maker, who paints the figures -- including their beards, teeth and eyes -- in fine detail.