Today we take a journey through 30 years of Civil War cats by looking at our K-Cats and how the dioramas have progressed over the years.

Cat 3,000 – January 1, 2000

Cat 3,000 was placed on the diorama “I Want You to Prove Yourselves” at midnight, January 1, 2000. We had just begun keeping a Cat Census, so he is the first K-Cat! We do not know who Cats 1,000 and 2,000 are.

Cat 4,000

We reached Cat 4,000 while making “The Fate of Gettysburg.” At the time that we made him, we did not yet know about “turf,” and so the diorama was just painted green.

Cat 5,000 – June 25, 2005 (10-year anniversary)

Cat 5,000 was installed on “Desperation at Skull Camp Bridge” on June 25, 2005, our 10-year anniversary. At that time, the “water” was a piece of plastic wrap, wrinkled to form ripples. The diorama received a revamp in 2017 to add Realistic Water, with splashes and ripples made from Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel.

Cat 6,000

We chose to make Cat 6,000 as Col. Joshua Chamberlain. The 20^th Maine were the first cats installed on “The Boys Are Still There,” and we have a photo from 2014 which shows Cat 6K installed. Incidentally, the first cat installed on the diorama was Sgt. Andrew Tozier, carrying the 20^th Maine’s flag.

Some other photos showing the status of the diorama around that time. We were busy painting cats and in the early stages of installing ground cover:

Cat 7,000

Cat 7,000 is Capt. Ellis Spear, commanding the left wing of the 20^th Maine. He was probably installed around 2015.

Here are some photos of the progress, dating from around 2017 and 2018.

Cat 8,000

Cat 8,000 is on “The Fate of Gettysburg,” less than a foot away from Cat 4,000. How did the two end up on the same diorama, but so far apart in number? Because in 2011, we revamped the diorama to add the ground cover. This is also when we added ~1,000 cats to the diorama. We finally finished adding them, including Cat 8K, in 2016.

Cat 9,000 – July 2, 2022

Cat 9,000 is Col. Strong Vincent, installed on the diorama on July 2, 2022. Nearly two years would pass before we finished the diorama in February 2024, but it was getting closer! The ground cover was (finally!) finished, and we had just begun to install Hazlett’s battery.

Cat 10,000

In 2024, we finally reached Cat 10,000—Lt. George Morris of USS Cumberland. He will spend a while in storage, waiting for Rebecca to make his ship, but we are very excited to have reached this K-Cat milestone by our 30-year anniversary!

We have come a long way in our abilities in the 25 years since Cat 3K. Cat 3K is a “shrunk” cat, standing 1.5” tall. Nine months after we installed him, when we began “The Fate of Gettysburg,” 1-inch tall was the smallest we could make. The close-up of Cat 4K indicates how well we could do a “plaid” shirt at the time. Fast-forward to Cat 10K, who stands ¾-inch tall. His hailing trumpet is less than 5/32-inch long, carefully sanded to shape with a tiny file!

Let’s journey a little farther into the world of detail in Civil War Tails:

Little Round Top:

The cannons are made from Sculpey and scraps of wood.

Each flag is hand-painted, following pictures of the actual flags, if we can find them. This one belongs to the 140^th New York.

And, of course, the corps badges, which average 1/16-inch diameter.

The last corps badge to be painted!!

Sekigahara:

The samurai that Ruth makes for our Sekigahara display are 1.25-inch tall, made solely from colored Sculpey III (no paint) and with only a toothpick for a tool. She makes each according to the way a samurai would dress. This means that a lot of meticulously-added detail is covered up by subsequent layers!

Kobayakawa Hideaki is Rebecca’s favorite example to show visitors, because she tried to help with putting the dots on his pants. She did two rows, and then decided to stick to cheerleading Ruth instead! It is fun for us to see which crazy details we each prefer, and we stand in awe of each other’s nuttiness 😊

Ii Naomasa…

…and one of his “Red Devils”

USS Cumberland:

Instead of dots on pants, Rebecca’s nuttiness consists of…scratch-building ships in bottles. At Civil War Tails, you will see USS Cumberland in a bottle she found in Civil War Tails’ basement. In order to make the ship large enough to fill the bottle, she made the hull in three sections that could fit through the bottle’s mouth (as long as nothing, not even a thread, sat between the largest fighting top and the deck). She then had to glue down the shrouds and stays inside the bottle. At this point, Ruth’s mind explodes and she goes and makes samurai!