Review & Painting Guide for Rubicon US Vietnam Plastic Sets

[SPQR7070]

I recently built and painted some of Rubicon's US Army & USMC Vietnam War plastic miniatures for Goonhammer.com. You can check out my review, comparison, and painting methods here.



The models are a bit fiddly, but I'm still pretty pleased with how they came out.




I have to say I think the USMC set is the better of the two, as the models require less assembly and come with far more weapon options. I thought it was odd that the US Army box didn't come with M60's or any other machine guns.




Next up I'm working on their Huey, Viet Cong, and North Vietnamese Regulars.

If anyone has Vietnam minis from other manufacturers I'd be interested to hear how they compare - both in terms of scale differences, and quality!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good!

[Russ justice]

I do like the look of these guys and they look proper nice when painted   

[carlos marighela]

Lovely paint jobs! Those look very good indeed.

Rubicon make some odd choices and I think quite a bit of it comes down to poor research. Their forthcoming Australians offer a uniform that was really only worn from about 1969 onwards and even then it didn't replace the earlier one and yet provide Owen guns which were withdrawn from service in 1966. There seem to be a host of other problems with them from what I can see. Will probably buy a box for the conversion bits.

I suspect they are going to do US Army M60 teams in blisters like they have with other ranges.

[CapnJim]

Those guys look quite good.  Well done. 

I was a bit disappointed with the weapon options in the US Army box as well, but I've only painted up a squad from the Marine box, so some part-swapping between the two might be in order....

[Rickf]

Does anyone know how the Rubicon figures size up with Warlord plastics? I was planning on doing a mercenary force using Rubicon ANZAC SLR arms and Warlord British Airborne bodies.

[SPQR7070]

I suspect they are going to do US Army M60 teams in blisters like they have with other ranges.

I hope so, as of right now my poor US Army troops can only look on in envy at my better equipped Marines (for once in their history!).

Does anyone know how the Rubicon figures size up with Warlord plastics? I was planning on doing a mercenary force using Rubicon ANZAC SLR arms and Warlord British Airborne bodies.

Height wise I think they're close, but the Rubicon models are much skinnier. The arms might look a little odd.

[Rickf]

I hope so, as of right now my poor US Army troops can only look on in envy at my better equipped Marines (for once in their history!).

Height wise I think they're close, but the Rubicon models are much skinnier. The arms might look a little odd.

Thanks, I think I'll just get a sprue of each off EBay to try first then.

[CapnJim]

I did it the other way around.  Rubicon bodies and Warlord arms.  The pic below shows the results of that.  The guys on the left and right are the chaps in question...

[carlos marighela]

  Idea stolen! The problem with the Rubicon set is that the VC seem too well armed for the way they are dressed. Modifying them with Warlord Garands and M1 carbines is ideal. I think I still have quite a few of the old Wargames Factory bits and they were a bit slimmer so hopefully they will work equally well.

[CapnJim]

Idea stolen! The problem with the Rubicon set is that the VC seem too well armed for the way they are dressed. Modifying them with Warlord Garands and M1 carbines is ideal. I think I still have quite a few of the old Wargames Factory bits and they were a bit slimmer so hopefully they will work equally well.

Now that you mention it, I have a box of those laying around too.  Now I'll steal your idea!