"Sir. Does this mean that Ann-Margret's not coming?" - Sigur's Vietnam

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey,

I've been toying with the idea of a Vietnam themed thread for a while. Since my own project hasn't gone anywhere beyond buying figures in 2017 though I've held back so far. the original plan was to play the DMZ variant of Chain of Command, which looks like a hoot. So I bought a platoon of ANZACs (intended to play as New Zealanders), bought and read two books...





...and pretty much left it at that. Then around last christmas the probably last print run of Charlie Don't Surf was announced, so I treated myself to a copy, and since then I've been rather taken with the idea of running CDS at company level. Probably in 15mm, because that's what I got already, at least one platoon and some support. Now Battlefront are coming around with a re-issue of their Vietnam range, which of course made me think of that plan from a few months ago again.

Apart from that all of this happened while I was painting some of Empress' great Vietnam figures for a gentleman. The results of which you can see here:


full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2023_05/civ1S.jpg.70e29bb051db5c1879839d9ba7282199.jpg

It's mostly civilians and Vietcong/Insurgents. Great figures by the equally great Paul Hicks.















...plus four US Marines:




Similarities to fictional characters are purely coincidental. Anyway, great sculpts, and especially the civilians look like proper characters, with some very strong faces and concepts in there. The one-legged, angry man holding the rest for what looks like an MG34 is particularly striking.

Hope you like them!

So that got me thinking again about that whole Vietnam idea. And I don't know what even draws me to doing that. First I thought I could do the whole thing more cheaply using just my 40k figures (Orks and Catachan Imperial Guard) as stand-ins, but I'm rather sure that getting CDS on the table in 28mm is a bit problematic. 6mm probably would make more sense (as it usually does), as would Pendraken's great 10mm offerings. But then again I already got some 15mm stuff, right?

So yeah, I'm pondering the whole affair, and I'm not sure it'll go anywhere any time soon, but that shouldn't stop me from oogling at those 15mm Battlefront figures, right?

[FifteensAway]

I was riding your dilemma a few years ago and ended up going down the Pendraken with a dose of Minifigs - and buildings from Timecast.  Heck, one day I may even get it painted.  Oh, I added some twin rotor helicopters from a 3D printing company (forget which).

If you stick with 15 mm and Battlefront doesn't fill all your needs, take a good look at the Peter Pig range.

[Ash]

Very nice painting, the civilians look particularly well done.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great work!

[Orctrader]

Very good.  As already mentioned, the Civilians are excellent.

[Tom Dulski]

WOW they look great.

[CapnJim]

WOW they look great.

Yes, they do!

[Digits]

Yup very nice!

[Sparrow]

Looking good!

[Joelegan]

Go 15mm!   It's a siren song to switch scales constantly.   You already have 15mm stuff so use it.  I go 15mm from ancient Rome to the Falklands.  I save a lot on terrain. 

Joe

[AKULA]

Lovely paint jobs…and the bases really finish them perfectly 

Personally, if I was going to restart my Nam project (for the 4th time) I’d definitely go for the Empress minis - beautiful sculpts and they are great to paint (as you’ve already demonstrated).

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@FifteensAway: I'm a big fan of Pendraken figures (in fact I painted a few of their ranges for their web store). My Thirty Years War collection features a LOT of their figures, and they're just a cool company. 10mm also makes a lot of sense in terms of scale (not to mention storage, investments of several sorts). Peter Pig is also a good suggestion. Also cool company, also nice figures. Especially for getting heavy weapons teams and such without having to get a full platoon. Problem with both the above is ...well, Brexit. Getting figures from the cool companies here in mainland Europe has become a bit of a nuisance. Worth it, but it kinda spoils the fun. In fact, buying toys has become a lot less fun lately, I noticed. :/

@Ash: Thank you! First time I painted US Marines for the period, and I was pretty unsure about colours and whatnot. It's funny how so many people seem to worry about getting the 'right' colours for Napoleonics and such, but you never hear such problems with (ultra-)modern conflicts, from which we have rock-solid sources and even formulas.

@Grumpy Gnome: thanks very much!

@Orctrader: Cheers! Yeah, I also enjoyed painting the civilians more, I have to admit. Painting the Marines was more inflicted with unsureness on colours. Also, of course, I was keen to get them 'right' as per certain film characters.

@Tom Dulski: Thanks, Sir!

@CapnJim: Many thanks!

@Digits: Cheers!

@Sparrow: Thank you very much!

@Joelegan: Yeah, it's probably the sensible thing to do. A friend of mine will only ever do 15mm for everything (except the smallest-scale skirmish things), which of course isn't  a bad rule to live by. I tend to refer to 15mm as "the sensible size" due to various advantages.

@AKULA: Thanks muchly for the comment! Yeah, I added the little trees/bushes in the end. Let's see how long those last; they're a bit fragile, but I kept them just small enough so they aren't too vulnerable. Parts of the green leafs and underbrush on the bases may discolour over time, but that's okay as well and will work just as well I'm sure. Yeah, the Empress figures look amazing. I especially like the faces on the civilians. Those figures are real characters. Problem is that the Vietnam thing probably will be a sort of solo thing, and I can't invest the money or time (mostly that) into going company-level in 28mm.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Hello, hello, hello. Time for an update!

Well, to be honest, my own Vietnam plans were torpedoed by Battlefront's very ...special approach to how they deal with local gaming stores. I had ordered a bunch of 15mm stuff through one of the stores I like, the store owner tried to order it from BF, everything took very  long and in the end didn't go anywhere, because you have to either order the whole range multiple times over or something or don't get anything. Weird. Never mind though, I'm still kinda into the idea and might pursue it once I got more time again.

However, there are more fearless people than I am in the world. Those people go 28mm and go with the lovely Empress range. Like the gentleman for whom I painted the (armed) civilians last year. So he handed a big bag of metal (and resin!) over to me and told me to paint them. And so I did.

Here's a Light SEAL Support Craft:

full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/2S.jpg.e7866933b2c59797e8d4b50f4e229e9c.jpg


full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/5S.jpg.824aba62b0c6cc8235b05bebf951f30c.jpg


full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/6S.jpg.4739357ca3601ab4d61215c729609536.jpg

Impressive thing that. A proper embodiment of "more dakka".


US Marines:

full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/usmc3S.jpg.75bcafeec578e495f8e650ee6112c037.jpg


full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/usmcB1S.jpg.c92459dff8e35c0cf979176f9f27f03b.jpg

US Marines Recon:



SEAL Team 01:

full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/seals1S.jpg.fc7d44f544074fb3e63acb3454269a44.jpg


full size image: https://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2024_03/seals2S.jpg.4e2dcc29fc19cac445fe8ed7b8a212e3.jpg

Yeah, can't say much about the figures. Lovely sculpts. Hicks sculpts. One funny thing about those SEALs - the Empress website lists each of these chaps' equipment, which is rather helpful. Three of them or so were listed as "in LEVIS". I thought that this was some sorta typical US army abbreviation for some sort of shirt or harness. I didn't get that this actually means the jeans. Didn't get that until I actually found those photos of SEALs in Levis jeans.



So I had to repaint the trousers on 5 or 6 dudes (some on the boat as well). Oh well. Nice little spot of colour and funny little historical bit.



Anyway, hope you like them!

[carlos marighela]

Very nicely done.

Say what you like about the SEALS dress sense but they never made the fashion faux pas of double denim. I think the Italian SF gave jeans a try in the 1980s but the rhinestones compromised their camouflage in close country. 

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice work on those.
The jeans look very good.