Big Red One in Vietnam (Empress civilians 8/2/25)

[CapnJim]

More good-lookin' stuff, Mike.  Well done!

[mikedemana]

Being short of Vietnamese figures armed with LMGs, I picked up a pack of four 28mm Empress Miniatures from Age of Glory at Historicon. They were the first thing I got cleaned up and primed to paint when I came home. They've actually been done for a few days. I was waiting (vainly) for the humidity and heat to die down. I finally decided to photograph them before they were clear coated.



As duly advised by Capn Jim, the Empress Miniatures are noticeably smaller than the Crucible Crush Black Sun range. So, to help a little, I based the figures on the raised black plastic bases that come with the Crucible Crush figures. I used normal flat round bases for the figures I've painted so far.



Weirdly, the bipod that is show sculpted onto the barrel in the photos on the Age of Glory website was missing on my figures. Perhaps there are packs with and without the bipod? Maybe I grabbed the wrong pack? Very strange! Anyway, to make it more obvious that the figure is armed with an LMG, I cut up tiny bits of brass wire and glued it atop the flocking to look like brass.



So far, my Vietnamese force is entirely VC. Technically, these figures are from their NVA range, but with the uniform variations, they could easily be VC, as well. So, I painted them up that way, including the above guy in the usual black pajamas.



I have to admit that I much prefer the sculpting in the Black Sun range. Bob Murch's characters seem to have so much more personality and their features and equipment are much better defined. The faces on these four figures were hard to see, in some cases. The Empress Miniatures line is much larger, and has more packs. However, I am happy that I bought the Black Sun ones for the bulk of my line.



That got me thinking what I would do if I decided to expand my collection, after this last purchase. Capn Jim says the Gringo 40s Vietnam line is much closer in size to Black Sun. So, I will likely follow his advice and buy any NVA that I may decided I "need" in a future day from them.

I am now at the stage where I will begin play testing either this week or next. Hopefully, you will see the solo play test AARs in this thread soon! For more of my rambling thoughts on painting this batch of figures and what direction my project is headed, feel free to check out my Lead Legionaries blog:
https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2025/07/adding-28mm-empress-machine-gunners-to.html

Mike Demana

[carlos marighela]

Are you sure you didn't bin the bipod by mistake? In this range the bipods, when separate, e come cast attached to the base of the figure. They can look a bit like excess flashing or avery fine casting plug but it has the advantage of not losing the bipod in a bag.

[CapnJim]

Mine came with the bipods as carlos indicated.

Yours look good though, Mike.  And your remedy seems to have done the trick well enough.

[mikedemana]

Are you sure you didn't bin the bipod by mistake? In this range the bipods, when separate, e come cast attached to the base of the figure. They can look a bit like excess flashing or a very fine casting plug but it has the advantage of not losing the bipod in a bag.

Bahaha!  That must be what happened. It must have looked a LOT like flash for me to toss it. Weird that it isn't cast on, but I'm not a figure sculptor, so don't know what they're up against. Oh well...live and learn. Thanks for the praise, guys!

Mike Demana

[Hoagie]

Great work on those lmgs! That's a vert neat little trick with the bases, it's weird how wrong a slightly shoter figure can look considering the natural variance in human height... maybe the effect is more pronounced if the weapons also are proportionally smaller.

[mikedemana]

Thanks, Hoagie! I talk about it more in my blog post about these 12 Vietnamese civilians. As much as I was shaky about the LMG-armed troops, I really like the civvies. Lots of character, variety, and detail. Good stuff -- I highly recommend Empress Miniatures civilians (available in the U.S. from Age of Glory). Good suggestion CapnJim!



For more closeups and discussion of how I painted them and adapted the bases, check out the latest entry on my Lead Legionaries blog: https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2025/08/im-liking-my-28mm-empress-vietnamese.html

Thanks in advance for any comments. Now...to begin play testing!!   

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

They look good, Mike!  Looking forward to seeing how Sellswords and Spellslingers adapts to Vietnam...Dave ran a game of it for us Friday...

And "You're welcome!" for the tip...

[mikedemana]

Thank you! That's cool he ran it for you guys! Dave was very interested after playing it and said he was going to download the rules. Was it a fantasy one? My adaptations to the rules are complete (for now), and I'm ready to begin my solo playtests. Event cards are made up and look for a battle report this week.

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Dave's game was fantasy.  I had goblins...

Looking forward to your report.

[mikedemana]

Here are some bunkers and sniper positions that I just finished up. They were picked up from Miniature Building Authority, but are originally Acheson Creations resin pieces. The one above is called the "NVA Jungle Bunker."



The "Cocounut Log Bunker" is next up. All of these come with detachable roofs, and have quite a bit of detailing on them. In fact, these took a decent amount of time more than average for Acheson pieces. It wasn't always easy to tell what was vegetation and what was rock on the sides or roof of the position. More than once, I had to repaint what I thought was vegetation, but actually realized was a large rock or boulder.



Finally, the Sniper Position -- I bought two of these. Turns out that the area inside of and underneath the palm canopy is too small for my current basing scheme. I'm going to have to purchase and paint up snipers specifically for these pieces. Still, they blend it really well with my jungle scatter scenery. That was the thing I was most worried about, and I'm happy to say I felt they look natural and not out of place amidst my various types of vegetation.

This is just a quick run-through here. There's a much more detailed discussion of painting them up and such on my Lead Legionaries blog. If you'd like to see more pictures of them, those are on there, as well. Check it out and feel free to leave a comment either below or on my website:
https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2025/08/resin-bunkers-from-mba-for-vietnam.html

Mike Demana