28mm US Marine Mortar Team

I'm not sure when it was that the day job became so demanding?  Just when I feel that I have a handle on things and start to post again then no sooner does another avalanche of pressing matters surge over the desk, smothering all in its path.  Much of my weekends are now given over to rest and repair, but having made it to the Spring half term break, I am determined to find some time for me!  In fairness to myself, I am still keeping up with my very meagre goal of one post a month, but it would be nice to capitalise on the time afforded me to push on a little more. 

So then, another 'Nam themed post this time showcasing some splendid  'Gringo 40s' miniatures.  From the outset, I have to confess that I am a big fan of the Gringo's miniatures.  They are beautifully sculpted, yet have a heft to them that reminds me of the Redoubt Miniatures range.  They appear accurate and yet don't have so much extraneous detail of say the Empress range.  This last factor has become more important to me of late as my failing eyesight finds the larger model more forgiving when applying paint.  

This rather splendid group is a US Marine Mortar Team in M1 Helmets and Flak Jackets firing the M1 81mm Medium Mortar.  With some lovely additional bits and pieces, I was able to base up a simple stand and enjoyed trying to get as much variety out of the seemingly limited green palette that was available to me.  As I had mentioned previously, my fledgling collection is at somewhat of a crossroads as I decide which company to favour with my pocket money.  In my naivety, I have previously claimed that I was untroubled by such trifling matters such as scale discrepancies between manufacturers, allowing me to just enjoy picking up whatever set caught my eye.  This approach could be seen to have some worth, especially when viewing the next image.  

Here we have an 'Empress Miniatures' combat photographer alongside the mortar team and you might, quite rightly ask, "what scale discrepancy do you speak of sir?"  And you would be right, what with careful positioning and the fact that the mortar team are slightly hunched over, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were, in fact, cast from the same stable.  It is on on closer inspection that we start to see the details like the giant feet and bulging biceps, but even then we could pass these off as just big men firing a big gun!  

"But if they are this close in scale, surely you could combine them?"  Again, looking at the comparison below* you would be absolutely right.  Although considerably taller in stature than his Empress counterpart, this N.V.A. officer might pass, unnoticed, into the rank and file of the collection.  They are mounted on the same size base and I have taken care to photograph them on the same line.

*My apologies for the dreadful photograph.

The problem comes when you see something like the discrepancy below.  Again based on identical bases and photographed toe to toe, so to speak, the result is laughable.  If I didn't know better I would say one was a 20mm miniature, but I can assure you that it isn't.

In conclusion, I am leaning towards the 'Empress Miniatures' range, simply because they are making more of the Special Forces units that my intended skirmish type games will use.  That said, looking at the 'Gringo 40s' range it may well be that I continue to add the odd pack here and there as they are just too nice to ignore completely, especially some of the diorama packs which make the table so much more interesting. 

So there we have it, the last 'Nam post for the time being at least.  I continue to root around the backlog of unpublished notes, but can't guarantee any semblance of structure at the moment, just the flailing of thoughts and images as I try to keep a tangible hold on this most wholesome of hobbies.

"You're not hunting him... he's hunting you."

My flirtation with second the Indochina War was always going to be a lighthearted affair.  It was fuelled by the cinematic gems depicting the conflict rather than a desire to see history retold on the tabletop.  That's not to say that I intended to belittle the sacrifices made by all combatants in what was a complex and enduring campaign, the ongoing question about how soon is too soon with regards to gaming modern warfare is a debate for another time, I was simply looking for an entertaining period to explore in miniature.  With that in mind it was inevitable that a John Ramboesque miniature, or two as it happens, would be found.  

Rambo, First Blood had, initially, passed me by, I was only twelve when it received its cinematic release, but I remember Rambo, First Blood part II causing a bit of a stir amongst us pimply faced chaps at school.  Still a little too fresh faced to persuade the cinema intendant that I was old enough to witness the murderous intent of this one man army on the big screen, I had to resign myself to the book, which was a frightfully good page turner.  Now I'm not here to tell you it was a quality novel worthy of critical acclaim, but it did suffice until a well worn VHS copy of the film managed to make its way to the senior common room.  

All this is a painfully obtuse way of me saying that Rambo, as a character, was a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.  I couldn't be further removed from the muscle bound warrior of the silver screen and yet I could sit quite happily and root for him as bullets seemingly 'ping' off pectorals as he lays waste to great swathes of steaming jungle.  This butcher of bad guys whose dialogue was barely decipherable as he mutters through his lines was truly mesmerising to young Master Awdry.

So where did I find my miniature versions of this often maligned veteran?  Well in cinematic order, John of First Blood was from 'Studio Miniatures' where as John II is from 'The Assault Group'.  Both great fun to do, although I always struggle when painting acres of flesh as in the case of the, 'The Assault Group's' bare chested Rambo.  With belts of ammunition suitably slung and brandishing the now legendary M60* general purpose machine gun, you can almost hear the brass shell cases cascading on the ground as our hero sallies forth to save the day.  Hopefully one more 'Nam themed post to come, before a complete change as I unearth some long forgotten draft posts.

*Not to be confused with the Manchester Outer Ring Road.

Hollywood style N.V.A.

A quick win with this post insomuch as it was one of the drafts that I alluded to previously.  That said it certainly hasn't been 'quick' in the making as a cursory glance at the date stamp for this draft reveals that it was started on the 6th September 2020!  I had even penned some thoughts that I am going to include as they are a record of how I was thinking at the time...

My apologies one and all, real world issues have seen nearly all hobby time evaporate before my very eyes as we wrestle with the protocols and procedures of returning to school.  As I write this it is clear that the pandemic is going to have lasting implications on our institution, which may yet impact further.  That said, we are well and for that I am grateful.  I haven't picked up a paintbrush in two weeks, nor had the chance to write up a post or indeed catch up with the many splendid weblogs that I subscribe to.  The reality of this is that the situation is unlikely to improve any time soon and so I am faced with a dilemma.  Do I mothball, '28mm Victorian Warfare', shroud it in virtual dust sheets and wait for calmer waters or post intermittently with a reduced presence in and around our cosy corner of the blogosphere? 

Clearly I decided to mothball the blog and here we are, well over a year later, showcasing these lovely sculpts from 'Empress Miniatures'.  My 'In Country' project never really got started, although rule sets were investigated and some troops assembled.  At the time there were two growing collections of miniatures available, the aforementioned 'Empress Miniatures' and some amazing sculpts from 'Gringo 40s', the big decision was which way to go?  There were definite scale discrepancies and so I purchased packs from both companies with the intention to paint them up and see if they were compatible.  I had an inkling that I was going to come down on the side of 'Empress Miniatures', simply because they were producing more of the special forces units that were probably going to feature in my skirmish level games.  That said when you see the amazing game boards of Dave Docherty Esq., he of 'One Man and his Brushes' fame it's hard to resist the Gringo's miniatures - they just look superb!  For the time being, I shall put off making any decisions, returning instead to more familiar territory as I look towards a project to get on the table for the summer holidays.

Here then, painted in a Hollywood style, were my first attempts at assembling a force for the North Vietnamese Army.

Jungle House Completed

 Following on from the 'Jungle House W.I.P.' I am delighted to present the finished abode as my entry in Dave Stone's, 'Summer of Scenery Challenge'.  This is a 'Sarissa Precision' kit and having completed the build in the previous post all that was left to do was to paint and detail it.

I tried to keep this as straightforward as I could and dry brushed colour on to the woodwork in a succession of lighter tones; for the record Vallejo U.S. Olive Drab, Khaki and Stone Grey.  The vines were picked out in a variety of green and then had some fine turf sprinkled along them.

 I was a little nervous about dry brushing the delicate feathers and so started by making a series of passes with the airbrush and then picked out the batons and ropes followed by more fine turf and leaf litter to try and convey the feeling that it had been there for some time.

 Some subtle wash colour under the eaves, a few leafy tufts and more leaf litter and we were there, completed!  Sarissa really do make some lovely little kits and because of their study construction are fun to enhance and personalise.

A big thank you to Dave for giving me the inspiration to get some terrain done this summer, perhaps not what I had originally envisaged but nonetheless a rather fun diversion and a couple of new tricks learnt along the way.  All that was left to do was to get some of the other toys out for a quick photo-shoot!

Jungle House W.I.P.

There is a cruel inevitability to all summer holidays, that realisation that it is coming to an end and the plans and schemes, so carefully considered, have again fallen short.  Last week saw me return to work, preparing for the release of this year's A-Level results and then having to try and make sense of the carnage that was left behind.  Not that I want to get into that here, but suffice to say hobby time was somewhat limited and if truth be told I have found it difficult to get back into the swing of things as the spectre of the new academic year looms into sight.

Fortunately I have one or two items in the bag, so to speak, and plan to share those as I go in search of the illusive mojo.  Some considerable time ago, I expressed an interest to take part in Dave Stone's, 'Summer of Scenery Challenge'.  At the time I was mulling over some ideas for pieces for my Tatooine themed Legion Board, but these fell by the wayside when I stumbled across a 'Sarissa Precision' jungle house on stilts.  I have no recollection when this was bought, or why, possibly as a trading post for the Congo board, but decided that it would prove a useful piece to work on, especially given the current project.

As with all Sarissa products it was relatively easy to put together, but all the time I felt a pang of guilt, this not being a building designed and cut by James! Once constructed I couldn't help but feel that it needed a little more love and attention, especially if I was to enter it into a scenery building challenge so set about the base board with the trusty Dremel, bevelling the edges before adding pumice gel for the groundwork and a few decorative pieces for added interest. 

Using an idea that we had employed in the castle build, fur wool or eyelash yarn was used to represent climbing plants festooning the sides of the stilts.  This, base section, was then undercoated in grey primer, before I turned my attention to the roof section.  The kit has a tile design etched into it, which didn't seem quite right for the sweltering jungles of South East Asian, so went in search for a different approach. 

In the end feathers were used, having sourced a cheap bag from Amazon.  Using PVA glue the feathers were assembled to look like palm leaves, one or two having sections removed along their shaft.  To these were added some fibrous bristles that I had lying around and, when dry, were undercoated to match the base.  As I started to add colour to the base section it was clear that the effect was starting to work, but something didn't feel quite right and so I added so off cuts of veneer and florists' wire to hint at the batons and rope that may have been used in the roof construction.

More unifying undercoat and I was ready to finish the painting...

"Never get out of the boat."

If there was a plan to this somewhat frivolous diversion of mine then it was to have posted some work in progress shots of a terrain piece that I had been working on as part of Dave Stone's, 'Summer of Scenery Challenge'.  Unfortunately I have been diverted from my diversion by this, quite wonderful, 'Empress Miniatures' PBR, which has rather taken over proceedings.  I had seen that this was in the pipeline and decided that it was going to be an end of academic year treat to myself, so as soon as it was available, I ordered up the full kit along with the crew, sculpted by Paul Hicks, all wonderful likenesses for the characters from Apocalypse Now.

I had shown a couple of teaser photographs in earlier posts, but it is probably worth mentioning again here that this is an amazing body of parts, but took an age to assemble.  With no instructions you really are left to make your own decisions, which can be quite daunting, but I was keen to base mine on the boat from the film and so was fortunate that there were plenty of stock images to work with.  This meant dispensing with the 40mm Mk. 18 Grenade Launcher, for example, normally situated on the amidships engine compartment shield.  

Just preparing and siting the eight tiny cleats saw me scrabbling around on hands and needs, muttering the occasional strong word, as I tried to locate the latest escapee that fled for the apparent safety of the carpet pile! Other noteworthy incidents involved me snapping off the 'cast' rope that was to hold one of the tires to the side of the boat. This turned out to be somewhat fortuitous as I realised that the metal rope was too thick to wrap around the aforementioned cleat and so snipped it away from all the other tires and replaced it with some thin wire, which could be affixed as intended.

The kit comes with some wonderful extras such as Lance's surfboard, purloined from the Air Cavalry, even Mr. Clean's boombox.  To these I added some stowage and fuel drums, even a aerial fashioned from the Saintly Mrs. Awdry's dustpan and brush set, the fact that I had to ask where she kept it wasn't lost on her. 

As fiddly as the kit of parts was, I stuck with it and as soon as it received an undercoat of paint was delighted that I had.  Instantly brought together with the green and grey primer, the piece really started to look the part and I couldn't wait to paint it, all previous plans abandoned in a heartbeat.

Given that Lance, the forward gunner, needed to be sited before fixing the guns in place, I decided to paint the crew first.  Again, Paul Hicks has done a superb job with the miniatures, wonderful likenesses and some great touches, like Chef's cigarettes tucked into his T-shirt sleeve.  Captain Willard initially held a greater likeness to the chiselled features of Martin Sheen, but it would appear that in my haste to prepare them, I had run my file across his face, reducing his nose to one any heavyweight boxer would be happy to sport!  With regards to colour it was simply more green, but items like Willard's tiger stripe trousers and the shoulder patches of some of the crew offered a little more variety to the palette.

On to the boat itself and I followed, pretty much, the same process that I used for the WWII Sherman tanks earlier in the year.  A pin wash of Vallejo Cavalry Brown around the metalwork was followed up by a number of washes and dry brushed highlights.  Picking out a few details with the brush helped to lift the overall effect, with some gloss varnish applied to the lamps to hint at the reflective glass.  The lettering looked a lot tidier in real life than it does in these photographs, a sad symptom of my failing eyesight, but it still helps to complete the look.  The crew are pinned, but not glued in place, allowing them to be repositioned or swivelled and similarly, I couldn't bring myself to glue down the canopy, which remains precariously balanced as I write this.

I really couldn't be happier with the finished piece and instantly decided that I needed to set up some terrain to take some photographs, much to the annoyance of the Saintly Mrs. Awdry, whose dining table became an uncharted river for the the craft to patrol.  I stopped short of releasing a smoke grenade, not that I had one to hand you understand,  deciding instead that some subtle use photo editing was the way to go...

Purple Haze?

"We've gotta keep our heads until this peace craze blows over."

As promised I present for your delectation these rather splendid sculpts from 'Empress Miniatures', undoubtedly the catalyst for this recent sojourn in country.  The work of Paul Hicks Esq. they represent four of the characters from Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket, Joker, Cowboy, 8-Ball and Animal Mother.

This episodic, seemingly two part, retelling of the Vietnam War details the cruel debasement of the raw recruits at the hands of their Drill Instructor giving way to the ferocious street fighting in the wake of the Tet offensive and remains oddly compelling to this day. 

Likenesses aside, the miniatures are top quality with stacks of little details and fully equipped with web gear and armaments appropriate to the Corps at the time.  It has certainly helped cutting my teeth with the earlier miniatures as I now feel a little more comfortable at recognising the different elements, making painting a lot more enjoyable.

With regards to painting, green is once again the order of the day with the occasion highlight or shadows created with some 'Games Workshop' washes.  Where possible I would indulge in the odd detail or two, but ultimately the goal was to keep it simple and clean. 

Joker, Cowboy, 8-Ball and Animal Mother have certainly helped to swell the ranks of the Free World forces and cemented my desire to continue with this diversion a little longer.  Coming up I have some North Vietnamese Army, again from 'Empress Miniatures' to act as opposition and I have also made a start on a piece of terrain as part of Dave Stone's, 'Summer of Scenery Challenge'.  Then, of course there is the PBR, which I spent assembling and detailing the other day.  Last count there were at least 50 separate elements and that didn't include the crew!  

"I'm still only in Saigon."

Having hinted that this post might have reference to Stanley Kubrick's work, I am acutely aware that I have served up a helping of Francis Ford Coppola instead!   Rest assured, gentle reader that the likes of Joker, Cowboy and Animal Mother are inbound, but first a collection of miniatures reminiscent of characters from, Apocalypse Now.

Young, Master Awdry was left confused and bewildered after his first viewing of the widely acclaimed masterpiece.  Now more aware of the subtle nuances, there is a greater appreciation of the Director's vision, one that seemingly increases with age.  Not to get bogged down in a hackneyed review here, I shall move, swiftly on to the miniatures themselves.  Three character pieces from three different manufactures, the first from 'Wargames Illustrated', Giants in Miniature range.  Listed as Lieutenant Colonel Will Killmore, there is no mistaking the likeness for the surfing aficionado, Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore.  One of the more memorable characters from the film, with his often misquoted monologue ending with the immortal line...

Smelled like victory.

Next up a manic American photojournalist, portrayed in the film by Dennis Hopper, with this version available through 'The Assault Group'.  It is interesting to see the development of sculpting and casting in comparison to the other, more recent efforts, but that doesn't make this offering any less enjoyable.  In fact of the three, this proved my favourite to paint, not least because of the opportunity to try and replicate the tiger stripe camouflage effect.

Finally a sculpt available from 'Studio Miniatures' listed as Abel Kane, a possible leader for their Street Gangs range.  On closer examination this is a wonderful likeness of the infamous Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, as portrayed by Marlon Brando.

Kurtz being the target of the operation as a Special Forces officer that goes rogue, running his own unit based in Cambodia and feared as much by the U.S. military as by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.

Purely as an aside, I have treated myself to the rather wonderful PBR from 'Empress Miniatures'.  Pure indulgence, but I included the crew, so expect more Apocalypse Now, before the end of the summer!