Grasshoppers and Elephants

I got a load of unissued Chieu Hoi bags at the war and peace show a couple of years ago.

They were made to go over ammo magazines keeping them waterproof.

They were part of the open arms program.

Once used they would be left on the floor and was supposed to  be used by a North Vietnamese fighter as a token of safe passage.

They also make superb token and dice holders.

After watching a gerrycan about token making I thought I would give it a shot.

Ordered up a 1″ paper punch and some bottle top thingies and away I went to find my printer.

Switched it on to an array of flashing lites, so went into town to grab some ink.

Got home instaled the new ink and created more flashing lites and beeps so gave up and took the files I wanted printed to a shop in town.

To put the info on side b of the token I went old school with a stencil and a pen.

I’m pretty pleased with the results although I should have been more careful when stamping the tokens to get the star more central.

These minis were great fun to paint, the detail in them is superb.
some have hammocks rolled up tightly and wedged into the web gear and the selection of ammo pouches fits the weapons the figure is carrying.

Doh just realised i did not paint the neck scarfs will have to go back and do that.

Salut was a grest day, i had a chat with Ged on the gringo40s stand and picked up some nee bits to add to the collection.

The resin tank is awesome and i cant wait to get started on it. I have a few ideas for some conversions that may involve me cracking my 3d printer out.

I also picked up some more of tye superb ARVN minis.

these include a rto, a female officer and a dude with a shotgun as well as a group of carbine armed infantry and a superb nco with a thompson machine gun. As always the sculpts are crisp and clean and full of character.

cant wait to finish work today so i can splash some paint on them.

These little dudes have been painted the same way the larger NVA were but they looked very dark on the table top so i went back and re highlighted them with the base colour of vallejo russian uniform mixed with increasing amounts if vallejo ivory.

These little bits of scenery were built up on magnetic bases.

the trees are some that i had left over from another project that i attatched to the bases with putty with some clumps of vegetation made from an old door mat.

the rocky outcrops are made from bits of rock milliputted together.

luckily working in aquatic retail i can always get cool small peices of rock that are in the bottom of the crates when the decorative rocks are delivered.

i also made some muddy rice paddys from some old bits of a non slip rug.

these were blended into the base with milliput that was then covered in sand and then painted brown and drybrushed.

The houses were undercoated in gw wraith bone, the bases and floors were then painted with a burnt umber acrylic paint.

once that was dry the cocktail sticks and walls were painted light brown.

the whole model was then covered in gw contrast skeleton horde.

once that was fully dry i gave them a drybrush of vallejo buff.

i then watered down some snakebite leather contrast and painted over the wooden parts and some of the lines on the roofs.

once everything was nice and dry i picked out some of the lines on the walls and roofs with a fine liner pen.

This evening i was living the dream, clint eastwood movies on tv and bits of plasticard and cocktail sticks for building some 15mm scenery

Looking through my flames of war vietnam miniatures last night i found a bag of unused figures.
So i thought rather than waste them i would base up some 15mm north Vietnamise and US marines.
I had a bag of mdf 15mm by 3mm bases from a sharpe practice project i finished recently.
So i drilled each one and fitted a small magnet and stuck the figures down on top. The plan is to build a small bord with metal sheet underneath it as im very clumsy and am always smooshing small figures with my hamfists.
Hopefully the magnets will help keep things in place.
I have to convert two of the us dudes so i can have a medic and radioman which may be interesting at this size.
Next im going to smooth the bases over with milliput, then i can splash some paint on.

This is the weapon support for the infantry platoon.

it is made up of a recoiless rifle team, a light morter team, a heavy machine gun team and a Dshk Anti Aircraft gun.

once again the models are from the britania miniatures vietnam range from grubby tanks.

These dudes are a sniper and his spotter from britania miniatures.

This is a unit of sappers in 20mm from britania miniatures, they armed with a mix of assault rifles, RPG’s and satchel charges.

the sculpts on these models are very dynamic and full of detail.

Just finished painting up these dudes. The details on the models are nice and crisp as they always are with the gringos sculpts. I especialy like the marine firing the tommy gun rather than the usual m16. The marines iniforms are painted with vallejo russian uniform for the green and khaki for the webbing.

the models come on metal bases so i smoothed them onto the plastic bases with milliput before adding some sand then painting with a mix of burnt uber acrylic from the works mixed with gws martion iron earth to give it a slight red dusty tinge.

Once that was dry i gave them a final drybrush with vallejo buff then added some random tufts.

This is a cool and very detailed  set of minis from the empress miniatures vietnam range.

It is made up of a medic advancing loaded up with his first aid packs, and the medic helping a wounded marine to the aid station or med evac.

the final model is a medic giving first aid to a wounded marine.

These rather swish chaps are from empress miniatures and gringo40s.

the gringo40s figures are a bit larger than the empress miniatures, this does not bother me as both companies produce superb miniatures that are full of character and detail and look great mixed together on the table.

the empress miniatures are a medic advancing, a medic helping a wounded soldier to move to an aid station and a medic putting a drip in to a wounded soldier.

the gringo m40s figures are a luitenant shouting orders with his m16 slung over his shoulder and a sergeant firing a thompson.

These models were great fun to paint.

the uniforms are vallejo kahki with gw mornfang brown and vallejo brown violate blobs.

the webbing is vallejo russian uniform highlighted with a bit of vallejo buff added to the base colours.

These are some pictures of helmet designs i would like to recreate that i found on Facebook and some cammo designs from the book men at arms 458 armys of the republic of vietnam.

The ARVN were the army of the republic of Vietnam. I have been looking forward to painting these models as you have quite a few options how to paint them, from plain us field drab to intricate cammo patterned uniforms.

I think i am going to paint them as ARVN rangers so i get to try out painting some camouflage uniforms, and cool yellow and black helmets.

these models are cool they are slightly smaller than thd US models in the range.

they are armed with a mixture of weapons.

the riflemen have m1 carbines with a BAR and blooper for support.