Vietnam

I am slowly building up my Vietnam forces. From looking at the rulesets I am considering going forward with, I need to start to fill in some gaps. Chain of Command Vietnam requires a platoon aside as well as supports. I still not have received Nam68 "Tour of Duty" from Battlegroup so a little unclear in respect to figure requirement. I have a sense you need more VC/PAVN than USMC but I will have to see.

Most of my forces are from Rubicon, with some resin prints from the Gunslinger Kickstarter. I am not really enamoured of the Gunslinger figures, they are a little too heroic for me. The PAVN figures are not as  bad as  the US figures. If needed, I may buy another box of Rubicon USMC. I did need some specialised PAVN figures as well as some civilians so I recently purchased some Empress metal figures. They are nice, but maybe a little smaller than the Rubicon. 

The M48 from Rubicon was a little pricey so I bought a STL (Cults 3D) for $6.95 and the model printed well. I did have a lot of problems with the supported version which printed well in 5 parts except for the fact that no holes were placed which turned into a nightmare with the unfixed resin. I drilled holes in the model but it kept on weeping resin like a large carbuncle......lesson learned! I might print another turret because I still  having some problems with it.

DHsK HMG

M48 Patton 

Next up, I will do some civilians and I also have a PAVN Mortar team from Empress. I was hoping to put on my first Vietnam game at our club's games day at the end of January but unfortunately I will not have enough figures for a CoC Vietnam ruleset. I still do not have the POD Nam 68 game from Battlegroup, and I will not have time to familiarise myself with a new set of rules. 

Vietnam-Rubicon USMC

Got these done about a week ago, just eleven more to go from the box.

Still working on my jungle terrain but have several huts done. Just need some more jungle bases and some rice paddies.

 

Local and Main Force Viet Cong

 

I have been recently adding to my slowly growing Vietnam 28mm figure collection. I had already painted up some Rubicon VC and USMC. I put together some VC over the last month but I also had received some STL's from the Gunslinger SOG kickstarter. They printed out quite well on my resin printer, they are the same height as the Rubicon figures but slighter in build.

Main Force Viet Cong (Gunslinger SOG)

From what I have read the Main Force VC were dressed in quite a variety of uniforms, obtained from several sources, including the PAVN.

Local Force Viet Cong (Rubicon)

Went with the basic black pyjamas for this squad.

Next up some more USMC.

Quite a variety of weaponry

Now if I could only find a ruleset.

Vietnam

 

I have had a chance recently to paint up a few more Vietnam figures from Rubicon, this time some USMC.  These were a bit of a challenge as I used a painting scheme that I never should have used. It appeared to be quite simple but it really turned into a mess and I spent much more time on these figures, than I should have.

Notwithstanding, they will do well on the table in the squad actions that I will be interested in gaming. Still working my way through various rulesets but I should be able to make a decision soon. This will be my first foray into this war.

USMC

Viet Cong (painted some months ago)

I am sure the next round of figures I will paint will be easier and come out much better!

Vietnam-Viet Cong

I have been wanting for some time to do some 28mm modern warriors. I am quite happy with 20mm in WWII but I do look at some of the fantastic WWII figures that are out there. Having been a teenager during the Vietnam War, it is the fist war I remember watching on TV and have always enjoyed watching post-hoc documentaries on the conflict. Certainly one thing it cemented in my world view that you are never going to win a nationalistic war fought 1000's of miles from your country. 

I am still having a lot of difficulty making a decision on what ruleset I would like to use to game the Vietnam War. I have limited myself because I have decided to go with 28mm figures and a 6x4' table with no higher than platoon based and maybe squad sized actions. I recently bought the BOHICA ruleset, looks interesting but certainly a different mechanic to which I am accustomed. There is a CoC variant for platoon sized games called DMZ and I have been also looking at the Ambush Alley Vietnam variation. So there is some choice.

There appears to be 4-5 manufacturers of 28mm metal Vietnam figures, with Gringo 40's and Empress Miniatures being the leading contenders. I am not that super excited by hard plastic figures but Rubicon recently came out with 2 boxes of figures which are certainly much cheaper than the metals and since this was a trial project I felt this would be a more appropriate starting point for me so I bought their VC and USMC boxes.

Once I opened the boxes I was really quite impressed, over 30 figures in each box with multiple variations with pose and weapons as well excellent instructions. They were pretty easy to put together, maybe a little less then 2 hours for the 10 figures below. I had no problem using Tamiya plastic cement despite be supposed to be using Tamiya ABS cement. The figures were sprayed white and then painted using Citadel Contrast paints with acrylic highlights. They were a pleasure to paint and below you can find my first VC squad. They are equipped with rifles, assault rifles and 2 different types of SMG's. There is also a squad leader with a pistol and I can also make a radio operator figure as well as RPG equipped possibility. As you can see there are both male and female fighters.

Next up will be the USMC.