Old Stuff Day: Vietnam!

Today is "Old Stuff Day" so I thought I'd dig out some figures I painted in July 2007.

After 2 months of preparatory training, my first USMC Rifle Patoon is ready for deployment to South Vietnam, Republic of.

Click pics for larger versions

I'm very pleased with they way these figs turned out, actually and they are probably the best 15mm troops Ive done (No, I havent done many!). The Figures are all Flashpoint Miniatures, and the sculpted resin bases are by Battlefield Accessories (in FOW sizes). See my earlier posts on the clour used for painting the fgures. The Pacific themed bases pack has the nciely molded palm leaves, vines and rocks. I thought they were excellent, though the basing of the miniatures took longer than I had anticipated because of the extra spaces around the figure bases which had to be filed in.

The bases were spray undercoated black, drybrushed with Tamiya Dark and Flat Earth and detailed - rocks with Ral Partha Slate and the Palm leaves with GW Jungle green and a touch of Sunburst Yellow. Foliage is All Woodlands Scenics - Dark and Light course turf with some grass tufts added in using PVA glue. Actually, the grass tufts need some work still, I'm not really happy with most of them.

Heres the LT and the boys from 1st Squad (comprised of a Squad HQ of 2 men and 3 four man fireteams). Closeups of the other individual squad bases will follow shortly.























Now its into the boonies to find Mr Charles...

Company HQ, US Injured and KIA

I finally got around to completing my USMC Rifle Company HQ, which is only made up of 2 stands - the Captain and 'Gunny'. To differentiate the CHQ stands from the 3-man Platoon HQ stands, I used the larger sized stands (Pacific Themed resin bases by Battlefield Accessories, same as the rest of my USMC force). Figs are by Flashpoint Miniatures from the USMC CHQ Blister:

Amusing ancedote - there was a real MIA incident when I dropped the figure tray while was varnishing. The Gunny's stand was most damaged and the Medic fig rolled into the bush. It took about 20 mins of concentrated effort (including the kids) to find the poor guy (he was wearing camo after all), but in the end he was reunited with his buddies!

I also did a selection of WIA and KIA figs, again from the Flashpoint Miniatures USMC CHQ Blister:

I also spent a bit of time glueing thin steel sheeting to the bottom of all my USMC bases, and putting magnetic strips into my storage boxes (a neat tip from my mate Owen). At least that way I wont have them all broken and/or bent out of shape next time I move house.

USMC Update

Painted up the 2 Company HQ stands (3 figs each) and 6 casualty markers over the weekend, in addition to some small bits of terrain. I'm trying out a slightly lighter Olive Green (Vallejo) and a flesh wash with these ones, otherwise they are identical in colour and technique to my other Leathernecks.

I'm still playing around with the basing and flocking, so pics will be up once that is complete

3rd Squad profiled

Here are the last closeups of the platoon - 3rd Squad. Once again, click for larger images.

For those interested in the bases, they are Battlefield Accessories Pacific pack (#BA48), containing 8 medium and 3 small resin bases, which I bought from Olympian games in Canberra.

2nd Squad - Fall In!

As promised, here are some additional closeups of my Marine Platoon. This time, 2nd Squad takes post ready for the next patrol...

Click pics for larger images

USMC Platoon Ready for Action!

After 2 months of preparatory training, my first USMC Rifle Patoon is ready for deployment to South Vietnam, Republic of.

Click pics for larger versions

I'm very pleased with they way these figs turned out, actually and they are probably the best 15mm troops Ive done (No, I havent done many!). The Figures are all Flashpoint Miniatures, and the sculpted resin bases are by Battlefield Accessories (in FOW sizes). See my earlier posts on the clour used for painting the fgures. The Pacific themed bases pack has the nciely molded palm leaves, vines and rocks. I thought they were excellent, though the basing of the miniatures took longer than I had anticipated because of the extra spaces around the figure bases which had to be filed in.

The bases were spray undercoated black, drybrushed with Tamiya Dark and Flat Earth and detailed - rocks with Ral Partha Slate and the Palm leaves with GW Jungle green and a touch of Sunburst Yellow. Foliage is All Woodlands Scenics - Dark and Light course turf with some grass tufts added in using PVA glue. Actually, the grass tufts need some work still, I'm not really happy with most of them.

Heres the LT and the boys from 1st Squad (comprised of a Squad HQ of 2 men and 3 four man fireteams). Closeups of the other individual squad bases will follow shortly.























Now its into the boonies to find Mr Charles...

USMC Rifle Platoon nears completion

My first USMC rifle platoon is almost complete - Ooh-Rah!

The figs look quite good on the sculted Pacific Theme bases by Battlefield Accessories. I'll grab some extra foliage this weekend to finish them off and will post pictues then.

I FINALLY got hold of some more Pacific theme sculpted bases so I can now finish off my USMC Platoon and the Company HQ...

USMC Painting Update

My leathernecks are coming along well with all the figures now basecoated and some detailing completed.

I started off by dividing them into squads and fireteams, which I find a bit more manageable to arrange and not so daunting to paint.

Here is the Platoon HQ stand - 2Lt, RTO and Medic

And 1st Squad (the other two are done as well but look pretty much the same)
Squad Leader and Fireteam 1:
and the other 2 Fireteam stands:



Some detailing (eg flesh washes) and basing yet to be done, but you get the idea and now you can see what the figs are like.

Colours Used
Basecoating order and colours:
1) Medium drybrush with Coat d'arms 226 Olive.
Maybe a little too bright up close, but I think it looks just right from a normal gaming distance
2) Flesh: Coat d'arms 214 Suntanned flesh and 216 Negro flesh on about 1/3 of the troops.
3) Reblacked boots and weapons using Tamiya: XF-1 Flat Black
4) Weapon colouring using very old (15years!) GW: Bolt gun metal for M16 centre sections, grenades, M79 barrel and tops of M14s. yes, its too bright up close, but you can see it from 3 feet away
5) Ral Partha Dunkel Brown for M79 and M14 furniture.
Detailing
Because I preominantly use drybrushing techniques (because I am lazy), it means not too much detailing is required, and I'm doing wargaming standard figs not character figs (not that I am capable of super detailing anyway!)
Very light drybrush with GW Burnished gold for M60 bandolier ammo belts
Comments and suggetsions welcomed as always!

Leathernecks prepped

My USMC riflemen platoon have now been cleaned up and undercoated in black.
A rather boring stage, I havent bothered with photos.

The flash came off quite well and it only took me about 2 hours total to do all 45 figures, which isnt bad (for me). The mold lines are quite small and the majority of the flash is restricted to a few figure poses, the others being almost completely flash free.

So I've divided them into their Squads and fireteams, and tomorrow the jungle gree and olive drab come out for basecoating. I think I shall use a chestnut coloured "dip" mixure for the wash. At least I'll try it out on the first few figures and see how it goes.