Lead Legionaries: I'm Liking My 28mm Empress Vietnamese Civilians

Saturday, August 2, 2025

I'm Liking My 28mm Empress Vietnamese Civilians

A dozen 28mm Empress Miniatures civilians I picked up from Age of Glory at Historicon 2025

I know in my last post, I pronounced myself not so enamored of the 28mm Empress Miniatures LMG-armed miniatures I bought at Historicon. I feel the exact opposite about these three packs of Vietnamese civilians I bought at the same time. First of all, the size difference for a Vietnamese civilian vs. a U.S. soldier should be pretty marked. Every memoir I've read by veterans talks about how both Americans and Vietnamese noticed how much bigger we were than the locals. The other reason is I think they did a wonderful job sculpting personality and better faces onto these figures. The features seem much sharper detailed. The variety of interesting poses makes these an easy buy for someone doing 28mm Vietnam.

Youth at left & his older sister in the 'Ao Dai' dress are examples of very simple but effective poses

Many of these are very simple figures and poses, I admit. For example, the walking Vietnamese youth has no equipment to note and is just simply sauntering along. Same with the one that could be his older sister -- the Vietnamese lady in the flowing "ao dai" dress, as they're called. And perhaps their grandmother, the old mamasan squatting in the dirt? Somehow, these simple poses look natural for a villager. Since about half of the figures were relatively equipment-free (we're talking hoes, baskets, and bundles here), I decided to paint all 12 at once. Normally, I would split these into two groups of six. However, I had a feeling they would paint up very quickly, and they did.

Rural Vietnamese villagers in their traditional black costume with 'Non La' palm & bamboo hat

I reverted back to my normal method of painting for these civilians. I primed them with Liquitex white Gesso, then did their skin first, followed by clothes and equipment (if any). Since most of my Vietnam games will take place in the countryside, not in Saigon or another bigger city, I wanted a more rural look. So, after painting their flesh, I got out my black paint the next day and added black to most of the figures, reflecting traditional dress in the countryside of Vietnam. About a quarter were done in all black. The rest might receive a black shirt, but then a different color of trousers, or vice versa. Some got no black at all, such as the one that appeared to be an ethnic Hmong, with her much more elaborate traditional costume.

The middle pose resembled Hmong tribal costume so I painted the woman up like that - a bit fancier!

Since these are 28mm figs, though, most would receive a dry brush highlight on their clothing and whatever they were holding or carrying. This meant painting the base color one morning during my usual AM paint session, and then letting it dry overnight. The next morning, I would dry brush a highlight color, and then do the base color for either another article of clothing or their basket or whatever. This meant it took about 4-5 days to get all 12 completely done.

A few stoic looking 'mamasans' hardened by an agricultural life in Vietnam's climate & conditions

I am very happy with how these country folk turned out. The poses are very natural and believable, and they look like they belong out in the "boonies," as U.S. troops would call it. Many wear the traditional Non La conical hat made of palm leaves and bamboo. It is the iconic look for Vietnam, and rather than do them in a variety of colors, I made them look relatively identical. I'm sure newer ones would be brighter and older ones a little darker, but I honestly didn't bother with that. I painted them a base coat of Iron Wind Metals "Dun Yellow," and dry brushed them a very light tan craft paint called "Wild Rice." Finally, i did a dark brown wash over them with my Vallejo vehicle wash.

Another look at the group of villagers from above, alongside two of my scratch-built jungle huts

I went for a simpler flocking system for these, too -- at least compared to the troops. I am assuming that these civilians will be hanging around villages, not out in the jungle. As with the Empress LMG-armed figures, I based them on the raised plastic bases that came which my Crucible Crush Black Sun American and VC troops. Since I substituted the soldiers onto flat bases, I hoped this little bit of extra height would make them look more natural next to the U.S. or Vietnamese troops on the tabletop. I flocked the lip of the base, too, so that it wasn't obvious they were on a different shaped base. Hopefully, they'll look great next to my Crucible Crush figures on the tabletop.

Tight shot showing the range of poses in just three of a dozen packs Empress Miniatures makes

What else is on my painting desk, at the moment? Well, since the weather in Congo-lumbus, OH, finally broke and it is much cooler and less humid, I was finally able to spray paint yesterday! So, I have the Miniature Building Authority bunkers and sniper positions black primed. One step ahead are the Canyon Rocks and Stacks I bought from Diabolical Terrain -- they have their tan base coat on, and await only a dry brush and brown wash. For miniatures, I have a group of six Sci-Fi civilians that I assembled from my various Stargrave boxes. I need them for my next Star Wars scenario using Space Weirdos rules. Oh, and I did finish off another batch of those movement markers that I featured in the last post. I didn't bother photographing them since they are identical to the first ones. So, stay tuned for more soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025