Vietnam Terrain: Rice Paddies & Bamboo Stands

    Vietnamese villagers tend to their rice paddies during a moment of peace during the Vietnam War

Although I already had created plenty of jungle pieces for my 28mm Vietnam games, I did not have two of the more iconic types of terrain in that country: rice paddies and bamboo stands. I had an idea of how I would do the rice paddies, and luckily it worked out fairly well. The bamboo was going to be more of a challenge. I saw one video on YouTube where someone scratch builds amazing stands of bamboo. However, the amount of time each stand of trees would take, and the fact that I don't have an airbrush, meant I needed to come up with my own idea on this.

    28mm Viet Cong guerrillas patrol through my scratch-built stands of bamboo 

First, the rice paddies. My own travel photos from southeast Asia show various sized and shaped paddies surrounded by earthen dikes. The color of the water in some of my photos was a brilliant green, which is what gave me my inspiration. Hobby Lobby has scrapbook paper that is a mottled bright green, and also has a bit of texture to it. They also sell thin clear plastic sheets. My idea was to attach the green paper to the underside of the clear plastic so that light would reflect off the surface -- just like with water. The various colors of green on the paper would give the impression of depth. Then, I would attach some form of flocking or tufts to the top of the plastic to represent the bamboo shoots in their rows.

    Scrap-booking paper that I bought at Hobby Lobby which I felt would be perfect for rice paddy water

The berms or dikes that enclose the fields I decided to build up with wood -- either bass wood, balsa, or pine pieces I had laying around. I shaved each side of the dike with a utility knife to give sloped edges and a relatively flat top for people to walk along. I used up most of my various lengths and shapes of wood that I had accumulated making the dikes for the first three paddies. So, I had to go out and buy more more wood. So how did I assemble this list of materials into a rice paddy? I started with cutting very thin styrene plastic sheet for the base. Next, I glued the green scrapbooking paper atop it. After trimming and shaving the berms to size, I put two-part epoxy on their underside and placed them atop the clear plastic. I had to build up the corners so they would be evenly sloped all around. I did that with white glue and coarse ballast or sand.

    Yes, they look like picture frames! My wooden berms glued to the clear plastic with 1st coat of flock

The next step was to flock the berms. I started with a 50/50 mixture of brown craft paint and white glue. I brushed this onto the berm surfaces and then poured Woodland Scenics Fine Brown Ballast over the glue. This gives it a bit of a rougher, earthier surface. Once dry, I brushed on a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water over the ballast. I sprinkled that heavily with Woodland Scenics Blended Earth Turf. I tapped off the excess and set them aside to dry. Astute readers may have noticed that this is very similar to my flocking method for miniatures, and it is! I've found I like the look of ground produced this way, so why change it?

    You can see the 2nd (turf) layer of flock on the short sides with one of the 1st layers coated with glue

Normally, if flocking a miniature's base, this is the step where I do my first clear spray coat. However, I was worried about my clear matte spray paint "fogging" the plastic. I wanted to shine as if light were reflecting off of it. So, I applied blue painters masking tape to the exposed surface of the plastic. Then I sprayed each set of dikes. Once dry, I apply white glue from the bottle along the edges of the berms, smoothing it out with a wet brush. Then I sprinkle Woodland Scenics Blended Grass atop it. The very final flocking step is to add tiny pieces of green clump foliage to represent scrub and other weeds growing on both the inner and outer dike slopes. The dikes then received a heavy final clear matte spray coat.

    My first three rice paddies with the strip foliage (not cheap!) applied in uneven rows

Since the dikes are done, I can take off the blue painters tape at this stage. The most expensive step is the final step -- the rice plants themselves! I found something from Woodland Scenics called "Edging Strips" at the local train store. They are narrow strips of tall grass in various shades of green. I simply cut the strips into various lengths and affixed them in rows to be the growing rice plants. I decided to not make them continuous, solid rows, though. Instead, I left empty spaces between the strips, showing that some rice seedlings have poked above the surface and grown faster than others. For example, some rows may be in three pieces while others two. This not only looks more irregular, it uses fewer pieces of the edging strips. Those boxes are not cheap! Each strip has an adhesive backing, which is how I attached to the plastic pretty. It seems on there pretty good. 

    I like how the clear plastic surface reflects light, but you can see the green paddy depths beneath

I am happy with how the rice paddies look. Yes, I have seen other miniature gamers build much more beautiful ones, but these look serviceable and I believe will give the right effect on the tabletop. I have started two more rice paddies that will be bigger than the three smaller ones that were my first batch. I think that will help make the rice paddies look more realistic if they are of different sizes. I like how the pictures turned out, too, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how they will appear on the tabletop of the first game I run using them!

    My next two paddies will be bigger than these three - I like how the figures look on the berms

Now, on to the troublesome bamboo. I went to the various craft stores hoping to find some plastic plant that looked like bamboo with little modification. No such luck! So, I followed the YouTube video's basic method, shortening the process drastically. My prototype piece looked awful. I chucked it into the garbage can and did some serious brainstorming. I looked at Google Image Searches of bamboo and stared at the pictures, hoping for inspiration. I pulled out my plastic tubs with my various scratch-building craft items and picked through everything. Only one idea came to mind. Why not use bamboo to represent bamboo groves? Specifically, bamboo skewers! I decided to use still use the plastic plants I'd first bought from the craft store, but only as the vegetation at the top of each bamboo stalk, so to speak. The sides I would leave smooth. The first step would be to trim off a section of the plastic plant for the top and then poke or drill a hole in its bottom center. Then, I apply Tacky Glue to the pointy tip of a bamboo skewer and impale the plant into the plastic. I used a brush to spread out the Tacky Glue over the bottom part of the plant and an inch or so down the skewer. I then set the bamboo piece upright to dry.

    First step is to trim off a section of the plastic plant and poke a thumbtack through the bottom

Once dry, I marked a spot along the skewer that would likely be the bottom of the stalk. I painted both the plastic plant top and the skewer stalk a medium green. I set it upright to dry, then later dry brushed them a lighter green to give some depth. Once dry again, I painted a series of horizontal lines about an inch to 3/4" inch apart in a very bright green. This is to represent the segmenting of bamboo, which is a lighter color. After the first experimental batch, I improved upon my method to stand the stalks upright. I used a scrap of foam board to poke the bamboo into to stay upright while drying. I also decided to paint the individual bamboo trees BEFORE gluing them down onto the base. The final step for each bamboo tree was to give both the tuft of vegetation on the top and the long trunk of each bamboo piece a brown wash. 

    Next you put some Tacky Glue onto the end of a bamboo skewer...because bamboo, you know!

These shafts would be set into pre-drilled holes in a 1.5" circular piece of birch wood. I purchased a whole bag from the craft store for $2.99. The holes were made with a pin vice. I did one hole in the center, five evenly spaced in a ring around the center, and then a further ring of nine around the five. In all, I used 15 bamboo skewers for each 1.5" piece. Once the bamboo had been all painted, I used wire cutters to make the final sizing trim, and then an X-acto knife to sharpen the bottom so it would go into the hole easily. I applied a blob of Tacky Glue to the bottom of each skewer and then forced it into its hole in the wooden circle. I started in the center and then progressed outward. Usually, I would have to trim off a few of the plant "leaves" so that I could crowd the trunks even closer together. That was an idea I kept from the YouTube video. Otherwise, the branches or leaves of the plastic plant stick out in all directions and push neighboring plants away. I would snip off the branches from the side facing those already in place to make sure they fit together properly.  I also tended to make the center bamboo shafts taller than the outer ones, which also helped with everything fitting together.

    Forest of skewers with their plant bits atop (I have since switched to sticking them in foam board

I noticed at this point that the circular base was very top-heavy. So, I went to the hardware store and found heavy steel washers that would fit under the wooden bases, and epoxied them into place. All that was left was to flock the surface of each base. It was easy to take a brush and paint between the bamboo stalks with my 50/50 mixture of brown paint and white glue. I then followed with my usual method and poured Fine Brown Ballast across it first. Like above, I followed that up with 50/50 white glue and water and sprinkling the Blended Earth Turf. After a spray clear coat, I dabbed in full strength white glue mostly around the other edges, and sprinkled Blended Grass. The last step was to glue in various leaf scatter, and the bases were done.

    Paint each skewer with its base coat, dry brush, and section lines BEFORE putting them in the base

Yes, it seems like a LOT of work for just a single 1.5" base, especially since each base contains 15 individually painted bamboo trees. However, if you would have seen how much time following the YouTube video would have taken, I think that would have been much, much more! I figure I'll need about three bases placed atop a piece of styrene to represent each thick bamboo groves. The plan is to do nine of these circular bases of bamboo, so I can have three medium-sized bamboo patches on the table. We'll see if I actually make that many -- it is somewhat time consuming a process! I have gone out and purchased another one of the plants I cut up for the tops ($2.99 each), so I'll be working on them for at least the next week or so, I imagine. I am also working on the two larger rice paddies. The plan is for them to get as much possible done in time for this coming weekend's game at World at War convention at Fort Meigs, in Perrysburg, OH. 

    Pre-drill all the holes in the wooden bases first, then attach their metal washer weight

    Stick them in the holes from the center outward (early version before deciding to pre-drill all holes)

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 290
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 258

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 66

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 136
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 201

    I used 15 bamboo skewers per 1.5" round wooden base -- labor intensive? Yes, but I like them

    Final look at some V.C. patrolling through a bamboo thicket (heavy vegetation in my rules)