'Pacific Hut' from Diabolical Terrain for my Vietnam Games

    From Diabolical Terrain's 3-D printed line of 'Pacific Huts,' here is another Vietnamese hooch

Last October at Advance the Colors, I picked up four 3-D printed Pacific Huts from my friend Ron at Diabolical Terrain. By the time I bought them, I already had enough Vietnam hooches or buildings painted up for the tiny villages or hamlets my players will encounter in games of Surviving 'Nam. So, the huts sat there staring at me accusingly from the shelf for more than six months. With my rules finally released, I decided to paint them. I figured I would do one first as a test rather than all four at once.

    Zooming in on the front porch & ladder, with 2 of my 28mm Empress Vietnamese civilians

This is Pacific Hut 5, which completely by coincidence, seems to be the simplest design of the seven Diabolical Terrain has for sale. Had I taken a moment to check out the four varieties I bought, I would likely have chosen this one, anyway! The posts that the hut rests upon come in four corner pieces, which you glue to the bottom of the hut. That was easy. I did mine with my normal "go-to," two-part, 5-minute epoxy. Next, I noticed that the roof didn't have any tabs to keep it into place or a way to slot in on top of the building. That was a bit disappointing, but easily solved. I measured and glued four wooden craft sticks into each corner, protruding up just enough to catch the roof and keep it from sliding off, but not enough to prevent it from sitting flush on top of the hut itself. After that, I spray painted it black on one of those rare, non-humid summer days in Ohio. I followed that up with a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint.

    Side view of this Diabolical Terrain hut - though meant for WW II Pacific - works well for Vietnam

Looking the hut over, I decided that there were essentially only two materials represented on this model, not counting the thatch roof. There was the wooden components, including the support posts raising it off the ground, the deck, door,  and the smaller wooden poles that frame the building. Then there was the wicker portion, which were the most of the walls of these huts. So, really, I was looking at only three color schemes. I decided to do the wooden parts first, wet brushing them with a craft "Burnt Umber" color -- a very dark brown. The next day, I dry brushed those areas Howard Hues Camo Brown, and finally highlighted them in Khaki. 

    Interior of model showing my four craft sticks in the corners which nicely keep the roof in place

The following day, I painted the wicker portions a medium brown craft paint called Autumn Brown. I let that dry overnight, and followed it up with a Iron Wind Metals Dun yellow dry brush. I should mention I was giving the thatch roof a very similar treatment. However, I added a final very light gray dry brush on the thatch, that I did not do on the wicker. Once the paint on the roof and building had dried, I went over both with a black wash. The last step was to take a piece of scrap booking paper that had an interesting dirty wooden pattern and cut a rectangle of it for the floor. Once it was trimmed to fit the floor of the interior as best as possible, I affixed in place with white glue. 

    Rear view of the hut -- model will look great on land or on a riverside with it being elevated on posts 

Not only was a I pleased with how the Pacific (read: Vietnam) hut turned out, I was really stoked about how easy it was to paint up and get ready for the tabletop. There's something inspiring about cranking out nice-looking tabletop scenery that quickly. It is listed for $22 on the Diabolical website for 28mm scale (also sold in 15mm and 32mm), which I think is a fair price for something so practical and good looking on the table. If you are doing Vietnam or even World War II Pacific theater, I would highly recommend these huts. Check out the different varieties, some with porch screens or other differences. I will likely paint the other three up soon, now that I know how quickly they paint up!

    Last look at this 28mm model -- I have three more that I purchased from Diabolical still to paint up

What else is on my tabletop? I have my batch of five figures for the Lead Adventure Forum's 20th Anniversary in the flocking stage. I've also begun the final batch of figures for my Elven army for Dragon Rampant. I leave for Historicon on Tuesday, though, so there will likely be a holdup on my progress. Stay turned, though, and hopefully I will have more soon -- especially having played a game of Dragon Rampant on Saturday and Lion Rampant on Sunday!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 141

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 29

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 62