 |
"Incoming!" My next batch of 28mm Vietnam figures take cover as enemy artillery fire zeroes in |
I am painting these 28mm Vietnam miniatures from
Crucible Crush's "
Black Sun" range in the batches of five that they come packaged in. For me, that's a nice, doable group which allows for at least the illusion of quick progress. So, although this is my second post of finished Vietnam miniatures, it is actually the third batch of five I've completed. Because of the way I'm painting them, I've decided to have two to three batches in progress at one time. So, the next batch -- U.S. infantry group #4 -- is about halfway through at the moment. Viet Cong infantry is next in line, though, and getting close to being done. Sorry if this is all confusing!
 |
I really like the Black Sun range of figures from Crucible Crush - great poses & crisp scultping! |
These figures are one of the two "standard" infantry offerings in the line. This pack is called "
U.S. Army Soldiers in Combat." There are six U.S. packs in total (not counting reporters, tank crewmen, etc.), meaning 30 unique U.S. infantry castings. I ordered two each of several of the packs and intend to try to paint them up slightly different, if possible, to give more variety. This pack also features the only time I have had to glue anything together in these mostly one-piece, metal castings. One pose has the arm holding its M16 separate from the rest of the figure. And now that I look at the picture again, I glued it on differently than they show on their website...oops! Oh well, I have a second one of these packs, so I will try to remember to glue the army hanging down at its side rather than swinging forward like I did with this one.
Like with batch #2, the recipe for these five figures began with brush-on, white Gesso primer. Next, the uniform was painted in a light olive drab craft paint called Light Timberline Green. Once dry, I painted the pouches, canteens, packs, and ammo belts in a craft sage green. The darker green camo patches on the helmet cover and the poncho are done in a medium craft green. After the figure has dried overnight, I paint it with a mixture of Vallejo Matte Varnish and Military Green. I am continuing to like how the darker shade of green "wash" settles into the folds and creases on the these crisply-cast figures. In my very first post on the project, I show a series of miniatures at these first stages in case you want to go back and look at them.
 |
I'm adding tattoos to about half of the figures - I think it adds an extra bit to bring them to life |
At this point, it is time to do their flesh. That's the opposite of how I normally do miniatures (from inside out, so to speak). I have a ruddy craft paint that I use for the base flesh coat for Caucasian soldiers. Then, I apply a darker flesh wash I created similarly to the Vallejo Matte & Green one. It uses an orange, clay colored paint mixed with matte varnish and gives the white skin a nice, sun-tanned look. For African-American soldiers, I used a dark wood brown with a medium highlight. I go back and forth between dry brushing the color on or painting it full strength on the cheeks, nose, etc. It honestly depends on how deeply cut the folds of the skin are on the figure. I also do a Hispanic flesh tone. It has a medium leather color as a base coat, followed by a watered down brown vehicle wash (that I also use on Caucasian soldiers). African-American soldiers instead get the black vehicle wash that is applied to the uniforms and equipment at the end of the process.
Next up are the other details on the figures. I painted the plastic parts of their M16s black and the metal parts Iron Wind Metals Steel. A Pewter highlight was added to the metal parts that might get the most wear. The boots were also painted black with a dark gray dry brush. The shoulder patches are done in a yellowish color called Maple Sugar, with a tiny red "1" done with a Micron pen. So far, I have been happy with how the eyes have come out on my Vietnam soldiers. I do a flattened black oval first, fill that in with a smaller white one, and then do a Dark brown slit for the iris/eyeball. I know many gamers do not paint eyes, stating that -- at the scaled distance -- you wouldn't see a human's eyes. However, many gamers also pick up the figures and hold them up to take a closer look at them. Then they see the eyes or lack thereof...ha, ha! So, since I am reasonably successful in avoiding the "googly eye syndrome," I will continue to paint eyes at this scale.
 |
Leaves, plastic plants, and tufts all decorate the bases to make it look more "jungle like" |
This batch included one soldier armed with a M79 grenade launcher (there are also two armed with this in the "Specials" pack). So, I will likely end up with more "bloop guns" than I will field. Speaking of which, I have put some more work on the rules that I'm going to be using for my Vietnam games. Inspired by the cooperative nature of
Sellswords & Spellslingers fantasy miniatures rules from
Ganesha Games, I am intending to do the same here. My thought is each player will control 4-5 soldiers, though I may need to scale that back after play testing. In a six-player game, like we typically have on Sunday evenings, that would mean up to 30 U.S. soldiers each taking their turns individually. That may cause things to slow down too much at that size, as opposed to if they had only, say, three soldiers each. My
Viking Town Raid game features six players each controlling three figures. It pretty much finishes up in three hours or so (at conventions, a true finish may take a bit longer due to the rules explanation I have to do ahead of time that I won't need to with my group).
I hope to figure out all of those parameters in the play testing phase, which will initially be solo. After that, I may invite just a couple players to test it out in smaller games. I'm really looking forward to getting this project on the table. I've been reading a lot of great books on Vietnam and using them for inspiration. I looked at about a half dozen lists of "Best Vietnam Histories" and compared them, looking for the ones common to most. I've been working my way down them, having just finished Hal Moore's memoir (made into a Mel Gibson movie), We Were Soldiers Once...And Young. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it highly, if nothing for the whole Landing Zone Albany segment of the story that gets left out of the movie. Right now, I've just begun reading Mark Bowden's book on the Battle of Hue.
 |
Another shot of the whole fire team with enemy mortar rounds getting dangerously close! |
I hope to update this project fairly often, what with painting figures in batches of five. However, I promise not to laboriously go through how I painted each figure in future posts...ha, ha! I apologize if this was repetitive. I try to strike a middle ground between talking about how I painted up a figure or terrain with other discussion, such as how I will use it or what I learned. I think I will also begin to create some jungle vegetation pieces using plastic plants from craft stores and flocking. I'd like to scratch-build some termite mounds. The Vietnam memoirs I've read all mention those as being key cover in firefights. I'll try to include those items alongside posts with finished miniatures for more variety than, "Here's another five Vietnam figures"...ain't they purdy??
What else is on my desk? Next to be completed will be the first Viet Cong, as mentioned earlier. I've also been doing some modern or Sci-Fi scatter that I had been meaning to finish. I'll probably save those up till I have enough to do a post on them.
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025
- Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
- Miniatures painted in 2025: 75
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025
- Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
- Terrain painted in 2025: 22
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025
- Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
- Scatter painted in 2025: 57