Flashpoint Vietnam 15mm Sampans, Village, and Jungle Terrain

All,

I have been remiss!  Slacking in my blogging duties!  For quite some time now I've been working on Vietnam stuff in 15mm.  I've painted up and posted US Marines, US Army, ARVN, Australians, North Vietnamese Army, Vietcong, helicopters, tanks, amtracs.  I've even posted three battle reports:
1: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-i.html
2: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-ii.html
3: http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/09/south-leon-dmz-prelude-iii.html

But what I haven't posted is all my wonderful terrain!  So first, understand that I've had quite a few trees of various types for quite some time, so I'm not showing those here.  But I picked up more trees, as well as a bunch of village stuff, and that's what I want to show you here.  Most everything is from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis, though there are some banana trees from Pegasus and a few odds and ends from Flytrap Minis.

Here's all the stuff, with the intent being to make my table look better and more authentic.  I think it works ;)

First up we've got a palm tree, some bamboo shoots, and a Buddhist shrine, all from Flashpoint.  My wife, who is Thai, likes the palm tree, but got into me about the bamboo.  Yes, I know bamboo is green, but I wanted it to stand out.  Then I didn't know how to paint the shrine; being Buddhist, I asked the wife and did as she instructed.  I've been to Vietnam but don't recall what the shrines looked like; I can say this looks like many of the shrines you'll see in Thailand ;)

Another look.  I just glued all the stuff to a strip of styrene, spray painted everything, then detail painted it and put some grass on it.

The back side.

A close-up.

More brilliance from Flashpoint: a well (probably the wrong color, but I wanted it to stand out), some trees, some 55-gallon drums, and some village crockery and rice.

Other side.

A smaller version, without well.

Again.

Another one.  I really DO NOT enjoy messing around with terrain, but I want my stuff to look good and this was a good investment in time and money, and didn't actually take all that long.

Again.

Then I took all the rest of the trees and put them on styrene strips.  I spraypainted everything green, then went back and did the trunks brown and put grass on the bases.

There are various Flashpoint plastic trees, and the Pegasus banana trees are mixed in (the smooth-leaved trees).

More.

Even more.  I love how the trees have fronds that jut out at all angles, unlike most plastic palm/coconut trees which just hang down (that's how my other ones, bought on Ebay, are).

Then I bought me some hootches.  Most are thatch, but the one at far right is supposed to be corrugated tin (not sure how well my paintjob does for that) and the one at top right is wood.

Again.

Great detail, very easy to paint up.  My only complaint (sorry Jimmi!) is that they're not hollow and the roofs don't come off.  I want to put guys inside!

Again.

Then we've got three sampans, each with a lady working inside.

Again.

Fuzzy closeup...

Again.  Very easy to put together and paint up.

Where's my PBR?  We've got work to do ;)

More village accouterments: at top are two stake retaining walls, bottom right is a fish farming pond, bottom center is a foot bridge, and bottom left is an animal holding pin.  They all look great, no assembly required, and painted up easy.  Really helps to make a village look like a village.

Again.

Another angle.

And one more.  Oh, and all these are from Flashpoint Minis.

Next up we have some singlet palm trees from Flashpoint.

These are metal and come in three pieces: a base, a trunk, and the fronds.

Went together easy and look cool.  They're taller than the rest and so help to break up the outline.

And then we get to some caches.  If I'm not mistaken, all these come from Flytrap Minis, except the recoiless rifle at bottom right, which came from the US Marine HQ (or Mule?) pack from Flashpoint Minis.  The top and right are both a bunch of different types of weapons and stores, the left is food.

Again.

A closeup.  All kinds of cool stuff in here: a claymore, some packs, a satchel charge, some land mines, and a Jerry Can.

Pots and sacks of rice.

More packs, mines, a satchel charge, and some 55-gallon drums (from Flytrap HMMWVs).  All the mines and packs are from Flytrap's North Vietnamese.

Well, that's a look at all the new terrain stuff for Vietnam.  I did up the first three fights, and I'm working on the next set, which is based on Operation Starlite.  Not sure what else I'll do, but I've also still got Dai Do waiting on me, all of which I'll play as part of the 'Fall of South Leon.'  Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

Eureka Minis 15mm US Marines for Early WWII

All,

Switching gears, I haven't forgotten about WWII, and continue to add to that collection as well.  I've been working on US and Japanese troops for a campaign (actually, a series of campaigns) in the Pacific.  I had planned on beginning the 'war' at Guadalcanal in August 1942, but when I found myself over on the Eureka Miniatures website looking at Modern Australians I stumbled into something else: US Marines for early war.  They're actually titled "Wake Island," but that doesn't work for me as I plan on following a platoon of Gyrenes through the entire war, and many of the early war battles were battles of annihilation, all US troops being captured or killed.  So I'm not quite sure where I'll start, probably make up some scenario for the Philippines where Marines are involved on the Bataan Penninsula but end up being ordered out or otherwise escaping to live and fight another day.

In any case, that is for the future; for now, let's look at these magnificent little sculpts.

The whole force, 17 troops from several different packs.  I bought a pack of two leaders, two BAR men, a two-man M-1917 water-cooled machine gun, a pack of three Marines with Thompson submachine guns, and a pack of eight riflemen armed with the venerable '03 Springfield.  I painted them up in early war khaki, with sand leggings and load bearing gear, and dark green 'pie plate' helmets.  Did grassy bases for the jungle.

First men up is the leader pack.  I painted them up as an officer (left) and a senior NCO (right).  You can see a 'stache and rank insignia on the officer's helmet, and I tried to paint stripes on the NCOs sleeves.

Reverse.  I really like the sculpts.  Good proportions, natural looking poses, got some good heft to them, raised detail to make it easy to paint.

The officer's helmet and moo-stache.

The Sergeant's stripes.

Next we have our three men with M1928 Thompson machine guns, still chambered for .45 ACP (as opposed to the later M-1 Thompson chambered for .30 cal).  My only problem with this entire range is these guys (don't misunderstand, it's nothing I can't live with): their Tommy Guns should be a bit longer (the barrel), should have a foregrip, and were much more likely to have utilized the drum rather than the straight, 20-round magazine.

Tommy Gunners coming at ya.  Again, nice proportions, no one is flat.  I painted stripes on each of these guys, figure they're Corporals.

Reverse.  They have the early war, all leather, pouches for their magazines.

Backside.

The two Marines of the BAR pack.  Looking good.

Reverse.  Apparently, somewhere along the way, I scraped the guy on the right's barrel.  Need to fix that...

The two-man machine gun team manning the M-1917, complete with tripod, box for the ammo (attached, as well as another with the A-gunner), and water coolant.  Yay!  The gunner actually has a pistol!  I put stripes on the gunner too.

Reverse.

Comin' at ya.  I will point out that each guy is on kind of a half-base, they're meant to base together right next to each other.

Backside.

Another look.

And one more.  Excellent sculpting.  I keep coming back to the sculpts for this reason: I'd actually seen these on the Eureka website quite some time ago, but I was a little leery of purchasing them as the pics on the website make them look a bit weedy.  In my humble opinion, Eureka Minis is doing themselves a major disservice with the photos on their website, the figures are so much better than the pics.

Now we get to the riflemen, the first two Privates with Springfields.

Reverse.  You get a good look here at their long bayonets.

Two more rifleman poses.

Reverse.

Next two.  Awesome, classic marksmanship poses: a good 'off-hand' on the left, a good 'kneeling' on the right.

Reverse.

And the last two rifle poses, a kneeling and watching and a prone rifleman.

Reverse.

Another look at the prone pose.

And one more.

So, there they are, my next latest force for 15mm skirmish gaming.  Dammit, I can't wait to get these guys on the table, I just don't have time to do all the stuff I want to do!!!  I'm sure this is the eternal lament of the wargamer, but it's killing me nonetheless.  I highly recommend these troops for some early war US action, they're absolutely fantastic.  Meanwhile, I need to get back to my Cuba Libre stuff in the Middle East, coming soon.

V/R,
Jack