15mm Troops and Aircraft for Vietnam

 All,

As previously mentioned, I've been painting my butt off the past 18 months, knocking out a ton of projects.  Fresh on the heels of completing my 24-fight campaign in Vietnam (you can find the start here: BlackHawkHet: Two Brothers, Fight #1), I immediately set about getting things ready for the second tour of duty, so this post catalogs all the stuff I've built, painted, based, and bought.  Yeah, there's some stuff in here that I actually didn't paint myself, I bought painted.

Here's everything I worked up for the next tour in Vietnam, with a bunch of aircraft on the left and some troops on the right.

Let's kick it off with some troops: these are 15mm indigenous troops from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis.  I believe the pack is "MACV SOG/Hatchet Force," and came with sixteen South Vietnamese/Nungs/Montagnards and two Western (probably American) figures.  I didn't paint the Americans up yet, sorry ;) 

I intend on using these guys as a rag-tag force of Regional Force militia types ("Ruff Puffs"), lightly armed, lightly trained, not particularly capable, not really wearing any type of uniform.

This is the closest thing to a uniform we've got.  In my mind this diminutive cat is the village chieftain's son, armed with an AR-15 (the best money can buy), wearing some mismatched uniform items.

This guy is the Kit Carson-type, the dude that was VC and came in under the "Chieu Hoi" program, not fighting for what he hopes is the winning side.

And here's the old dude, the one that's been fighting since he was a child.  He was with the OSS fighting against the Japanese occupiers, he was fighting with the French after WWII, he was ARVN in the late 50s and early 60s, before retiring back to his village in 1964, before being pressed back into service with the Ruff-Puffs when his village was identified as key in the 'Strategic Hamlet' program.

This dude is a bit older as well, still carting the M-1 Carbine around that he used in numerous air assaults with the ARVN, jumping out of the venerable H-21s...

And then we get to the youngsters, ranging anywhere from 15 to 21 years of age, mostly wearing their own civilian dress.  These two have M-1 Garands.

I've got four of this pose, carrying M-1 Carbines.

The other two.

This is Hamchunk, still pissed off that Peter-san never made it back and determined to do something about it.

Reverse.  You can see here how most of these guys are bare foot.

This is Dim, and no one is quite sure where he came from, or where he got the AK.

Reverse.

A dude toting the venerable M-1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR).

Reverse.

And the final two figures, also with BARs.

Next up I've got three dudes from Peter Pig's "Downed Aircrew" pack.

A helicopter crew chief wearing body armor and carrying an M-3 'Grease Gun.'

Reverse.

Another look.

A downed pilot, helmet cradled against his hip while firing a Browning 9mm Hi-Power, which he pulled from his shoulder holster.

Reverse.

And the downed co-pilot, crouching down, looks to be cradling some sort of "Dirty Harry"-style giant wheel gun, in both hands!

Reverse.

Next up are three figures from Peter Pig's "US Advisors" pack.  These are really cool sculpts, I absolutely love them, but they are a hair shorter and a bit more slender than the 'older style' Peter Pig sculpts, and thus much smaller than Battlefront and Flashpoint's offerings.

I love these poses!  First dude up in patrol cap (can even be a Marine 8-pointed cover, if you squint), sleeves up, M-1 Carbine, humping an ALICE pack.  Great proportions, good looking weapon, always love my guys carrying packs, and I love that his pant legs are down.

Reverse, with a good look at his pack.  That is the wrong color for the pack, but everything else I tried was blending into the cammies.

Another look, showing they're not flat, they're very well sculpted.

Next dude definitely looks like he's wearing a Marine Corps cover, this time carrying one of those new-fangled plastic rifles.

Reverse, with a good look at the pack and deuce gear.

From the side.

And from the other side.  I love these sculpts and my only wish is that we can get some more packs of these guys in soft covers, with some M-60s and M-79s, maybe some M-14s.  I'd love to get some more of these for some Recon types.

And the third guy, squatting down on his haunches, M-1 Carbine resting on his thigh, surveying the area.  His left arm may be just a hair short.

Looking at his right side.  Really looks like a Marine soft cover, and the pack looks great.

From behind.

And his left side.  I should have painted the smoke grenades a different color green...

Next up, I grabbed several packs of Peter Pig's "Mountain Tribes" dudes, with rifles, SMGs, and BARs.

Now, the paintjobs are probably going to drive some of you guys crazy, but bear with me.  They look WAY too uniform, I know, but I painted them with certain gaming concepts in mind.  If you're interested, my idea is that the boys from the 1st tour are now part of a Combined Action Platoon, and so they move into the village and assume the cadre role for a Ruff Puff militia unit that it's not at the top of its game.  But the boys move in, run some ops and win some fights that establish some confidence, which helps them recruit more locals into the unit, then they undergo a rigorous training program to increase their capability, which culminates in the unit being outfitted in a uniform fashion and being used in an increased capacity.  So the beginning of the tour sees the Flashpoint Minis' irregulars being used as the Ruff Puffs, but by the end of the tour I'm using the Peter Pig guys, who are looking more like an actual military force.

So all the guys are wearing a basic green and brown camo (it's actually two different greens and a brown, but the 'other' green didn't really show up), though they are not completely uniform, with some guys cutting off sleeves and/or pants legs, converting trousers into shorts, and head gear is not standardized either.  Here you see some SMGs (look like Swedish Ks?) and BARs.

More SMGs.

BARs on the right and M-1 Carbines on the left.  I do wish Peter Pig made some M-1919s on tripods, 60mm mortars, and some 3.5" bazookas for these guys.

More BARs on the right and carbines on the left.

And solely M-1 Carbine-armed troops.  Very nice, clean sculpts that were quick and easy to paint up.  Or at least they were until I decided to try to put camo on them...

A closeup of some carbines.

Again.

And now from the opposite side, looking at SMGs.

SMGs and BARs.

BARs and carbines.

Again.

And M-1 Carbines only.

One more.

And now we move into the aircraft.  I've had a pair of OH-6 Cayuses for several years now, to which I've added an A-4 Skyhawk (Battlefront), a CH-34 (Heller, I think), two CH-46s (Hasegawa, I think), and then I bought a lot of helos off Ebay, consisting of an AH-1 Cobra, a UH-1 Hog, and three UH-1 Slicks.  These were really nicely painted but got pretty beat up by the postal service, I was very lucky to salvage them.

First up, let's take a look at my CH-34, which is actually a Heller S-58, if I recall correctly.  But close enough for me.  It cam with West German SAR decals, but I was able to pick some up online and steal from some other aircraft in order to dress it up a bit.

From the front.  'Screaming Mimi' from Riptide, anyone? ;)

The other side.

From behind.

Dropping off a team from 1st Recon Battalion.

My pair of CH-46 Sea Knights, AKA "Phrogs."  My dad flew in these (and -53s) during the Vietnam War, and then I got to fly in them numerous times during my 10-year stint in the Corps.  They actually came with US Army decals for some reason (I know the Army wanted to buy the -46, but I don't think they actually did buy any), so again I had to beg, borrow, and steal decals.  I think they turned out okay.

The other side.

These actually aren't the right type of portholes for -46s, but whatever, close enough.

A recon team getting picked up, waiting on the damned crew chief to lower the damn ramp...

Another shot of the Phrogs.

An A-4 Skyhawk from Battlefront, AKA, the 'Scooter.'

Opposite view.

From the port quarter.

And zooming in to drop Snake and Nape in support of our beleaguered recon team.

And this gets to the whole issue of why I'm an idiot: I have no idea why I bought a bunch of aerial assets for my 15mm troops.  It's all just way too big to carry out actual combined air-land-sea operations in 15mm, and I already have a bunch of 6mm gear to do exactly that, so why did I spend all this money and take all this time to get the gear ready?  The only possible answer is simply that I'm a wargamer and do not follow the normal rules of logic...  These aircraft are really nothing more than narrative props, can't really get too crazy in terms of getting them involved in the actual game's tabletop mechanics (in my estimation; if you've been able to do it, more power to you).

My two LOACHes, which have seen the tabletop a time or two already (in my Cuba Libre campaigns).

The AH-1 Cobra, a lovely aircraft (had my ass saved by a Cobra back in 2004).  The only problem with all these aircraft from the Ebay purchase is that they have dirty Army decals on them ;)

Reverse.

The Huey Ho, with 2.75" rockets and miniguns on each outboard pylon.

Reverse.

And the three Slicks.  You can see I need to do some work on the far left helo, it's magnet is not keeping it up, it keeps falling down.

A closeup of the leaner.

Slick #2.

And Slick #3.

And that's that, everything is ready for my "Two Brothers" second tour.  I've got several more WWII projects completed that I'll be posting soon.

V/R,
Jack