**Finished!!! 07May09** Taking Cover Hue 1968

Sorry for the lag in posts. I am trying to push hard to finish the semester in college and I am way behind the power curve.

I finally received the DML Khe Sanh set and got right to work detailing the machine gunner. The web gear is medical tape.

After some deep thought I decided to add the figure that is trying to raise some help on the radio. This is a very small space to fit 3 figures. I have tried to accomodate for the brass that would be flying out of the M-60 so that the grenadier is not getting showered with brass and links.

I have also scratch built an M-72 LAW rocket launcher that will lay discarded by the grenadier.

If you notice that the wall paint is different that is because I had to repaint the outside of the wall after making a few tactical errors. I have also detailed the sidewalk with different colored bricks to break up the ocean of grey that a sidewalk is.

Here are some pics.

This next photo is of a scratchbuilt LAW rocket launcher.

I finished the palm tree last night after hours of tedious cutting of palm fronds.

I am next working on the other vegetation that will be behind the wall.

AgengG, and psstoff, Thanks for the feedback. I especially wanted to know if I was on the right track for the walls.

 More Later

Brian

That looks amazing... well done. Great colors and with that CBS footage- looks dead on. Nice work Gamewarden

Started on painting the vignette base.

I made a pretty significant change. Based on some research and a previous poster's suggestion I plastered the wall sections and gave them a base coat of a custom color that is sort of blue/green. The wall sections are blackened with the base color showing through because I saw in some video's that there was alot of buildup on most walls.

The image below is a video capture from CBS news footage in Hue.

Hammer,

That is a great tip! I will give it a try and repost.

Brian

Nobody cares until they start to smell fresh cut grass in the desert or the sweet smell of almonds and then its GAS! GAS! GAS! and we hope we remember how to donn and clear. Is it breathe in first, or blow out first? Aw shucks I can never remember? Gotta move the charms, and TP out of the way so that I can get my mask out.

Thanks

Brian

Gamewarden5 wrote:

Hammer, You are absolutely correct. I guess twenty years of sucking CS is good for something. For me I guess bad habits die a hard death. I always wore my mask on my right. Funny I never had an NCO or SNCO tell me I was all jacked up. Come to think of it We never really had an SOP in any of my units for how we would standardize the wear of the field protective mask.  Thanks for the info. Brian

No sweat... Like I said, it was just FYI.. THere's always someone who's an individual, lol... As for the NBC Annex to the unit SOP, that's the NBC NCO's job to write it, so if your chem-dawg was ate-up, well...

NBC = No Body Cares, right?

psstoff995 wrote:

Gamewarden5 wrote: Let me know what you think. Looks good and... maybe a little large in scale, but I think it works for what you're trying to do. I think you could extend the rod out from the bottom of the masking tape so you get some brass to show through on both sides. Just my 2 cents.

 For 1/48 50 cal (which would do a decent 7.62 in 1/35th), I use straight pins... I laid down a strip of tape to act as an anchor for the pins, then laid the pins (sans heads) side-by-side on the tape until I had about a 100-round belt... Then I glued 'em with CA.  Once the CA was set, I ran a narrow strip of tape down the row about where the links would be, then cut the back ends of the pins to length... 

Hammer,

You are absolutely correct. I guess twenty years of sucking CS is good for something.
For me I guess bad habits die a hard death. I always wore my mask on my right. Funny I never had an NCO or SNCO tell me I was all jacked up.

Come to think of it We never really had an SOP in any of my units for how we would standardize the wear of the field protective mask. 

Thanks for the info.

Brian

Gamewarden5 wrote:

Let me know what you think.

Looks good and... maybe a little large in scale, but I think it works for what you're trying to do. I think you could extend the rod out from the bottom of the masking tape so you get some brass to show through on both sides. Just my 2 cents.

Just FYI... The M-17 pro-mask carrier is worn on the left leg with a hip-carry or under the left arm when using the shoulder-carry... Sometimes troops will attach the carrier to the pistol belt on the left side...

Leg-carry, the wide strap goes around the waist, the narrow one around the leg and up throught the small D-ring to clip onto the large D-ring.  Shoulder-carry, the wide strap goes over the right shoulder with the narrow strap going around the waist..

Hans von Hammer,

U.S. Army Chemical Corps (ret)

Your Friendly Neighborhood NBC NCO

I figured I would be wrong thanks for the links very interesting. I guess the stuff I have collected is all early Vietnam. No water purifacation pouches on he canteen covers I have and my stuff is all canvas not nylon I thenk I have three complete sets of Alice gear its been awhile since I looked at my grear, I was also collectin WW 2 but that got too expensive.Now I just stick to  unit patches.Also good idea on the ammo belts never thought of that!

Thanks agian for the info,

John

Tonight I tried to experiment with some of the detailing that I want to put into this project. I plan on the M-60 gunner being strapped with belt's of ammo. I cannot find any flexible belts of 7.62 ammo so I attempted to make them. I think this might work with a little refinement and not rushing the paint job.

Since this was an experiment, more of a proof of concept I am not too concerned with the initial appearance. What I wanted to know is 1. is it feasible, and 2 does it look to scale on the figure.

Here is what I have done

First I cut some .26 gage wire in about 1/16 in. lengths.

I mounted these cut pieces to a very thin piece of masking tape and used white glue to seal the deal.

In the next photo I am comparing to a 7.62 machine gun. Forgive the rushed paint job. I wanted to see what it would look like. If this method gets a thumbs up the next belts will have a cleaner paint job.

Last I wanted to see if the belt would still form around the figure, and if the belt is to scale on the figure.

Let me know what you think.

BTW I am still waiting on the vietnam set to come in.

Tonight more work on groundwork.

jtrace214 wrote:

I am probably wrong but, the gas mask bag and canteen are too new. I dont think they had the kind with the water purifacation pocket on them in Vietnam and the gas mask bag is modern too. I f I am wrong I am sorry but it didn't look right to me.. Still looks very good,you have more paitents than I do messing with that foliage my eyes would go crossed lol.. John

The canteen cover depicted is an M1967 canteen pouch. Keeping in mind that the Tet Offensive kicked off in January 1968 it is entirely plausible that a newbie in country would have been issued a newer version of deuce gear. This canteen pouch is still in use today, so in effect it is a modern piece of gear. In fact when I turned in my gear last year I turned in two of these pouches brand new. 

More information can be found here.

http://www.olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_canteen.php

http://www.vietnamgear.com/kit.aspx?kit=85

The gas mask that was worn by U.S. Marines in Vietnam was the M-17 gas mask.

Here is the gas mask pouch.

For some historical perspective Olive-Drab.com has a great repository of information.

http://www.olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_gasmask_m17.php

Again, this gas mask was in service with U.S. Marines until the late from the the early 1960's throught the Vietnam war and into the 1990's when the M-17 was replaced by the M-40 field protective mask that is currently in service.

Thanks

~Brian

Gamewarden5 wrote:

Method 2 of elephant grass Using natural vegitation the way I intended to simulate Elephant Grass did not work out. So, I went to Michaels and low and behold they had plastic grass that looked sort of like what I was trying to do, however they were very large in comparison to my figure. I used a method similar to what I did with the pampas grass leaves. First I separated the grass into plugs. Looking at the bundles of blades there were too many so I made a smaller bundle and using my third hand I lashed the bundles together using a clove hitch with some button thread. I CA'd the bundle together and trimmed the thread and the parts of the grass blade below the knot. Now my grass is more in scale to my fig. Seeing that elephant grass is between 9-12 ft. tall it is right in line with where it should be. Now all I have to do is make about 30 more plugs. I also started forming the ground work on the opposite side of the wall where the Marines are going to be. Last but not least. I have also started working on the figures. I have not received the DML kit that I ordered yet so for now I am going to work on the two figures that I have. As you can see I am detailing these figures using masking tape to make their H-Harness. I also detailed the gas mask with the appropriate straps.

keep in mind that there wasn't much elephant grass close to Hue, but there was lots of water and rice paddies. Elephant grass can be as short as a foot tall, and six or seven foot tall. Grows very dense. There was a pine tree (well sorta like one anyway) that grew in the area as well as the usual banana plants. Earth will be red or almost black (close to rice paddies). Baby blue and coral seemed to be the favorite colors up there. Very few exposed blocks as most were plastered over.

gary

Gamewarden5 wrote:

Here's Gamewarden's ref. shot, hard to call 'bout the pocket, but I think it's pretty close. And not that this makes it so at all, but a Legend Productions resin kit I have has the bag with the pocket...

I am probably wrong but, the gas mask bag and canteen are too new. I dont think they had the kind with the water purifacation pocket on them in Vietnam and the gas mask bag is modern too. I f I am wrong I am sorry but it didn't look right to me.. Still looks very good,you have more paitents than I do messing with that foliage my eyes would go crossed lol..

John

If that tip hasn't been in FSM before, get it in there, thats awesome!

BTW its looking great, I'll really like your grass the and the detailed harness on the fig.

'Bout the bamboo, another thing to try, nest different sizes of tubes in each other to fill the gap, then if you have it 'broken' you will see the different layers.  To ease with the putty, you could try gluing some styrene rod and strip around in the places where there are ridges.  If you then use a little more glue to soften this up it may be possible to flatten it down into those smooth ridges-or it could provide a frame for your putty work.  'Course I just thought of that and it may not work-but go for it.  For some texture after it is all done, use some medium-light grain sandpaper and put some scratches in it.

        It's great how you slit that weapon. Things like that look awesome in a dio. Tiny details make a huge difference.

    This whole viginette is really going to look fantastic. Can't wait to see the finished result.....

     HURRY!!!.......

     Boomer...

psstoff995 wrote:

WOW! Nice idea, turned out great

The M79 for the gunner I had orginally used on my PBR31-MKII and was shown as already loaded with the breech closed. I wanted to show this M79 grenadier to be shown loading his weapon to re-engage new targets. I had to find a way to disassemble the M79 so that I can drill out the breech and show it broken down shotgun style.

I did not like my orginal paint job on the M79 so I first stripped off the paint by soaking it in Westley's Bleche White over night.

I quickly figured out that my #11 blade was doing more harm than good so I used a dental floss pick as a small coping saw to separate the two halves.

Resulting in a properly disassembled M79 that I can now detail.

Gamewarden5 wrote:

More progress has been made. I started working on the groundwork. Notice the bandoleer for the grenadier for the rifle he picked up on the battlefield

More progress has been made. I started working on the groundwork. Notice the bandoleer for the grenadier for the rifle he picked up on the battlefield