I always put that one down to Verlinden-itus, where a composition would be created, without recourse to references (or even basic physics) and then every "empty" bit of space used up with random "stuff." Said stuff being placed for visual effect, without regard to its use or importance.
VLS was bad about Mermite cans. Those were used for delivering hot (ok, lukewarm) chow to units in the field. They belonged to the supoort units delivering the cahow, not the recieving units, of which there were more hungry units than cans to feed them.
So, aviation units tended to have the cans, because they flew them to troops.
Weapons and magazines were not left out on the dirt (or mud) artistically to fill up void spaces. Empty ammo cans had millions of uses, and were not discarded until they were bent beyond recognition, or rusted through.
Takes about 30 seconds to get your poncho out and use it as a ground sheet.
The "sprawl" of the figure is quite good, really right up to the VLS standards for figures. The setting, however . . .
Makes it a pretty expensive kit to saw most of the resin away just to get the figure. Who would look very much at home against a parapet of sandbags, or leaning on an ammo bunker next to a mortar or MG pit or the like.
Now, I was 13 in 1973, but was surrounded by folks who had been Over There, had Come Back, or were leaving to go. Something that had been true near my entire life, moving every 26 months. By 1978, I was being trained by prople only 5 years removed from their SEA adventures.