Last fireteam of my 2nd squad of US Marines

8. December 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Empress, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, US Marines, Vietnam war, wargaming

Here is the first member of the last missing fireteam of my 2nd squad of US Marines for Vietnam. A kneeling firing miniature .

In the paddies

2. December 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Full Metal Miniatures, In the paddies, paddies, rice farmers, Vietnam civilians, Vietnam war

Here is the last missing figure of the farmers working the rice paddies. A porter bringing up more rice plants.

And here are all the figures, made by Full Metal Miniatures, working in the field:

A new Hue model in plastic from Rubicon

1. December 20201. December 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm Wargaming, Bell UH 1D, Huey, plastic model, Rubicon models

Rubicon writes on facebook: Our “New Project of the Month” for December 2020… the Bell UH-1 Iroquois “Huey”. Another FIRST for Rubicon Models – something that is airborne! This will be a multi-sprue plastic kit in 1/56 scale covering the UH-1D and UH-1H variant. Final features are not confirmed but will include full interior, stretcher variant, and multiple weapon system support. That sounds really good and the renders look really promising:

That is a model to really look forward too. If it is done in the usual quality of the rubicon models this will be brilliant!

Second fireteam 3rd squad finished

1. December 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Empress, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, Vietnam war, wargaming

Here is the finished 2nd fireteam of the 3rd squad of my US Marine platoon. All figures are Empress miniatures sculpted by Paul Hicks and painted with contrast colors by Games workshop.

Here is the 4th member of the fireteam:

planting rice

30. November 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Full Metal Miniatures, rice planting, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming

Here is a female Vietnamese farmer planting rice. The figure is from Full Metal Miniatures.

Getting the bunker

26. November 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Empress, Empress miniatures, LAW, Paul Hicks, US Marine, Vietnam war

Here is a US Marine armed with a LAW for busting those VC bunkers. Another Empress Miniatures figure. One more to go and the next fireteam is finished.

preparing the paddy

25. November 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Full Metal Miniatures, Vietnam war, Vietnamese farmer

The next miniature is a farmer from Full Metal Miniatures. he is preparing the Paddy for the next rice planting.

The rice paddy is a 3D print.

An M48 Patton main battle tank for my US Marines

24. November 2020 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Wargaming, Empress, Empress miniatures, M48, M48 patton, Patton tank, Paul Hicks, tank, US Marines, Vietnam war

The M48 Patton is an American first generation main battle tank (MBT) introduced in February 1952, being designated as the 90mm Gun Tank: M48. Nearly 12,000 M48s were built, mainly by Chrysler and American Locomotive Company, from 1952 to 1961. The M48 underwent many design modifications and improvements during its production life. The M48 saw extensive action with the US military during the Vietnam War. Over 600 Pattons would be deployed with US forces during the war. The initial M48s first landed with the US Marine 1st and 3rd Tank Battalions in 1965. When US forces commenced redeployment operations, many of the M48A3 Pattons were turned over to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces, in particular creating the battalion-sized ARVN 20th Tank Regiment. At the end of the war 20th Tank Regiment had lost all of their tanks to enemy fire.During the first month of the First Battle of Quảng Trị all ARVN M48 Pattons were lost.

The model of the M 48 is an Empress Miniatures resin and white metal kit in 1/50. The crew figures were done by Paul Hicks. The model is very easy to put together and includes quite a few additional track links to ad to the vehicle as additional armor. I painted the model with an airbrush and conventionally with a paintbrush.