Water buffalo

Vietnam landscape without water buffalo ? As these animals can be found almost everywhere in Vietnam I needed some for my Vietnam war gaming table. The standing ones are from Empress miniatures the resting ones are 3D printed as is the chicken.

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There will be more animals in the future dogs, pigs etc.

take aim!

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Another NVA jungle fighter. I painted the backpack in a unusual light grey. As always taken the color from the excellent reference book by E. Emering.

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M79 Blooper gunner

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Good Morning.  So the Salute weekend is gone by without Salute… more time for painting though. I painted up this blooper gunner from Empress. Very nice sculpt by Paul Hicks.

It was a joy to paint.

More to come…

Another NVA fighter

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Next NVA soldier. This time in a unusual colored uniform. But it is a authentic color . You can look it up in this book:

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More to come.

M60 gunner

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As it is beginning to get boring only to paint NVA, I still have a lot to do, I sprinkle in the occasional US Marine. So today a Marine with a “pig” (M60).

 

The next NVA lot

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Here is the next NVA soldier . The first figure of the miniatures I bought at Crisis 19 in Antwerp. He is another Empress miniature. I painted him wearing a black pair of trousers ( you need new ones after a while on the Ho Chi Min trail) and a traditional blue and white Vietnamese scarf.

 

Who is calling in the Arty?

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of course a Prick 25 operator. This is a Empress miniatures US Marine figure sculpted by Paul Hicks. He is carrying a PRC 25, aVHF transceiver, on his back. I made the antenna out of a plastic broom “hair” as I am clumsy and fear to brake the included metal one when gaming.

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Here you see the PRC 25 with5 smoke grenades fixed to it. you can see that the metal frame , the PRC is affixed to goes down to the hip. Beneath the PRC is a role up rain poncho .

As always a treat to paint him.

Finished the first lot of my NVA soldiers

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Here is the last NVA soldier of the lot i bought at the release date last year. Empress Miniatures NVA soldier , sculpted by Mr. Hicks.

And the last three together:

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Next up ” throw smoke!”.

How to paint a US Marine with Contrast colors

Today I will show you how I paint my US Marines with, mainly, GW Contrast colors. As I have to stay at home this week , because of Corona, I had the time to take a picture after each step.

Step 1:

A base coat of Sky grey.

Step2:

Paint the trousers, shirt helmet cover and all bags water bottles etc Militarium green. This was thinned like all the contrast colors 50/50 with contrast medium. The trousers and shirt and helmet cover got to layers the rest only on. As you can see that gives a subtle different shade.

Step 3:

To paint the flack jacket I use a mixture of 5 drops Sepia shade + 1 drop of Creed camo.

Step 4:

Re base coat everything not jet painted and base coat the camo spots on the helmet cover in Sky Grey.

Step 5:

Paint the boots in Cigar brown.

Step 6:

Paint ca 50% of the camo spots on the Helmet cover with Nazdreg yellow, this time without thinning.

Step 7:

Paint the rest of the spots in Warp lightning again without thinning.

Step 8:

Paint the metal parts of the M16 in Silver.

Step 9:

Paint the plastic parts of the gun in Black.

Step 9:

Here I used paints from the Instar Alpha range . They can be used like the Contrast paints by GW but they are cheaper and give the same effect! Thinned down with their medium , called Water+, 50/50. Paint over the metal parts of the gun.

Step 10:

I painted the base in the color I use for my terrain building.

Step 11:

Paint the stones in grey.

Step 12:

Drybrush the base with Sand.

Now the figure gets a coat of matt varnish , I do this with my airbrush. Afterwards flocking and voila you get this:

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I hope you liked my run trough my painting technique !

NVA Soldier waiting….

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Another NVA regular . Figure by Empress miniatures.

Just one more and the first lot is finished.