To the market

15. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, VC, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming

Is he really on the way to the market?

Or on his way to kill someone?

The next VC in disguise. Always check every sack of rice !

The proud owner of a rice paddy

14. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, VC, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

This Vietnamese village elder looks proudly over the rice paddies of his village, or is he looking for the imperialist enemy?

OOPs, he had a rifle hidden in the elephant grass behind him… better look more closely next time!

All my finished VC so far

13. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, VC, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

Here are all the civilian/VC figures I finished up till now.

More to come…

Mamasan got some rice on the market

9. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

Another civilian miniature. This time a female one. She is carrying an upturned wicker hat draped with a piece of cloth. This was very typical for carrying goods. So after leaving the goods purchased on the market she goes to the weapons cache to do some hunting…..

Another guerrilla fighter to wreak havoc….

Papasan, not dangerous…..

8. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Empress miniatures, Guerilla war, Paul Hicks, VC, Vietnam war, Vietnamese civilian, wargaming

The next figure pair in the civilian range I am working on. This time a village elder to frail for a fight?

not really I would say. Better look twice!

The start of my 5th rifle group

1. April 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Australians in the Vietnam war, Diggers in Vietnam, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, Vietnam war, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

This is the first digger of my 5th rifle group. Again an Empress Miniature.

Australian platoon HQ

31. March 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Australians in the Vietnam war, Diggers in Vietnam, Empress miniatures, Paul Hicks, Vietnam war, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

Here is the platoon HQ of my Digger platoon. only one and a half sections to go!

The blooper gunner of the HQ

30. March 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, Australians in the Vietnam war, Blooper gun, Diggers in Vietnam, Empress miniatures, M79, Paul Hicks, Vietnam war, wargaming, wargaming miniatures

Here is the grenadier of the platoon HQ of my Australian infantry platoon. He is armed with a M79 grenade launcher.

A truck for the trail

29. March 2021 thomasriepe 28mm, 28mm figure, 28mm Miniatures, 28mm Wargaming, AA gun, Empress miniatures, GAZ-AA truck, NVA, Paul Hicks, Rubicon, technical, Vietnam war, wargaming

I thought I would need some targets for the SEALs and MACV SOG troops. So I got myself a few of the russian trucks from Rubicon, as these were used by the NVA, too. You can build the truck either as GAZ-AA or GAZ-AAA version. I build the GAZ-AA version. There is a driver for the cab included. So he had to be turned into a more Vietnamese looking type.

I used one of the Empress Miniatures Vietnamese heads on the Rubicon figure. The size fits quite well. So there are hopes that the Rubicon models for the Vietnam war, which should be available at the end of the year, should be compatible with the Empress ones.

Here is the completed truck:

But is this really just a truck transporting Rice or Ammo down the Ho Chi Min trail? Or is there something more dangerous on the flatbed ? More dangerous for gunships, FACs or fast movers? If you get rid of the tarp….