Wow this is ambtious and creative! Nice to see someone paying attention to an often overlooked subject. The composition here is outstanding. I wanted suggest making one of the MII3 a morter version, it may add one more dimension/variety to the piece. Also, I believe the interiors had a very pale greenish color to them. Forgive me if this just not clear through the images or my monitor.
I can't wait to see more. Great work so far.

Hendrik,
That palm tree looks excellent. Figures are coming along very well also. Looking foward to your next update.
Tom

Thanks for the positive comments, guys. Will keep you updated.

Looking good Hendrik. The name of the interior color is Sea Foam Green. Looking forward to seeing more of your work. "Q"

Just as a slight correction, the army had both types of flak vests. I was in the 11 ACR in 1969. We used what ever we had or could find. With ans without collars. I had a chopper vest with the ceramic plates in the front and back.

Phil, thanks for clearing this up. It was worrying me since the previous comment regarding flack vests. I don't think any of us on this forum intentionally wants to make an 'accuracy' mistake. Now I can continue to paint my troops - even the ones wearing 'Jarhead' vests.

Progress continues to be slow. I scratchbuilt a roadside stall, inspired by this picture.



I used balsa wood and self-made corrugated sheets. (baking tin foil)







I also scratched a 200L drum using foil. I painted it a rust colour and masked some areas using artist masking fluid.



Then I airbrushed it with yellow-green and removed the mask.



A lot of time was spent on painting the vast amount of eye candy.



I made some progress on the figures (drybrushing still to be done) I added some unit flashes, ranks and name tabs using Escelon decals. Overall I am not impressed with these - the rank badges for NCO's are minute, while the officers' ranks are too big. Although the unit flashes are good, the actual decals are too thick and even with micro-mark and micro-sol, they do not sit flush.







Well, back to work...

Awesome work, Hendrik
ACAVs are great and your scene should play out very well. I wish I had your talent for scratch building foilage.
Personally, I prefer the Academy version over the Tamiya, so far, but I'm haven't completed it, yet. I'm resurreting an old Tamiya kit I built years ago to depict damage from running over a mine in a dio I've got on hold due to work commitments, also.
I chose Tamiya Sky (XF-21) for my interior, after researching the debates over what interior colors were actually used. It already has a hint of mint.
Peace and Love, Randy

Now this is coming along great, love the plams, figs, etc. I'm a Nam nut for dios and always love seeing guys work em. Keep it going, watching till the end.

Cheers, Ski.

Looking good so far Hendrik .Good stuff............................

Eventually some progress















And then it all came together





























Comments welcome

looking really cool! i love the m113s, great job!
stan

Great idea and well executed. Nice scene! Good weathering, beautiful figures and vehicles. I really like the fact that there's a lot to see!
The waterbuffalo's, did you make these yourself or are these conversions??
The little stall is lovely!

Mark

Excellent work there mate, so much to look at. It must be amazing to see to for real. I love the way you have a central scene of focus but there is lots of other little stories on the periphery

Well done !

I am planning a similar dio with a M151A1, M163 Vulcan SPAAG, M35A2, M113x2, and figures from various manufacturers. Wish I had found your thread earlier.

Thanks, Mark. The waterbuffalo are converted MasterBox cows I couldn't get hold of the Doug's Original waterbuffalo and it was holding the project up, so I converted them (horns are carved sprue)

Here you could find more SBS photos of this project:

http://public.fotki.com/Mech-Inf/vietnam-diorama/

Matt, Scott and Stan, thanks for your positive remarks. Appreciated

Hendrik,
Had been wondering about your diorama. It came out great. Something going on in a few places. Makes you look all around it. The figures, base and vehivces came out great. Keep up all the great work. Looking foward to your next project.
Tom

Thanks, Tom

What a great build! I've recently gotten into dios...I like the overall feeling of life in the models instead of building static models, and what life you put into this masterpiece! There are so many elements for a story here, from the obvious escaped water buffalo to the more subtle soldier kneeling and anxiously scanning the jungle for Charlie. This is a fantastic piece of work, Hendrick. I hope to see more from you soon!

I didn't see that till you mentioned it, thought you were referring to the fellow kneeling in the road trying to fix the cow.

So what do we think? is it :

A) the Imperialist aggressors flagrantly riding roughshod over the innocent civilians and carelessly killing their livestock?

OR

B) Evil commie Charlie about to spring an ambush?

Thanks, Robby. BTW, here's a pic showing the figure you mention. (Some weathering to be done around the tree's white parts



Scott, that's the idea - you decide

Here is a picture with the dio's name: 'I'm Sorry' That will give you a clue.

Hey cav trooper. 11th Armored carnival?? Where were you in country with the 11th?