G'day everyone, well the next dio i am starting is going to be based on a photo i have of an some us troops, an M48A3 Patton and an M113 holding a road in saigon during the Tet Offensive, now i have tried Vietnampix and searched the net countless times but i cant find any photos of what the buildings where like there, i have a rough idea seings that alot of them where built on French Designs, but does anyone have any good links to some pics of buildings around Saigon at that time? cheers

Also does anyone know of any manufactrurers that make US vietnam 1:35 leg sets,standing and running, cheers

Dragon has a wide variety of modern (post WWII) figures. Check there first.

Cheers mate, dragon work well for fitting bits and pieces to make new figs

Dragon has 6-7 sets of figures from Vietnam (Viet Kong, US mArines, Seal Teams, Helicopter Crew , Mechanical Mule and crew etc) so you have a big choice if you find them , cause i cannot get them in Greece. Verlinden also have some nice stuff for Vietnam (though is a lil expensive) M113 ACAV from Academy ios also great

Yeah i only use dragon for nam figures, verlinden is WAY to expensive, cheers, why cant u get dragon over in greece

Check out Dragon "Elite 'NAM' Series" figs... i have a reecon team (4 figs) and they're excellent! i also saw few more kits from that series and they're all fine. My set has a lying guy with radio on his back....

hi LWF;
DML has 3305 US Marines Tet Offensive kit...this is an old kit and I dont know it is on market now. I have the one with yellowish color plastic and the figures are a little bigger for usual DMl 1:35 figures. the boxart can give you info about the figures and a building in Saigon.


M274 Mechanical Mule can also be a good choice for a Tet offensive diorama.DML has 2 kits .3315 and 3317(with recoilless).there are also some figures in those kits having Flak vests. and boxart is also good for a dio.

If you’re looking for good ref. pics, you can’t go wrong with the book by Osprey “Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point In Vietnam”. It is book 4 in their Campaign series. I just got it a few weeks ago and it’s probably my favorite book in my growing collection. While the pictures are in black & white, they do have colored drawings and maps. It also has colored 3D maps of the battle areas (street in Hue, U.S. Embassy in Saigon, VC tunnel system). It also has colored drawings of the soldiers involved in Tet. If you don’t want to buy the book, check out http://www.popasmoke.com/visions/. It has lots of pics from the Vietnam War, and some new ones of Iraq for you Modern builders. I did a search for Saigon and only found one really good picture, but you might be able to stumble on some more.
Here are some really good pics I found on the web.
http://www.popasmoke.com/visions/image.php?source=1731


As far as figures goes, Dragon and Verlinden are probably the most popular. Jaguar, Legend Productions, and CMK also make some figures. One company that really caught my eye is Hobby Fan. They have some guys in a running pose. Only drawback is it’ll cost you and arm and a leg for them. I haven't tried them before, but I've been thinking on grabbing some of these kits. Still here’s some of what they have to offer





Nice to see some of you guys expanding into Vietnam modeling more. It seems every day there has been a new Nam topic on the forums. There are quite a lot of models for that era if you know where to look. Theres also a lot of freedom for customizing the stuff (uniforms, vehicle colors, vehicle art, etc.)

Here are some references:

http://www.francisphan.com/Vietnam/Saigon/ThumbNails/02_Saigon_Street.jpg

http://www.longthanhnorthaaf.com/Saigon_Street_Racing.JPG

http://horizons-art.org/gifs/Vietnam/SAIGONSTREETSCENE.jpg

http://www.sgtowns.com/photo-archives/saigon/street.jpg

http://www.vietscape.com/travel/saigon/images/street2.jpg

http://hawley.hispeed.com/vietnam/photos/Saigon2.jpg

http://thormay.net/photos/vietnam/cholon1street1.jpg

http://members.telering.at/seits/fotos/a188.jpg


hope this gives you an idea and good luck with your diorama
Mark