I made this little vignette (12 x 12 cm) for my brother. I had to keep it small so he could bring it back with him. It features 3 out of 6 (3 Nungs outside the vignette) man SOG team operating in Laos circa early 1966 as part of Operation Shining Brass.

They are at a jungle edge bordering a rice paddy field. One of the "unseen" Nungs had been bitten by viper after a successful wire tap by the Recon team and that's why the One-Zero (the guy with the M79 Blooper) is risking a medevac.

This is my first attempt at a Nam setting and also painting tiger stripes. I wanted to fiddle around with the camo and that's why the radioman (One-Two) is wearing the old camo suit that wasn't really favored as it didn't blend all that well with the darker Nam jungles. Apparently some Special forces were still having them around '65.

Boonie hats on One-Zero & One-Two are scratchbuilt as well as the rucksack on the former and the butt pack on the latter. Converted a PK into a RPD but I guess it didn't come out as well. SOG apparently used a sawn off version (barrel cutoff at the gas port) of the RPD and according to John Plaster's book you could write your name with it. Mine won't be writing anything eligble though.

Although I've made some progress still a ways to go in painting faces.

An overall view:


A closer topdown view


Sideview:


Closeup:


My main disappointment with the backview is the receiver didn't sit well near one-two's ear. Normally I'd rip out the hand and redo it but since I'd already weathered the camo, I got lazy and I gave myself the excuse that sometimes people speak without the earpiece glued to their ear (yeah right):


Got a couple of photos in the gallery. All comments greatly appreciated.

The dio looks great CK,
I would love to know about the vegetation. How did you make it?

Well here comes MR CKTang the master of Tropical vegetation !!!!

Very beautiful lil scene my good friend. I like the fact that plantation is full and rich as in reality , and ur recreation of all spicies is just amazing. The scene looks very attractive and the figures do look good.

Ur cammod uniforms do look also nice for me and as for the ear theme..well u know sometimes when u talk on phone and u get an itch behind the ear, u scratch with the headset. so ..imagine if a mosquito just hitted him as he was talking ..well that was the immidiate response !!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Nice work my friend

Costas

a WOW vignette i liked the jungle foliage and camo patterns so much.
Congrats beachbum

Once again you offer up a stunning dio!!!!! I am impressed with this scene, the figures are great but the vegetation is amazing. You really need to explain that palm tree. An SBS maybe? Cheers Kevin

CK..what can i say that has not been said ...this work is simply beautiful.. The whole scene looks great. The vegatation brings it all together. I love it. You must share with us how you did that tree...Great Work..
Mary (++)

Andrew, Costas, Engin, Kevin and Mary thanks a lot for the very encouraging words. I'm sorry Costas, my friend I had to jump the gun and put this one out before Part II of our article. But the reason you gave for the phone is good. I don't feel as bad but if I keep looking at the misplaced receiver I'll get the "itch" to do something to his arm.

All the vegetation was scratchbuilt. Here is a list of vegetation and the materials used:

1. Water = Several layers of wood lacquer each layer mixed with progressively lighter acrylic paint
2. Young paddy seedlings = wood varnish brush hair
3. Grass = Coconut husk fibers
4. Shrubs = Dried flower stalk & tea leaves
5. Coconut = Aluminum baking foil (leaves)+ kebab stick + string + paper for the trunk
6. Banana = Toothpick + paper + preserved fern
7. Wild yam = Dried flower leaves
8. Palm = Combo of Dried flowers
9. Ground litter = Chinese & English tea leaves + compost fertilizer.

The coconut trunk was easy to make as I used a method similar to Eric Sikkema's feature on making palms. The leaves was a bit time consuming with the cutting of the leaflets not as fine as I would have liked it. I used aluminium baking foil instead. Coconuts are just coriander seeds which I pinched from the wife and painted accordingly(hehheh).

I've actually written and submitted a SBS on making tropical jungle dios of which Part I should be out soon. Costas and I worked on Part II and I will be submitting it this weekend. The feature section is however, currently swamped with features to be published so if anyone needs more details I would be more than happy to put up a few pics first.

Thanks again everyone.

They say a picture tells a thousand words so hope these pics which are from Part II done by Costas and myself. Hope it helps David (lestweforget) & Kevin.

The first pic shows the stages of coconut trunk construction using a kebab skewer. The reason its slightly bent as real coconut trunks sometimes have bent trunks due to the weight of the canopies.



The next one is the leaves or frond construction. Painting is what lends the leaves realism.

Doesn't that Dragon kit come with four figures or is one so well camouflaged I can't see it?

Excellent job there CK. I would be looking forward to trying out your technique in making the coconut tree.

Not my era of choice in modelling, but I had to comment on that tree.......truly amazing! Congrats CK!

Vinnie

Your vignette is great and the jungle vegetation is stunning. Thanks for the taste of your step by step and I look forward to seeing both parts when they are published.

Keith

Actually Alan, the figures I used was a mix of figures. The one with the M79 came off DML LRRP while the other 2 came of DML SEAL. Most RT teams for SOG comprised of only 3 americans with the rest ranging anywhere from 3-6 indigenous natives (Nungs or Yards). I wish I could say my camo painting was so good that you couldn't spot No. 4 but unfortunately there was no no. 4.

Alex, Vinnie & Keith Many thanks for the kind comments. Just got to Nam era and working my way back to WW II.

Just thought I'd include 2 pics of the amount of jungle litter and plant variety that is normally associated with tropical jungles in case anybody is doing a jungle dio soon. These were taken before the figures were inserted.



A backview showing decomposing coconut fronds , banana leaves and various jungle litter.

Hello "beachbum"

Excellent work. The vegetation is first class. I particularly like the last two pics showing the jungle floor Simply great. I whish I could do the same.
As far as the Dio is concerned. No comment on the subject and the pose of the figures. You might want to modify the packs. The Dragon-DML ones are not really so great and there are more accurate packs out there.
The radio PRC 25/77 in the first dragon Boxes (LRRP & SEALS) is too wide. I recomend you use the Dragon one in latter NAM figures boxes (Seals part II, ARVN rangers).
-Excellent Duck Hunter pattern.
- For TS the pattern looks a tad bit too big for this scale. What I usually do is to paint and shade the uniform overall green, then add the black stripes as well as finer brown stripes and then after it is all dry I dry brush the stripes with khaki.
I use Humbrol (I'm old fashioned)
Green HU 105 or 177 or 1O2+84 for the TS "gold" version
Blk make your pick has to be Flat though
Brown either HU 186 or 110
Dry Brush HU 83 or 84
Finally, don't worry about faces SOG LRRPs and SEALs wore cammo cream so you only have to shade the faces.
Dont get me wrong, the Dio and figures are top notch I just wanted to share a little of my experience.

Regards

Thanks for the pointers, Plavi. Painting tiger stripes was my first attempt. I used acrylics instead and the base was actually the yellowish-green color. I followed up with black green stripes and then brown stripes and finally the remaining spaces with green.

There are several variations of tiger stripes used in Nam from what I could gather from Osprey's book on Spercial Forces so I choose the easiest. Besides at 1:35 with not so good eyesight and shaky hands I though I better not be too ambitious. I didn't quite follow you on the drybrushing part though. Most of the tiger stripes I've come across didn't seem to have khaki so why do you need to drybrush with khaki? Depending on how you look at it isn't green the highest % area, followed by black and brown lines second and roughly equal with yellowish green shade having the smallest % area. I always though the yellowish green shade were just fine lines seperating all the other 3 colors.

Yeah I have a DML Marine Recon set and the PRC 25 is much smaller. So the smaller one is suppose to be more accurate, thanks for that info. As for the backpacks I didn't use any of DML's rucksacks. Mine were all scratchbuilt. Just started so I'll need to put in more practice.

Thanks again for the comments and the valuable insights. Will definitely go for finer camo lines.

Hi beachbum,

Ok I see my post has raised questions. First of all english is not my mother tongue so sorry for the inaccuracies.
In fact you are right, I forgot one step.
So first the green then the Black. Make the stripes slightly larger then needed. Then paint finer stripes of Brown between the black and the green and at the outer edge of the black stripe dividing it in some areas.Make sure you stay parallel and be careful of the seams and pockets. Do the same with a khaki paint. Once its dry, dry brush over the entire uniform a Khaki paint.
If you look at TS you will notice that the transition between the stripes is very subtle. Look at a full size uniform at a distance and you will know what I mean.

Don't forget that uniforms after some time of humpin' the boonies where somewhat dirty (understatement)

Hope this helps
Plavi

very nice job, thanks for the scoop on the trees

Thanks Shain & James. James your'e too gracious, I don't think the wife was thinking magnificient though when I messed up her kitchen while making some of the plants.

As to your suggestion, I've actually written a 2-parter article which I have submitted detailing a jungle dio layout, plants, photos and some ways to make them targeted at Nam dios. Even managed to drag Major Goose in helping out with Part II. Feature section is a bit busy but I hope it'll come out soon.

BTW Plavi I guess you used the khaki as a filter applying it like a wash to blend the colors instead of drybrushing as you mentioned. Yeah, I did that for the radio operator but not the other 2.

beachbum...........

i'm speechless as usual seing at your marvelous job...

as i said so many many many times before, u're indeed master of tropical setting..........
cant wait to see it my self... err btw, last saturday i was in Tesco ..just about to call you when the rain fall down very hard.... i have to take the young one home.....then i fall asleep right after that......
maybe we can arrange in some other time.......... i know that i need to see this vignettes after u showed in our community........

just wait until the water tournament is over this weekend and i'll be free.......

till then old friend