Hi at all,

i´m working on a vietnam diorama and some figures i have (Hobby-Fan etc.) have nicely sculpt uniforms with or without flack jackets like the Marines in Hue have them on. But some of them especially those for Hue have no webgear over the vests or other figures have wonderful detailed uniforms but they have bno webgear. But that´s what i need like they were on patrol. So i want sculpt that webgear on them. What is the best way to do that ? I know that Verlinden have a photo etch set but this one is for WW2 soldiers. Do you have any tricks to do that. The link shows a photo of it .

http://www.olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_vietnam_webgear.php




many, many thanks to all if you could help me.

Many pics I've seen show the web gear worn under the flak jacket, with just the belt exposed around the waist below the jacket. Also, many Marines, in keeping with their underfunded budgets, still wore older WW2 and Korean war era suspenders that crisscrossed over the back rather than the 1956 gear. Just something to keep in mind.

Rob

Webbing gear wasnt worn over the flak jackets, Hobby fans figures are fine just as they are. All the straps would of had to of been set to the loosest seetings for it to even fir around an M1956 jacket and its not practical. Be careful aswell if you are mixing some of Hobby fans figs in a diorama, most Grunts would all be wearing the Flak jacket if you are doing a Hue dio, so its doubtful you would find too many scenarios with some guys wearing the flak vest and some not, especially as everyone was issued with one. Equallybe careful not to mix and of Hobby fans army guys with Marine figures, they are wearing different pattern fatigues and a couple of them have the army pattern Flak vest, I dont think Marines ever wore the army style vest which was a bit bigger and less bulky. The grunts in Full Metal Jacket are seen wearing these and its wrong. What figure sets are you planning to use?

That is unless it's a M-1969 vest, which does show up in Marine photos instead of the Marine's M-1955. With the M-1956 web gear it is sometimes necessary to wear it over the vest. Particularly when wearing the first aid/compass pouch or flashlight on the suspenders.


For marines at Hue, they should all be wearing flak vests. I'm, not sure what it was about Marines in Vietnam, but they almost never went without the flak vest whereas the Army dropped it every time they could. Be sure to also to give a few gasmask bags, and make sure to load them up with ammo. Since the Marine M-1955 was larger than the M-1952 or M-1969 Army vests, be sure to keep the suspenders under the vest.

HTH

First of all

thanks for your comments. I dont´t want to create a Hue dio with marines. I´m planing to convert standard figures into LRRP´s, SOG, SEAL´s, Recon Marines etc, for patroling or resting or bording a boat, something like that to go ,out for a mission and for that i needet some tipps and tricks how to make that webgear (sculpting) for figures which only wear the BDU´s or flack vests without any webgear. For example here are the numbers to the Hobby-Fan Figure sets i mean.

HF 35-H501 - US Army Vietnam (4 Fig.) , the guy who sits has no webgear on, or the standing man.

HF 35-H523 - Vietnam M102-Crew (4 Fig.)
The guy who is kneeling has no webgear but would be great for signaling his comrades at patrol. etc

These are the examples for what i need to modeling/sculpting that webgear on these figures. Also M-16 ammunition bandoleers, towels around the neck and so on. All to change that figures for a hot mission .

So what kind of material can i use and how does it become so thin that it looks good?

Sorry for my confusing thread name

Thanks for answers

Most of those guys didnt wear a flak. SOG and Recon guys usually used lots of canteen covers to hold magazines and grenades in instead of standard mag pouches. That and the lightweight X frame rucks. Uniforms would vary depending on which group you are wanting to portray and in what time period. Most of them didnt wear helmets either.

On top of that, many would use a pin to turn the 7 pocket bandoleers into nifty chest rigs for holding ammo. They'd also load up on water, and plenty of ammo, all usually held in the canteen covers. as DM1975 said.

Yes, I forgot about the chest rig trick. I tried this before but am too broad in the shoulders, even after a year in the desert. I seen alot of them carrying 2 two quart canteens on the back of their pistol belts for water and most of them wore their gas mask bags (WWII style black plastic bags) (SOG guys used CS alot) slung under their arms attached to the H harness and pistol belt.

I see what you mean!!

In terms of materials to sculpt stuff, you want to be using magic sculpt to creat things like towels and emoo carriers, also duro putty is another good medium. For the actualy webbing straps you could use lead foil, but for the yokes id stick to using putty and then foil for the finer details.

If you need detail pics of the actual gear-like the straps and stuff drop me a message, I collect US militaria and have a lot of nam gear, including complete M1956 webbing etc.