Nice job as always. I think you have a lot of latitude with RVN uniforms on field units. I was in the 25th Division, and recall generally only newfers wore baseball caps. But I do have a photo of a small unit “ceremony” and one guy does have a BB cap w/a unit crest, didn’t see that much. Don’t recall much grief regarding name tags or unit patches, but you would catch flak if you didn’t have rank insignias (this was, of course, at Base Camp, not in the bush). The advent of collar pin ons for rank made that no big deal. I did manage to snag a couple of trips down to Long Binh to drop off some commo equipment (and go to the PX!) Don’t recall the MP’s at the gate having an issue with our weapons (unit policy required we carry our M-16’s when “outside the wire”). The MP’s only checked our weapons were cleared and we had no grenades or claymores in the jeep… No weapons were allowed in the main PX, so we’d rotate watching them at the door while the other guys went in. They DID make us roll our sleves up before we went in…go figure. Even in 1970, I managed to snag one 2nd pattern shirt (w/epaulettes) while in the hospital, it had a 199th LIB patch, nobody cared. Didn’t see a lot of store bought bush hats, issue item, why buy something you could get at supply for free. So, I guess uniform regs varied from location to location, so it’s hard to say something was “wrong” or “didn’t happen”. I have a photo somewhere of me on the bunker line on a cold wet morning wearing a field jacket with full color stripes, unit patch and yellow/black US ARMY…brought it with me from Germany, wore it once in RVN. So almost anything is possible.
Thanks, Ski. I am trying to get a bunch of the conversion work done before I start slinging paint again.
Understood and appreciated. I’m going to venture back to the Nam era, very soon. I miss it, very under represented, IMHO.
Cheers, ski.
Thanks. I try to do my best getting details right. Between what you, Wayne, Gary, and I wrote about differences should illustrate pretty clearly that when depicting Vietnam subjects, uniforms and equipment varied depending on time period, unit, location, type of unit, etc. Most of what I depict in my work is of 2d Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) 9th Infantry Division primarily in 1967 and 1968 when my dad and friends of ours were in Vietnam. My dad was ADVON with 1st BDE and arrived aboard the USS John Pope in December 1966 before the rest of the Division in January 1967. At first they received only 2 pairs of jungle fatigues and one pair of jungle boots. So sometimes they were wearing the heavier cotton stateside fatigues with color patches. Issue boonie hats didn’t enter the supply system until November 1967, so his first boonie hat was a privately purchased ERDL camouflage one. He didn’t get issued one until his second tour.
Going with that same theme about depending on the time period, supply situation, command polices, etc., here is a figure that I am working on for a friend of her fiance who was KIA in 1969. He was in the same unit as the other two figures posted earlier in this thread, but those guys are from mid-1967 and this figure shows how uniforms were worn in 1969 when it wasn’t so strict.
It should be noted that Soldiers out in the field had way greater latitude in what they wore and how compared to those who were stationed at the larger base camps. My dad was assigned to MACV in Qui Nhon during his second tour and whenever he wasn’t out visiting a village somewhere and was in Qui Nhon he had to wear pressed jungle fatigues and shined boots, which he hated, but he was just an E5 at the time, so he did what he was told.
Thanks, guys, for sharing some of the details of your experiences. I am sure that all of this insight will be helpful to other modelers. It is always good to learn new information or a new perspective.
Even when you look at OEF/OIF, there is a lot of lattitude in uniforms and equipment depending on time, unit, location, and supply situation. Add to that all of the aftermarket gear Soldiers buy and the possibilities are limitless
Cheers,
James
I am glad to hear that, Brother. It has been quite a while since your last Vietnam project. I look forward to it.
I’ve got one more large scale set in the line-up, small foot print. My only serious issue right now is space, so I need to build a cabinet for my wife, otherwise I’m toast. There’s quite a few Nam figs and rigs in inventory, I’m itchin.
Ruck On, Brother, I’m in for the long haul.
The figure conversions look fantastic James. Really exceptional work there. You make it look so easy….
I honestly think the uniform regulations were mainly for the guys in the rear. They’d gone nuts jacking with every kid that came out of the bush! We were taught to ignore anything anybody told us, and wait for the NCO in charge’s nod. Remember they have your respect, and also might just save your sorry butt when things went south.
In the bush; rank don’t mean squat. It’s time in the bush, and at the same time earning their respect. When I went to the Airforce mess, the Mess Sargent (what a great guy) would come around and ask us if we’d like to stash are guns behind the counter. Never asked if they were loaded (they were), and Top would nod. We’d go two at a time, and clear them. The Mess Sargent would tell the kids of KP to stay away from them. Pistols and knives stayed with us. At that stage we’d done anything for him as we all wanted pineapple upside down cake! He’d have the DRO put two or even three tables together in the far corner away from the folks in there. From there; we’d go to the hot showers back in the battalion area. The supply sargent would have clean uniforms for us, and burn the old ones. Most of the folks we were in contact with in the rear treated us very well, and ones we got close to were treated very well by us. We had what they sought, and they had what we needed. Actually the worst treatment we got was in our own battalion area. But Top always ran interference for us, and if it got real bad the Sargent Major or the Colonel would step in. Probably the single constant gripe we had was ice cream
gary
Unfortunately, it wasn’t like that everywhere. At Bearcat, Grunts weren’t even allowed to go to the pool during standdowns because the REMF lifeguards and some officers were affraid they could catch fungal infections, etc if the Grunts were allowed in the water. That is pretty messed up, but it happened. So, they pretty much kept to themselves, making their own club, and sending only a few guys to the PX with a list of things to get for their squad or platoon.
Yesterday and Wednesday I worked on the second of two new guys/FNGs/replacements. He is a conversion of an MP from Bravo 6 with a head from Hornet and cap from ICM. I sculpted new pockets, name and US Army tapes, and the waist adjustment tabs and buttons on the 2d pattern jungle shirt after filling in the area where the pistol belt had been with Magic Sculpt. I still need to decide on which arms to use to have him with his hands behind his back. Not sure if you can tell in the photo of him with the other new guy due to him still being attached to the casting block, but this figure is taller than the other guy. The reason why there is some red marks blocking out the figure number is that Vladimir Demchenko from Bravo 6 and I have been playing this game for well over 10 years where I convert a Bravo 6 figure and he has to guess which figure I used. Sometimes he gets it right and sometimes he doesn’t. 
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
Wow James.Some serious great figure conversions going on.Really doing a grand job on them.
Excellent work indeed.
Richard
Outstanding work James.
Very nicely done. Definitely a lesson to those who say a uniform from 2002 “can’t” be used for a soldier in 2014…
Thanks, Richard.
I tend to use some of the same figures over and over again if they have some quality about them that I find useful for my dioramas, so the conversions are a way to integrate them into a particular scene. For some other conversions, like the first figure in this thread, if I see a figure that I like that has a pose that is useful and has elements that will aid in making a good conversion, then I will sometimes use figures from other time periods to convert them to ones of the time period being depicted in a particular project.
Thanks. I have converted WW2 Germans and Vietnam figures into OEF/OIF figures, Germans into Arctic Light Infantrymen of the mid to late 1990s, Germans into Vietnam GIs and the list goes on and on. If someone is willing to do a bit of scraping away of original detail and replacing it with details of the depicted time period, then possibilities are endless.
As far as someone saying a uniform from 2002 couldn’t be used in 2014, they probably were never around real Soldiers or other Military personnel who were able to have a bit of latitude in regards to uniforms depending on the situation and mission requirements. There were plenty of times my platoon and I wore old school uniforms in the field after the Army changed over to those horible ACUs. If those people were saying one couldn’t use a particular figure or figure kit because a scene was set in 2014 but the figures were wearing uniforms from 2004, then all they need to do is a minimal amount of putty work and then they would have the figure they need.
I was able to get the arms of the second new guy/FNG/replacement positioned how I wanted them. I then applied Magic Sculpt to make the sleeves. In the initial attempt the sleeves seemed too bulky.
I then scraped and sanded away some of the putty and changed the way the folds in the front formed as I was happy with those in the back. In the process of thining the sleeves down, the underlying plastic was exposed in some places. I applied some liquid cement to the skeeves hoping that will allow for smooth edges between the putty and plastic. We will just have to see how it turns out once cured and hardened. One thing about taking photos in progress is that I can see small blemishes that I didn’t see with the naked eye that I need to fix before the primer goes on.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
More amazing work.Real neat work James.I find Magic Sculp tricky.Sticky as hell and then im rushing around trying to work it before it sets tooo much.
Richard
Thanks, Richard. The first type of putty I ever used to form pockets, etc., was Squadron Green Putty back in the 1990s. I used to apply a blob to the pocket area and then when it was dry I would carve the details. Then in the early 2000s after reading one of Bill Horan’s books and some of the figure magazines, I started using the Duro 2 part Green Stuff Putty. The problem I had with that was yellow clumps remaining after mixing. I tried Miliput and Apoxie Sculpt and eventually went with Magic Sculpt. The stickiness and limited working time can suck sometimes, but because a brush of water is effective at blending the putty into an existing surface as well as helping with smoothing things out, Magic Sculpt is what I prefer to use. Keeping my sculpting tools a bit wet while working helps keep thhe putty from sticking to my tools. Unfortunately since it has been hot and relatively dry here, i will be working away and then my tool will be dry and the putty will stick. Multiple explicatives are vocalized, then I try to fix it. I hate it when putty sticking to the tool causes the putty to pull away. As for the quick set up time, I find that there are times where some of my putty gets wasted because I couldn’t use it fast enough.
Hey, Ski.
I meant to respond to this but after I read it my wife had stuff for me to do and it got lost along the way. You probably should take a quick break and make that cabinet.
I look forward to seeing you work on Vietnam projects again.
Cheers, Bro.
No worries, James. I’m thinkin the same thing, sooner rather than later.