Truly outstanding work on the pockets and the sleeves. Everything looks so natural.
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After working on and developing the storyline and composition for my next diorama, I decided to change the right arm on the figure conversion that I started this thread with from the waving hand to an arm down by his side with a cigarette in his hand. This pose interacts better with the two new guys/FNGs/replacements.
I also converted one of Alpine Miniatures recent DAK figures into a GI. I scraped away the German uniform details and added jungle fatigue details with Magic Sculpt. I replaced the head with a younger looking one from Hornet.
And then I started this other conversion of a Bravo 6 figure. The positioning of this figure is more appropriate for one that is waving at the FNGs.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
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Neat job, James! Very nice!
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Very cool work on the figs James , nicely done !!
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You make this look to easy, James!
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Thanks, Venko, Cheyenne, and Ski.
I wish I was able to work a little bit faster and remain on task. Since my last post, I have made some futher changes to the smiling platoon sergeant and will be replacing him with a more stern looking figure for the FNG duorama and will ne using the updated PSG in a different diorama of which I will post some in progress photos soon.
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So here are some photos of the updated Platoon Sergeant figure conversion. Basically, all I did was add a XM177E1 slung over his right shoulder. In order to ensure it would look natural, I put on a jungle fatigue shirt, slung my personal copy of a XM177E1 over my shoulder, got in front of the mirror, struck the pose and took note on how it hung down, what parts and where the weapon made contact with my body, etc. Having pretty much all of the main uniforms, equipment, and weapons really helps in regards to posing, sculpting, etc. To get the Bravo 6 redition of the XM177E1 to sit properly, I had to scrape away an area near the right hip and kept adjusting until I got it to sit just right. Normally I paint the weapons separately and place them on the figure after the figure is painted, but sometimes they just don’t sit right or the paint job gets messed up. I figured gluing the weapon onto the figure before painting would be best in this case. After the glue cured, I attached the sling to match how mine looked when I had the weaoon slung over my shoulder. I think it turned out as well as I could have hoped for.
The plan as it stands now is to include this figure in a vignette where guys providing security for a MEDCAP are interacting with some local kids by using slingshots to hit cans used as targets. The layout will look something like this. The Vietnamese kids are recent releases from Paracel Miniatures. I will most likely sculpt some shirts for the boys as the kids that were in this village wore shirts. The GI who is pointing at the can that will be the next target is a coversion of a German figure from Bravo 6. I still have quite a bit more work to do on him. Depending on how motivated I am and what figures I can come up with, I may show part of the MEDCAP taking place. If I don’t, then I will include a facade of the building it was held in as a backdrop fir the scene.
Thanks for looking.
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Progress since my last posting includes the detailing of the pointing figure pretty much complete. I still need to do a bit of clean up/touch up work when the putty has completley cured. The slingshot is made out of a thinned down shovel handle with the sling portion made of Magic Sculpt.
I also sculpted a shirt onto the boy who is also pointing to confirm which can is the next target. He has his slingshot in his pocket.
The first three figures pretty much ready to go.
I started sculpting the shirt on the kid about to let loose with his slingshot, but still need to sculpt his sleeves and a bandage on his leg. I had dropped the figure and the right leg broke off at the knee. I had glued it back on last night, but dropped it again today. Again, I glued it back on, but now I will add a bandage to the leg so the putty reinforces the area of the break as well as tying the figure to the MEDCAP aspect of the scene.
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Master Class work, Brother, Master Class!
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James, your sculpting ability and talent are just mind blowing.
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Thanks, Brother Ski. I actually like the posing and sculpting part better than the painting part. Too bad I can’t just blink my eyes and they are magically painted. 
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Thanks. Hopefully I will have a couple more figures to show either tonight or tomorrow.
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I got two more figure conversions completed (some of the putty is still wet on the GI) yesterday and today.
First up is another Grunt pulling security for the MEDCAP. The base figure is a figure I sculpted back in 2020 that is currently produced by Custom Dioramics under their Yanks figure line. I replaced the head with one from Hornet, added a boonie hat from a Bravo 6 LRRP, resculpted a portion of the lower right jungle fatigue pocket, positioned a XM16E1 from Bravo 6 slung over his shoulder with a flat lead wire sling with hardware made from Magic Sculpt putty. There are some places that need to be smoothed out once the putty cures, but Inam pleased with how he turned out.
The other figure I worked on and completed yesterday was the Vietnamese boy using a slingshot. I sculpted his shirt and had to reinforce his right leg which had broke off when I dropped him.
So far, these are the figures for the MEDCAP diorama. There will probably be another dozen or so, mostly Vietnamese civilians along with the Battalion Surgeon, a couple medics, and an interpreter.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
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Embarrassingly (way beyond fashionably) late to this party, had no idea – any popcorn left? Truly exceptional figure work going on here, those guys are breathing & they’re not even painted yet. Awesome! 
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Be advised… this thread designated HPCZ (High Popcorn Consumption Zone). 
—mike 
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No worries. There will be plenty of popcorn to go around. Might have to make a few beer and soda runs between now and whenever I get all of the figures done.
Hopefully they will look good once painted.
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so that’s where the swimming pool was! We heard there was one way down south, but kinda always thought it was just another rumor.
When I first hit country, I-Corp was commanded by an Admiral who stayed on a boat off shore. Story was that he’d never stepped foot on Vietnamese soil. His name was Grant Sharp. Koster ran everything on shore, and I really only saw him two or three times. He never was a stickler for patches and doodads. Then there were commanders making ill decisions, and relieving half the people under them to cover their ass (fine example is Maryanne); then they wonder’d why they couldn’t keep officers!
Kids in the bush were a first priority for some commanders and others a bother. I went thru three of them, and the last two were good at their task. The first one I’ll give a bye as I never was around him much. The First Sargents were really running everything west of the picket wire. I went thru four, and three were good at the task involved. They were the ones making you wear patches and doodads. Some guys wore base ball caps in the LZ areas, and some wore boonie hats. I chose the later. Food was always an issue no-matter where you were stuck. Supposed to get at least one hot meal a day, and no-matter where you were at you were supposed to get fed something. But not always! Been on OP’s where there was no food to be had (weather had a lot to do with this). Even base camps had this issue. The further west you went the more this issue showed it’s face.
About this time of the year the annual ring worm season started. Everybody got it. Boot sores that went into serious infections were next. You couldn’t get clean, and by the 15th of October everthing you had was damp or just wet. No laundry service out there. By the first of November the snakes and centipedes had moved to high ground, so you had to take a second look at where your hand went. The CAV units were loggered in till it started to dry out. Usually in January it started to slack off in the rain department. Thru all this they’d some how get you more ammo than you needed.
never will forgive them
gary
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one small thing that only folks in country saw. The boonie hats with the small brim were almost always worn by SF. Alot of them were tiger striped. Yet I’ve seen a lot of SF wearing the regular boonie hats
gary
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Amazing sculpts. The poses are so natural and convey the laid back attitude really well.
You, sir, are a very talented man.
Mario
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Yes, the short brim boonie hats were a favorite of SF guys. However, there were other folks who wore short brim boonie hats who were not SF, especially before the issue boonie hats started being issued in November 1967. LRRPs, Recon Marines, Infantry BN Scout Platoons all could be seen wearing them. I have several ERDL ones and one Tiger Stripe one that my dad brought back from his two tours in Vietnam. I am sure that you have seen enough of my work by now to know that if I show something on one of my figures, it actually was worn or used by the individual my figure is depicting as all of the events I depict actually happened and the figures are depicting real people, not just something thrown together for fun without any research. I tend to match events my dad and my Vietnam Vet friends experienced to those I experienced in Central and South America, Iraq, and Afghanistan to try to give them a more realistic feel.
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