Some of you were tracking the “Vietnam 60” campaign. This was going to be my entry, but a series of delays and difficulties as well as an expanding vision for the diorama made finishing on time unfeasible. So with the extra time and space I’m free to realize my vision for this diorama.
The title is from a popular song of that time by The Marmalade. It’s a melancholy song that isn’t often in the popular Vietnam soundtracks and playlists. I suggest listening to it and you can see why it was popular with the troops.
This is only indicative of the final layout. The figures and bamboo are set up in positions that won’t fall over. The emery board is there to keep the photographer upright. This will take weeks or months to complete. I’ll keep posting progress photos.
I remember the song well Travis @Apache26, I was just hitting my teenage years when this was playing on WZZQ Jackson, MS if I recall right, your fig.s and Mule are looking like a great start, best of luck on the progress of your dio, been following along with your build.
Looking good! It’s tough to capture how scraggly troops look after a couple of weeks in the field, but you’re getting it done. I also like the detail on the equipment and C Rat boxes. Even the color contrast between the receiver and handguard/stock on the M-16’s is correct (looked at a photo of my weapon taken in May/June ‘70 to verify that). Nice work.
Good to see you still working on this and the progress you are making, Travis. I am looking forward to seeing more of your progress and ultimately the completion of this project.
Thank you all for the kind feedback and the encouragement! Yes, I’ll have much more foliage to install. What I put in there is only a slight representation. I have about a dozen bamboo stalks and many “tree trunks” to plant once I install the plaster ground. Hand painting the bamboo stalks almost broke me from modeling! Not really, but they are made with the really soft, rubbery plastic and the paint kept chipping off in spite of the multiple coats of primer. It took me hours to paint them.
I bought a package of a couple of hundred of those bamboo stalks on AliExpress, too. They were really cheap! What kind of primer did you use on that soft plastic?
I just used a standard paint-on primer. I believe I used Tamiya’s fine white. I’ve read in the past that the best primer for soft plastic is actually model railroad scenery glue but I haven’t tried that technique.
Not much in the way of an update, but more to keep the thread alive. Right now I’m doing more mundane detail work; painting weapons and rucksacks, folding more C-Ration boxes for GI trash, etc. So there’s not much to show. I’ve been scouring photos of the Cambodian incursion so I can get the foliage correct. I realized that what I hoped to use for the brush wouldn’t work, so with the help of @ReconTL6 I found some good places for scale leafy plants. This set back my plan to get started on the base. More to follow in due time!
Here’s a quick update. It’s slow going, but at least now I have the base prepared and ready for ground work. Over the long weekend, I plan on making substantial progress on the Cambodian jungle. I also plan on having the poncho liners complete.
Working on the scenery reminds me of how and why so many of my planned super dioramas tanked. I believe that scenery is its own art form. It’s easy to get bogged down in what should go where and what’s realistic. This is easier for a WWII European villa diorama, or a section of a small town, but much harder when it comes to the woods and especially a jungle where, in reality, all the foliage would readily obscure any viewing detail. Things grow at random based on the soil and climate conditions, so I tend to overthink the placement of individual plants and trees in order to maintain realism and the optimal placement of foliage so the viewer can see the subject.
In reality, this is the first diorama of this sort that I’ll complete in a very, very long time.
I’ve been spending a great deal of time poring over photos of the Cambodian forests in the 1970 incursion. When I think I am overdoing the jungle debris, I look and realize that would be hard to do. In fact, if anything I’m underdoing the ground cover. Looking closely at the Mark Jury photos, these guys occupied the remains of one of many NVA bunker complexes and logistics hubs - hence the semi-cleared areas and trails that provided enough space for mechanical mules.
Not really much difference between Cambodian jungle vegetation and Vietnamese jungle vegetation, but keep in mind that all sand, mud, and bare earth is a distinctive reddish-brown color
It appears as though you visited the countries. That’s terrific. I’ve always wanted to go. Nonetheless, when I say I’ve been doing extensive research on this particular location at this point in time, I’m not sure why you feel the need to “correct” me. Not all the ground in South Vietnam and Cambodia is composed of orange/red, laterite soil. In fact, one of the reasons I did so much research was the fact that this area did not have the stereotypical “Vietnam War” terrain with the red dirt and the large, broad leaf plants. What actually struck me was how sandy the ground was in various places and, without the bamboo and nipa palms, the forests resemble deciduous forests in the Eastern U.S. Popular modeling choices aside, there’s no reason to put a big temple in every Vietnam model.
The following are all photos of the 1st CAV during the incursion. Note that the soil is just plain brown and sometimes sandy.
The following photos were all taken from copies of the 1st ‘CAV’s in-country magazine, “First Team”. They are all from articles and photo layouts of the Cambodian Incursion. Most are from “The City”. Note the photo with the “Shakey’s Hill” placard. That hill was made famous from the John Laurence CBS documentary “The World of Charlie Company”.
Lastly, this is another photo taken of the same group of men in the infamous photo upon which this diorama is based. Note the outlines of log bunkers, the pathways in the jungle and the cleared areas. I considered building the log bunkers or the open framed storage hooches, but I decided I didn’t really have the space and they weren’t exactly necessary. Perhaps it would have been better to do so, but the decision has been made.
Your diorama is coming along nicely, Travis. Your groundwork and vegetation is pretty representative of the area where the 1st CAV were operating prior to and during the exploitation of the large cache site they found.
That is so true about there being so many different soil types in Vietnam and Cambodia and that the Red Clay is not the only dirt in the two countries. Most of the places my dad and the guys that I have made dioramas depicting their service in Vietnam served in regions where they rarely encountered the red clay unless if they were OPCONed to places outside of the 9th Infantry Division AO. Most of what they encountered was a tan or grey soil.
Maybe too late to change your decision.
Would it be feasible (and look good) to just have one wall of a log bunker at the edge of the diorama? The rest of the bunker would be hidden outside the diorama, blocked off from view by vegetation. Similar to houses in the standard European village dioramas, just a wall …
