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"House to House" May 1968 Vignette COMPLETED!

JamesOLeary

Master at Arms
[I changed the title and setting since I first started this project. Now that it is completed, I have changed the title on this thread.]

Since I already have the Army Ribbon for this build campaign, this one is for fun and I am placing it here since the subject is Vietnam which matches the theme of this campaign. I hope someone will find some inspiration from this and will attempt to build a vignette or diorama.

With the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Tet Offensive being in 2018, I decided to go ahead and start working on one of my projects commemorating this event that my dad and several of my Vietnam Veteran friends were involved in. In this event, I will be depicting an element of 2d Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) 9th Infantry Division in contact with the enemy in Ho Nai Village on the afternoon of 31 January 1968. The Scout Platoon, after fighting all day long at Widow's Village, was ordered to assist Charlie Company which was in heavy contact on the western side of Ho Nai Village. Before they made there way to aid Charlie Company, they ran into an ambush which divided the platoon into three elements. They fought fiercely for the rest of the day until they were able to link back up, evacuate their casualties, and defeat the ambushing force. This vignette shows an instance where Soldiers from the lead element made their way to some Soldiers in the center element, the first on the scene started shooting as he took a knee upon reaching three Soldiers and the Soldier behind him getting wounded in the right chest. Behind a wall, a medic just finished dressing a head wound while a grenadier is reloading near them.

This is the basic concept for the vignette.

The figures are conversions of Bravo 6 figures. Because I think the detail on the M16s produced by Trumpeter is pretty good, I cut the original rifle out of the right hand from the arms that I took from a figure by First Legion. I cut out the ejection port cover and will be making a new cover that is open. I plan on showing a shell casing in the process of being ejected and a few on the ground when I actually am building the vignette. Those of you who are familiar with the various figures from Bravo 6 will notice that the medic figure and the guy who is going to be the M79 grenadier are Marines, but I will be resculpting the flak jackets to the Army type which was worn by Soldiers of this unit. In this picture, the wall is in the location where it will be in the vignette. The figure firing his M16 will be positioned a bit closer to the wall. Because I already mounted the figure on the top of a pill bottle for painting, I could not put him in the exact location I plan on putting him, but you can still get an idea of figure placement. I still have to do putty work on all of the figures to fill gaps, add equipment, etc.

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In this picture you can see how I scraped away the ejection port cover so it will replicate the bolt going rearward as it is ejecting a spent shell casing.

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In the next few pictures, you can see the scene from other angles. Since the M16 is not glued on yet (I won't glue it until it and the figure are already painted), it eventually moved a bit while I was moving things around while taking these pictures. For a couple of these, I placed the wall on the cap of the pill bottle so you can see how the figure will be positioned near the wall.

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Here's the grouping of the medic, wounded Soldier, and grenadier.

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And lastly, a better view of the Soldier getting shot.

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I will also be building a larger Tet Diorama simultaneously. I am waiting for the buildings to arrive so I can start the planning process for that one.

Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

I look forward to seeing this take shape, always a pleasure to see your work....Tom
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Beautiful sense of action and attention to detail.

Are those Hornet heads?
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Right on! I'll be looking forward to seeing this come together. I'm especially excited about the larger one too.
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

I too am looking forward for this one.
Great idea and setting.
Frank
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

What happened to my reply from yesterday? Lost in the ether?

This looks great sofar James. I ALWAYS followyour Vietnam Era builds because they are so detailed and interesting. I loved the idea you had for the ejection port on the M-16. I'll be following this very closely. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Another masterpiece in the works. Love seeing your builds. :popcorn
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

What happened to my reply from yesterday? Lost in the ether?

This looks great sofar James. I ALWAYS followyour Vietnam Era builds because they are so detailed and interesting. I loved the idea you had for the ejection port on the M-16. I'll be following this very closely. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

There is another post https://www.modelersalliance.com/forum/just-like-the-real-thing/153334-contact-tet-offensive-vignette and you have a post in it. Might be where the confusion is. Not sure why 2 threads the same.
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Hey Guys!

I am glad you are liking this vignette so far. I have already made a change to the figures being used. I am replacing the medic with a figure that will be closer to the guy firing the M16 who will be peering around the wall towards the enemy fire.

I did post this in two sections. I posted it here because the subject matter is related to this build campaign and I posted it in the "Just Like the Real Thing" section for those modelers who may not be particularly interested in the Vietnam build campaign but will check the dioramas in that section.

I'll post figures of the replacement figure once I have put some more parts on him.

Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Hey Guys!

I am glad you are liking this vignette so far. I have already made a change to the figures being used. I am replacing the medic with a figure that will be closer to the guy firing the M16 who will be peering around the wall towards the enemy fire.

I did post this in two sections. I posted it here because the subject matter is related to this build campaign and I posted it in the "Just Like the Real Thing" section for those modelers who may not be particularly interested in the Vietnam build campaign but will check the dioramas in that section.

I'll post figures of the replacement figure once I have put some more parts on him.

Cheers,
James

Got it. I didn't really look at the sections, feeling the weather. Still watching though :)
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Thanks for all of the supportive comments, guys!

Here are some photos of the changes that I made. After reading personal accounts of this particular action and after speaking with a few of those involved, I decided to take the medic out of this scene as most of the initial dressing of wounds was done by those closest to those wounded and then they were evacuated back to their casualty collection point for evacuation to field hospitals. I replaced the medic with a figure who is peering around the wall to search for targets to engage. The figure is the loader from the Bravo 6 60mm Mortar Crew kit. I changed the head with a Hornet head. I will be scraping away the Marine flak jacket and will sculpt in Army flak jacket details.

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I will be using helmets from Hobby Fan for these figures since the Bravo 6 helmets do not fit the Hornet heads very well as some of the heads are larger than the ones on the original figures.

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I placed a piece of thin plastic onto the M16 to serve as the open ejection port cover. Unfortunately, the pictures are not very clear.

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The going on some of these figures is a bit slow. Some of the figures have some pretty significant mold seams that have obliterated some of the details, so I am working through that. That is the problem with some of the more dynamic poses or kneeling poses is that the mold seams between the legs are worse than those on standing or walking figures for some reason. The Bravo 6 figures are still top notch.

Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Sorry for the delay in getting here James, trying to play catch up in several directions, never ends.

I love the layout and scenario, especially your figure work, M16 work looks good too. I'm itchin to get back to the Nam dios myself. Ruck on Brother. I'll try to keep up now.

Cheers, Ski.

P.S. I can't even get in my bunker right now, still splitting firewood, stacking, lots to get done before the snow flies.............again. Soon Brotha, soon.
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Sorry for the delay in getting here James, trying to play catch up in several directions, never ends.

I love the layout and scenario, especially your figure work, M16 work looks good too. I'm itchin to get back to the Nam dios myself. Ruck on Brother. I'll try to keep up now.

Cheers, Ski.

P.S. I can't even get in my bunker right now, still splitting firewood, stacking, lots to get done before the snow flies.............again. Soon Brotha, soon.

Hey Bro!

Glad you like it. I will be posting pics of something else I might add to it in a minute.

I'd like to see you getting back to the Vietnam dios, too.

Get back to splitting and stacking the firewood and get the rest of your pre-winter chores done soon so you can get back to the bunker. :)

Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

I was sitting at my work table looking at this vignette and started playing with some resin building pieces to see if there could be a backdrop of sorts made to fit this project. I placed a building piece from an old Coree Vietnam kit along the back to get that backdrop effect and repositioned the grey wall so it would be a 90 degree angle from the yellow wall since some of the structures at Ho Nai had dividing walls on the outside to separate residences and stores depending on the type and use of the buildings.

From some angles, it looks pretty good, but from straight on I am not so sure. Since the two structures do not actually meet up due to the hexagon shape of the base, there is a gap between the two structures. I plan on having rubble and other debris at appropriate places, so that my make up for that. What are some of your thoughts?

To get a better idea of figure placement, I temporarily mounted the guy getting shot and the guy shooting onto smaller pill bottle caps. After I do the putty work I need to do on them, I will put them back onto the larger caps for painting and storage until mounting them to the base.

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Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Pehaps reverse the grey wall so that the jagged end facesto tan wall. You can join the grey wall jagged section to the tan jagged section if you also move the grey wall away from the edge and to where the jagged edge of the tan wall is. You can put a damaged door where the smooth edge of the grey wall is. You can put building rubble between the grey wall and the edge of the base. Moving that grey wall back will also protect it better than if it's right at the edge of base. I think it'd also be better for the guy getting shot, because he forgot to duck crossing that damaged corner.

Hope that helps.
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

Pehaps reverse the grey wall so that the jagged end facesto tan wall. You can join the grey wall jagged section to the tan jagged section if you also move the grey wall away from the edge and to where the jagged edge of the tan wall is. You can put a damaged door where the smooth edge of the grey wall is. You can put building rubble between the grey wall and the edge of the base. Moving that grey wall back will also protect it better than if it's right at the edge of base. I think it'd also be better for the guy getting shot, because he forgot to duck crossing that damaged corner.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for your input. It makes a lot of sense, but after showing this to and speaking with a few guys that were in this particular action, the majority of the structures that they fought near were made of different materials, so I will be using another structure altogether.

Cheers,
James
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

I've been busy the last few days working on the figures. Since the poses were figured out, the detailing needed to be done which mainly has to do with the equipment being carried by these Soldiers.

The first figure is the main guy for this vignette - the guy dropping to a knee and engaging the enemy as he was on his way to help out the guys pinned down. Basically what I have done so far is to add two claymore bags of magazines for M16s, the stabilizing straps of the ammo pouches, and a 9th Infantry Division patch on his left shoulder. These pictures also show the open ejection port and ejection port cover on the M16. I used the claymore bags from the Bravo 6 Individual Equipment kit with lead strips for the straps. I used the same lead strip material for the stabilizing straps. I used Magic Sculpt to fill in gaps in the arms and between the body and claymore bags as well as the shape of the patch.

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The next guy is the M79 grenadier who is reloading the M79 and is also looking at the Soldier who is getting shot. I used Magic Sculpt to change the USMC flak jacket into an Army one. I still need to put the epaulets on the shoulders and the spot where the straps of the 40mm bandoleer is tied together. I also sculpted the claymore bag and have the shape of the rounds showing through. I will add the right arm later.

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Next is the figure who is peering from behind some cover. Again, I transformed a USMC flak jacket to an Army one with Magic Sculpt. I think I need to get some new putty as I have had this batch for a couple of years and it just wasn't sticking quite right no matter my mix ratios. That made adding the laces to the side adjustment a pain in the butt. The claymore bag hanging down is from a Bravo 6 grenadier figure. This is all of the equipment this guy is going to be carrying except for a few grenades handing from the webbing on the front of the vest since these guys are Mechanized Infantrymen and many of them wore minimal gear during this battle since they were able to replenish their ammo from their tracks. I will and the right hand with his weapon later.

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So that is what I have done in terms of progress on the figures.
 
"Contact!" Tet Offensive Vignette

And here are the figures positioned on a different base. I am still deciding on the actual placement of the shooting guy and that will end up depending on where the rubble and debris end up.

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I guess you can tell that I really like this figure...

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This is how it will look if I move the shooter closer to being on line with the guys there are coming to reinforce and wounded to evacuate.

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And if I end up placing a dead VC in the vignette, I will add another Soldier to make the number of figures uneven again.

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Tomorrow I will continue working on the grenadier and then will move on to the wounded Soldier and the guy getting shot.

Cheers,
James
 
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