"Shopping in Long Thanh" remake first vignette COMPLETED

[JamesOLeary]

As I acquire more and more Vietnamese civilian figures I am finding that this diorama could blossom into something much larger than I intended, so I have decided to break it up into several smaller vignettes that can eventually be displayed together and arranged in a manner that reflects where the location depicted in each vignette is in relation to where it was actually located in Long Thanh in 1967. By breaking the project up into smaller vignettes, I will also be able to see progress being made and be able to maintain a focus on the story behind each vignette.

The first vignette will depict 1LT Brice Barnes buying baguettes at a bakery in Long Thanh to go with some dry venison sausage his father sent him. I also learned about various types of Vietnamese breads today, so I am in the process of making a variety of breads out of putty. For this vignette, I changed the base I am going to use to one that will fit only the wedgie of the bakery.

 

[moon puppy]

Like your thinking James.

 

[Rhino]

There is a lot of story to tell here! a good decision.

 

[Duke Maddog]

Brilliant idea splitting things up. I am glad because I want to see a large marketplace; that helps to bring out the bustle and busyness of such a place.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Thanks, Guys. I am glad ya'll can appreciate the thought behind splitting such a potentially large scene into several smaller ones.

As I was continuing to prep the figures, I decided that I wanted to include the figure carrying the tour jacket over his shoulder because after I finish this one, who knows how long it will be before I get to the rest of the project. I replaced the guy interacting with the Vietnamese girl selling treats with the guy with the jacket. Although I had sculpted the head on the original figure, I really wasn't too pleased with it with the cap on his head and I wanted to show a bit of the racial diversity found in the military, so I replaced the original head with an African American head from Hornet, added a cap and hair and now I am pretty pleased with the figure. I also thought that between the tour jacket carried by this guy and the bag of presents held by the guy wearing the boonie hat, it would give the viewer the impression of there being shops and vendor stands nearby (which will be located on other vignettes in this series).

 

[JamesOLeary]

Now that I have the figures posed out and primed, I started painting them today. The first one is the girl selling snacks. When I first started painting her I wasn't sure how she would turn out because I was having a heck of a time with the eyes, mainly due to the left hand sticking out in front of the face making accessing it with my paint brush a bit difficult at times. I think Inspent six hours max painting this figure which is surprising to me because it usually takes at least a couple days for me to paint a figure.

 

[moon puppy]

Excellent work James

 

[Duke Maddog]

Well I gotta say, she's quite the little cutie! Beautifully done despite the difficulty. Looking forward to seeing the rest

 

[JamesOLeary]

Thanks, guys. Today I worked on a second Vietnamese civilian. She is from a Masterbox LTD kit and I think she turned out pretty decent after only 5 hours or so of painting. After looking at the photos there are a couple of things I need to touch up, but I think she looks pretty good for being painted that quickly. I guess these two figures were able to be painted in a shorter time than most figures I paint because their facial features are softer and I don't have to weather them.

 

[JamesOLeary]

I have been getting a little done here and there on this project. I had started to paint the woman who is selling baguettes to 1LT Barnes. I had painted her shirt blue and it looked ok, but it did not match how the other figures had turned out and there was very little definition to the sculpting of that figure. I tried to improve it with the paint job but it did not turn out like I wanted. Since that woman is going to be in the foreground of the scene, I needed that figure to look compatible to the American figures. I ended up converting one of the prostitutes from the Masterbox "Somewhere in Saigon" kit into a lady working at a bakery. She will be pointing to a stack of baguettes and is indicating the price as 2 dollars MPC for what 1LT Barnes is asking for. I sculpted the blouse and used legs from Dragon's Viet Cong set with feet from Callsign Miniatures. I painted her blouse white which I used the Scale 75 Black and White paint set for. I think she turned out OK. Here she is with the Masterbox figure shown in my last post.

 

[sprueman]

Great figures

 

[JamesOLeary]

Lately I have been able to get some more painting done. I was able to complete one of the other women working at the bakery and a shoeshine boy. The bread lady is a conversion of a figure by Paracel Miniatures with a new left arm and a head from the Dragon Viet Cong kit. The boy is also from Paracel Miniatures. He was originally wearing a tank top that I converted to a button down shirt using Magic Sculpt. Here they are photographed with the other civilian figures I have completed for this diorama.

 

[JamesOLeary]

Yesterday I completed another figure of an older sister carrying her baby brother. This figure is from Paracel Miniatures. The photos are of this figure and the other kids from Paracel Miniatures that will be in this diorama. It is quite a bit different painting faces with smoother facial features than it is painting the faces of combat hardened Grunts. Painting brighter colors was something different, too. Although these figures do not look as realistic as some painters can make them look, I am happy with how they turned out.

 

[Piet]

 

[moon puppy]

Shoe shine boy has a lot of attitude!

 

[JamesOLeary]

Shoe shine boy has a lot of attitude!

Probably because he can't believe how the Grunt he is looking at let his boots get so scuffed up and dirty. He is probably thinking to himself, "If this GI has me shine his boots, I am going to charge him five times my normal price."

 

[JamesOLeary]

This weekend I was able to do some work on the structure representing the bakery at Long Thanh now that the roof arrived. The roof is from Model Victoria and is pretty decent. I hated cutting one of the sides to fit this wedgie of a building, but it seems to work out OK. I did some weathering with pigments and acrylic washes. I then added the roof and painted it. I still need to paint the edges black but will wait for that until the building is attached to the vignette base. I also still need to make the bakery sign that will hang from the end of the roof. Once I get that done, I can move on to completing the remaining figures, furniture, and accessories (various forms of bread). There are plenty of modelers who can make their buildings look more real than what I can achieve, but I am pretty happy with how this is turning out so far.

 

[moon puppy]

You have a way with the tones James, don't know what it is but it's great!

 

[Steve Ski]

Looking good, Ese Vato, Ruck On!

 

[JamesOLeary]

Progress has been slow, but now I have some stuff to show. Here is the bakery with part of it's sign. I have made my own printed materials before, but this one that seems like it should have been pretty simple ended up being very time consuming. I started making the sign by getting on an English to Vietnamese translator and then asked some Vietnamese friends if my draft for the sign was correct. Giang from Paracel Miniatures and Bao from B and L Models were very helpful in explaining what business signs consisted of, how addresses are expressed, how businesses try to highlight what sets them apart from other similar businesses on their signs and several other things. While they were corresponding with me about these things, a veteran from 2d BN 47th IN (Mech) shared a blurry photo of the bakery which made it possible for me to determine the colors and the address number. Between the photo and my friends' input, I think the sign is pretty close to what the actual sign looked like. Once I had the info I needed, I then tried to create the sign on various programs that I had used before, but they just did not seem to be able to handle the accent Mark's and symbols of Vietnamese words. Of all programs out there, I ended up making this sign with Excel.



I painted a shelf and started painting some tables, but have not photographed those yet. I have also started painting some cats that depict some of my cats. They are only partially done, so no photos yet. What I do have a photo of is most of the bread that will be used in this vignette.



Now to finish the accessories, the cats, and the last three figures.