15mm Viet Cong & American US Army, Old Glory Miniatures

This is a miniatures build for a Vietnam War era miniatures game I am designing that will be played on square tiles I will also design. Included for miniatures will be Viet Cong… and United States Army “Green Berets”, of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), better known by their nickname, “The Legion”, with 15mm white metal miniatures from Old Glory. I’ started with building about a dozen Viet Cong, and four US Army Green Berets. Both forces came in packages that provide 50 miniature figures for about $20 USD.

 

 

I ended up getting the US Infantry in helmets, instead of bush hats, as I wanted to go with straight regular infantry for other uses in other games, too... I'll probably get the soft hats later down the line, and maybe do a more ambitious camo; the package comes with 50 miniature figures for about $20 USD.

 

 

These are the four American soldiers I picked out. There are only four poses so, that was easy... I chose one of each! I considered using US pennies for bases, but I picked up some 3/4” fender washers, which have the smallest hole I could find and like how these look better. They are the same size of a penny, and yes, more expensive, but I think it's worth it.

 

The first thing I learned was, white metal is soft! I started by using a craft knife to get some mold lines and chaff trimmed off, and it was quite easy, though the botton of the bases had some thick extraneous metal, but it trimmed off nicely. I then used a file to get the bottom of the miniature base flat. The helmets were the worst, for mold lines, and I learned that even a common cosmetics department nail file (the type on foamcore board) takes a lot of metal off if you're not careful.

These are my four Americans, which all miniature figures in the game I am designing represent individual soldiers.

 

 

I used Gorilla Glue... just awesome stuff! Precision squeeze bottle makes glue application easy... a small dot of glue on either side perimeter of the washer hole, and placing the figure base upon. Should be enough to hold it, but the obvious drawback of using a washer is the hole in the middle.

 
 

I glued 20 Viet Cong miniatures to Fender Washers, and left to cure (…if you recall, the Americans were previously done).

Today, I checked out the bond and they seem quite strong… I didn’t apply a lot of pressure, but I sense they will hold up well under use; the reason for my questioning was the small hole in the washer…the mini figure base only has the front and back on metal, leaving about half or more of the base not glued to anything. While inspecting the assembled figures, I turned one over to peer into the hole and though, hmmmmm? …maybe if I apply a generous drop of CA glue in the holes, it would create just that little added grab as a backup? I plan to come back to that thought later.

First came cleaning up the figures of flash and mold lines. I used a pair of sprue cutters to cut off flash… this generally looks like a little tail of pewter that pulled away from the molded figure. It cuts easily. Next is using either a mini-file (for the thicker nubs left from the separation of flash from figure), or a small chopped off bit of Emeryboard sanding stick. This is also the time I’ll clean up any mold lines, which are typically found on hats, helmets, and body; these are quality miniatures so, there isn’t much of this stuff.

 

 

Next up came the basing terrain for the washer: The mini figure’s base sits with the molded terrain strip sitting up high-ish, which isn’t in itself terrible, but I thought I’d go for something that builds atop the washer to the figures’ molded terrain. I went with my trusty Spackling Paste (drywall paste that comes in little tubs) method, though I’ve never used it on metal so, I really don’t know if it will hold over time.

 

 

…yeah, you only see 17 done…I ran out of steam and my wife had lunch ready so, food won out! So my method of madness: My spackling paste always seems to be a little on the dry side, as it’s old, but that’s easily solved by placing a tiny amount of water in a cup (today, I actually used an old glass measuring cup) and dipping my right index finger in to get the tip wet, and then scooping a tiny dab of spackle. Generally,you can rub your wet finger on the wall of the container that has spackle and make a little slop. 

I then glide a dab of spackle on my fingertip, over an edge of the washer, depositing just a a little, while gently pushing it towards the miniatures’ base; and continuing with a smooth, slow swipe of the spackle counterclockwise (that direction gives you a better viewing angle, if you’re right handed like me). It’s a tricky process, because of the tiny size of the miniature and base, and my fingers don’t quite work as efficiently as they once did. Some spots go on perfectly, whereas others need a bit of futzing to get the spackle to seat against the figure base level; and of course, you want to be careful not to loose the feet under mud!

I do about eight figures, which allows the spackle to dry a little, and then clean up the miniatures’ base sides before moving on to applying spackle to the next eight or so. Cleaning up the washer base is easier, where you first, use a fingertip (I use my middle finger) to swipe downwards along the washer edge, holding the figure sideways. I do that until I complete a circuit all around the washer edge, seeing the metal edge with no spackle on it; most of it did have clear metal, as I did this wiping when applying the spackle, but during that earlier process, there’s a lot of spackle on my fingertips, even though I am constantly dipping my fingers in water and wiping them on a paper towel…there’s still spackle on them, though. This final wipe is with clean fingers, and the spackle is still wet roughy to pop off cleaning. It’s at this point I also re-dip my fingertip I. Water and wipe the underside of the washer, wetting any dried spackle there and drying with a paper towel remnant. I do this with the first small batch, and then start on the next with spackle application and repeat the cleaning process.

All of these are then left to dry and cure overnight. The next days’ session will see an airbrushed application of primer over the whole miniature and base.

Spent a little time at the workbench this afternoon to prime all the minis. I was lazy and brushed on Vallejo Black Primer, rather than airbrush them; super lazy of me but I hated to do all the work involved with setup and cleanup, to be honest, especially for so few minis. Bad attithat might bite me in the ass later, but we’ll see when everything is dry.

I must say I was surprised with how well the primer covered the minis with a brush; certainly not a smooth coverage like an airbrush gives, but the primer is so light in viscosity that yiu don’t see a lot of brush stroke marks, except in the spackle surface which also sucked up the primer!

…it’ll either work out OK, or it will be a learning experience!

So, we left off with my having primed everything, and a promise to show you… the primer was Vallejo Surface Primer, and I can tell you this stuff is brilliant! I used the black one (it comes in gray, too) ans the coverage was nice.

 

 

Tonight, I wanted to start with a total coverage of Black acrylic paint, and discovered something amazing… I don’t have any in my Vallejo, Model Master, or AK Interactive collection    …I do have Tamiya, but I know from bitter experiences that it is far too watery to use with hand brushing, and you already know I’m too lazy to dig out the airbrush (…I may have to work in that penchant!). So, I went with Plaid brand craft acrylic Black; this may bite me in the ass, as it’s for plastic surfaces, but hey, acrylic is acrylic paint, right? Right? Anybody?

Well regardless, the Plaid acrylic paint went on nicely, and from what I can tell thusfar just post application, not too thick.

Tonight, I wanted to start with a total coverage of Black acrylic paint, and discovered something amazing… I don’t have any in my Vallejo, Model Master, or AK Interactive collection    …I do have Tamiya, but I know from bitter experiences that it is far too watery to use with hand brushing, and you already know I’m too lazy to dig out the airbrush (…I may have to work in that penchant!). So, I went with Plaid brand craft acrylic Black; this may bite me in the ass, as it’s for plastic surfaces, but hey, acrylic is acrylic paint, right? Right? Anybody?

Well regardless, the Plaid acrylic paint went on nicely, and from what I can tell thusfar just post application, not too thick.

 

So by this point in the build, I can unequivocally state that I am not a 15mm soldier painter! OMG, these are tiny!!! 

OK, I digress… I noted that the minis had a definite shine to them. Though I was planning to finish this project with a Future mixture Dull-Coat fir protection, I decided to put a single light coat of Tamiya Flat Blsck on all the Viet Cong…

 

This is where this post started…Tamiya is so watery that it dries very quick; by the time I’d made it to the 20th VC, I swung back to #1 and started drybrushing a Blue Gray highlight to the uniforms where they are sporting “VC pajamas”. That helped considerably. I then spot drybrushed some dust color here and there; followed by starting the faces, hands, and feet. OMfG! I haven’t felt this taxed since the planes on my USS America aircraft carrier! I did about four and gave up for the night… I’m beat from cleaning the basement today so, I’ll have another go.

OMG (<— I keep saying that a lot!), I am so not used to working in this scale for miniature figures! I’m having issues with holding them, because I have a weak left thumb that and sustained gripping such small washer bases is a challenge. Ah, age!

Well, I had a small window of opportunity this afternoon for a little more painting before closing the workshop down for the rest of the week for the contractors to do their HVAC thang. 

The faces of the Viet Cong were too dark after the paint dried so, I used the same craft paints to mix some White into the sand colored paint to make a lighter flesh tone… the faces pop a lot better now. I’ll probably throw a yellow/reddish wash on later… and the final wash at the end will tone the color down a bit. 

I also did the feet, which was hell. Even using my smallest Artist brush (like a 000), the trick was trying to drybrush in order to leave some of the dark between the toes giving a 3D effect, but craft paints aren’t made for this small scale! Getting the right load of paint on the brush was super time consuming and maddening.

I also did the conical Non La “paddy hats in a somewhat beige base color… brighter highlights will be added later. As well as the crusher hats, in a darker hand -mixed color which has a gray time introduced.

 

Well, at least it’s not a sea of black figures now! so you will note I’ve paint where it shouldn’t be… learning curve is teaching me that even with a brush with barely any bristles on it, there’s just no way for my hands to maneuver paint into micro cavities, such as under pant hems and chins! I decided to go for coverage first, and touch ups of the blacks later.

 

…the Americans just got faces 

 

…you can see by my palette that I’ve got a bunch going on here!

 

…that’s because I started the gun belts and holsters, canteens, bazooka shell carrying cases, ammunition belts, and other clothing items. Real eye strainers!

 

 

 

…that’s as far as I got today. The project is on hold until likely next week. What’s to come? Well, get some of the black back in over the overbrushing; highlights to the pajamas and paddy hats; sandals (…that’s gonna be hell!); color adjustments; overall dirt wash; and sealer. Yeah….I’ve got this! 

I was not really feeling the love with 15mm figures, but I kept plugging away. When I’ve worked in 28mm, I could see very good results right after the basecoats, like my Stargate SG-1’s Jaffa figures, for instance. These so far, look a mini step up from dog shit so far! These 15mm miniature figures are so bloody tiny! I look at these, to where I just finished tonight, and look upon Mike as a freakin’ GOD!

…we left off with the hats, helmets, gun belts, packs, and armored vests all getting their base coat colors painted — a darker shadow color, theoretically to maybe show throug from upcoming final colors and highlights. They also got a shadow color of blue fatiguing. Tonight. I wanted to first add in some gray, using Vallejo acrylics dabbed and brushed in some areas, with ebpnough of the blue toned down a bit in the process. I then wanted to put a first color of green on the American uniforms, equipment, and helmets — more final color will come next and then maybe some fatiguing. I also wanted to put the first layer of green on the “ground” at the figures’ feet. I did this, and earlier work with this array of paints…

 

The result? Well, let’s just say I graduated to puppy poop!

 

Closer for the Viet Cong…

 

And the Americans…

 

Meh.

 

More color is to be added, equipment touch ups, and gun metal highlights; I’ll do something with the ground, probably some diorama terrain something or other; and I plan to put a wash or two on them with sealant towards the end of the painting process… not sure if I’ll go with a craft paint sealant I got and never uses, or my home brewed Future floor acrylic concoction.

It’s night time here and the light is only so good. And pics taken with an iPad (which sucks in a good day!). But this is about best I can achieve nearing the end. I’ll need to pull a rabbit outta my hat on this project! Worst case though, it’s still a considerable jump forward for thr Mike Lambo game, than pencil marks!

The lineup!

 

This is actually, my first go at working with airbrushing paints, Vallejo Model Air, though following the miniature painting community, I know many use these type of extremely watery style acrylic paints pretty much or totally exclusively. I see Citadel used a lot, and a few other brands. One thing I am learning is, they leave cover with a much smoother finish than craft acrylics (Folk Art, Apple Barrel, etc., found in large selections in major craft stores)… that of course, is because the former use much finer ground pigments in the formulation; whereas the downside is, they don’t go on as opaque as craft acrylics and require more coats… but that can be a boon, as the coats are lighter and you can strategically layer colors atop colors. What I’ve been experimenting with successfully is blending the two types at times (not always, but now and then for a desired application consistency. For instance, the last coat of green on the US Army figures was straight Vallejo acrylics…

 

…being a premixed in bottle US Army Green, it was a no fuss application straight from the bottle! Today though, I wanted to get some weathering on the uniforms, and in the process of drybrushing, also lighten up the pack straps. To do this, the Vallejo paint would be too thin (for my skill level, anyway, if it’s even possible), so I mixed a concoction of Vallejo Olive Green, with a little craft acrylics in Green and Black… this allowed me to load an Artist flat brush, wipe off the excess on a paper towel, and drybrush onto the helmets, equipment of that color, and uniform high edges, with some dabbing in the flats for contrast against the initial undercoat.

 

…the effect was a nicely smooth painted surface with wonderful gradations. Boots were painted with Vallejo
Brown.

I started with the soft hats of the Viet Cong, using a hand mixed color of light green with Vallejo paints, which filled in the rough depressions from the craft paint pigments. Then I Vallejo Duck Egg Green, for the equipment patch straps, and added touches of color to packs, immediately dabbing at the fresh paint to subdue the color, allowing the undercoat of the previous color to re-emerge. Vallejo Dark Gray Blue was them used to touch up the “pajamas” where the green bled, as well as touch up areas needing the color. Last came the sandals… OMG! I needed to do a kind of drybrush flat dabbing, with a mixed color of both Vallejo and craft acrylics, which worked well enough for the scale. The Duck Egg Green on belts and straps really made the minis pop better, giving more of a 3D effect and variety. I added some Tamiya Gun Metal to all guns… I’ll go in and do some highlights next session.

 

I need to go back in on hands, and maybe a few faces that were lost of missed in the previous prior painting sessions.

 

 

It’s about ready for finishing up the bases with texture and terrain grass… then washes and protective coats. I’m starting to get excited at the prospect of getting these in play!

By this point in the build, I had a four month hiatus having had a new furnace and hot water heater (and a new outside ac unit) replaced in the furnace room where my workshop is, and it caused a ripple effect of moving stuff around so the workers could get in and do there thing….and that moving involved pile up’s in the workbench. Ugh. I managed to clean the workbench up over the last couple days and hence, my work space…

 

I finally got a coat of Citadel “Declan Mud” wash on both factions… and then Citadel “Camo Green” drybrushed onto the “ground”. 

 

 

Some close-up’s…

 

 

 

The wash helped tremendously with the faces, adding depth, and added field dirt to the uniforms and equipment. The Camo Green was a nice fit for the Vietnamese jungle ground grass color. Not sure I’ll add any flocking…maybe one day, but these are so small, I'm not sure it’s worth it. 

I’ll let everything cure overnight… I might try some very light, dust shade drybrush, but just for highlighting and giving a little more pop; not sure yet on that. Overall, these are pretty close to getting a clear coat and then, hitting the table!

We were nearing the end of this build! I put a little dusting on all the miniatures, dry-brushing on Citadel “Elf Flesh” acrylics straight out of the bottle. I went a little heavier on the equipment bags and belts, which made them pop a little better… I only put enough on to allow the color beneath to still dominate.

Afterwards was some new territory… Matte Varnish! I don’t mind confessing, it freaked me out a tad at first! I decided to brush it on, instead of airbrush; and yes, I realize the latter would be more effective, but I’m lazy! Here’s what they look like at the moment, as I let them cure overnight…

 

 

 

Total, there were 11 days’ worth of mostly short one or two hour sessions of actual work per session…maybe 25 hours of work in all. Even at 15mm, these were very small to work on and presented a fair challenge to my miniatures painting skills; I’m a great painter in several media or artwork and crafts, but I’m pretty new to miniature figures. The micro detail really takes a special skill set to get it right.

This was a neat project, and a nice building level towards my next goal of working more (perhaps exclusively) with professional acrylics (rather than craft paint). Whereas the goal here was gaining miniatures that are presentable to play with, I used this project as a confidence builder in reentering miniatures painting. Mission success.

These are also the first miniatures that I’ve painted where I really focused in a finish clear (matte) coat for protection in handling for gaming. I really liked the Vallejo product I chose, and the final effect was perfect. I’m looking forward to getting these on the table!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These have been used on playtests of my Vietnam War miniatures game, “The Legion”, and they work great!

After completing the the minis to this point in the project, I got the idea in my head of putting some felt on the base bottoms of minis; I don’t know how durable the surface of the tiles are, with the COPIC marker artwork and I don’t want the metal base under of the metal figures to scratch the surface so I decided to try som felt. I believe the ink dye is pretty tough, but the mini bases under the miniature figures are just metal fender washers, including their somewhat sharp edges. So, I bought some adhesive backed felt sheets at Hobby Lobby, which was about $1.29 a sheet…the sheets are about the size of typing bond paper.

I started with marking around one of the mini bases with a thin leaded mechanical pencil, and then cut the felt circles out. The next step is to peel the back off the adhesive and stick the circle on the mini bases’ fender washer. Finally, they need some trimming around the edges, as no matter how careful you try to cut with scissors, you’re going to have some external overage. I suppose you could use a craft knife, but I hate ER! You can run your thumb and forefinger around the edge to help round out the edges of the felt a bit better. Overall, a little tedious to do, but what a nice end product it produced!

 

 

Then… there I was, shoulder to shoulder, backs to the wall… Ahhh, ooops, that was F-Troop! Let me start again… So there I was, in ACE Hardware, looking at electric weed trimmers on the Memorial Day Sale (yup, ordered one! …only had a floor model left but could order a brandy-dandy new one never touched!). As I was checking out, I saw a cluster keys with rubber edging on the finger grips… “do you sell those?”, I ask. They do! Looked the right size, so I went to look at the… kinda pricey at 99 cents a pop, but they had four colors so, what the heck!

Got them home aaaaaand, they fit perfect! In the pic below, note the four bigger rings I was using, which were hard plastic and a bit tough to move with the mini (not to mention, being BIG!). I have no idea to what they came with, but they served the purpose of testing out my theory of using such a design element.

 

…that little food saver box is where I currently store the minis, but I’ll be moving them to a nice storage box I found online recently…just gotta order it. Anyway, the Key Cap Covers (which is apparently what they are called) are a soft rubber, having a grooved inside diameter. The minis’ fender washers fit into them snug as a bug! The bottom is actually raising the mini up a snudge, which is an added bonus… the American units apparantly did not need the felt in the end, but the VC still do.

 

The whole point, as you may recall was to differentiate between the four American soldiers (characters in the game), especially when writing up After Action Reports (AARs).

 

I sent a pic to a gaming buddy, who was so intrigued, he looked up some bulk examples on Amazon; turns out you can get over 60 of these for under ten bucks! Man… ACE is worse than McDonald’s dollar menu! He’d mentioned he was looking to buy some, for some of his various minis.

Next up on the project is four Character Cards for each of the American soldiers, with a small bio, stats and charts. I’ll work on some sort of graphic color cue for each team member on the cards, to match their rubber bases.

After my success with colored key cap covers for the Americans, I decided to try black ones for the Vietnamese soldiers! I ordered  these