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

[Whiterook]

An eight month project, this was a miniatures build for playing Vietnam War era games. The game in particular is “Ghosts in the Jungle”, a book game by Mike Lambo; combining these with square tiles for building game map terrain that I’ll be making for use with these, turning that book game into a table top miniatures game.

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!

[Whiterook]

One of my last goals for these minis was, putting some felt on the base bottoms of minis. Since these are moved on the cardboard tiles, even though the ink dye is pretty tough, the mini bases are just the metal of the 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! Yiu can run your thumb and forefinger around the edge to round the edges a bit better. Overall, a little tedious to do, but what a nice end product!







I tried them on the tiles and what a HUGE difference! The mental minis still have the weight, but they are quieter to move around when you plop them down, and they slide effortlessly and no abrasively on the tile surfaces.

[buddho]

Oh my gosh this is sooo cool! Do you need a magnifying glass to paint these figures? Excellent job.

[Whiterook]

Mar 4, 2023 16:24:08 GMT -5 buddho said:

Oh my gosh this is sooo cool! Do you need a magnifying glass to paint these figures? Excellent job.

Sorry I’m so late on response… was away a couple weeks on a cruise and catching up on life   Whereas my eyes aren’t what they used to be, in doing tiny detail work, I am still able to paint these without magnifying help, but I’ll occasionally put the magnifier head gear on to check bitty bits, like faces and hands for any needed adjustments.

Vehicles in 15mm are no problem at all, but figures are much smaller and thereby tougher to paint.

28mm figures (soldiers and your basic variety of human, Zombie, and various alien creatures, etc.), which is the scale you see more and more in wargaming, is MUCH easier to paint and assemble… the vehicles in that scale are gigantic, in a wargaming perspective.

[Whiterook]

So 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 one). 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 o was using, which were hard plastic and a bit tough to move with the mini (not to mention, being BIG!)…



…that little food saver box is where I currently store the minis, but I’ll be moving them to a nixed 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, kinda like a bicycle tire, 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 whole point, as you may recall was to differentiate between the four American soldiers (characters in the game).



I sent a pic to a gaming buddy, who was so intrigued, he looked up some bulk examples on Amazon, and 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 in a color cue for each, to match their rubber bases.

[Leon]

Those are so cool!

[deafpanzer]

Great suggestion! And it will making it easier for you to hold and paint them too.

[Whiterook]

Those black key cap covers came in and they fit my VC minis perfectly! …a lot cheaper cost for them, too. Had some issues with the felt bottoms I’d put on them, peeling at the edges while placing the covers on, which I was able to smooth back down… but those felt bottoms are now, unnecessary   

The VC could have actually done without rubber base caps, but this ties everything together nicely. The added benefit is, they don’t slide on the tiles, either.



…that’s a lot of prisoners!



Now that they are all done, I decided to place them in a better storage solution, instead of the plastic sandwich container they’ve been inhabiting in for months now  



…two ministers fit standing up, per well, very nicely… a few extra fit in the upper most layer, with my Gladiators.



This is a great little storage box I picked up on sale at Amazon. 



…it’s very well designed.

On the minis, I might add in some grass to the bases… might be overkill, for the overall use of these, though.

[deafpanzer]

Nice carrying case you got too! I really enjoyed looking at your work too.

[406 Silverado]

Say.....that's some spiffy work along with a great lookin' case Emery. I hear ya on doing work only to find out later on that it wasn't needed. Looks like you got everything going your way with these though.