ANZACS and the return of ‘Them’, ( & Cthulu Kong, Goldylocks etc!))

I hadn’t forgotten the poor old ARVN, in fact I had  semi completed  M41,  I had brought  from Empress miniatures  some time ago  , completion  was delayed  as Empress had to do a casting g session  for my order of suitable crew figures .

I had to have one of these for my collection as the M41 Walker Bulldog was a tank I had to heavily convert from a Matchbox  Chaffee , back I  the day  doing Vietnam in 20mm back in the 80’s. I remember involved a lot of milliput and sanding, and it never looked really right.  I don’t know of any other models of it other than in 1/35th and 1/16th Radio Control.

I imagine it struggles to find a period for gaming as it only appeared at end of Korean War and was used by ARVN I  Vietnam. Strangely enough like the Chaffee it has appeared I  numerous War and Science Fiction Movies ( often as a Panzer 4).

Painting it pretty much followed the process used for the M48. The Decals used on it were ‘pinched’ from a KoreanWar Version of the Rubicon Pershing.

Using Rubicons ARVN Infantry set, as a base for the Infantry I have completed my 1st 8 man section  of ARVN Infantry. Unfortunately hitdoesn’t have any M60’s in it. This maybe due to.lack of space as you get upper bodies and wpns for both early WW2 equipped troops or later M16 units.  For my 1st squad I went for M16 equipped troops, so had to go to Empress Minatures range for suitable M60 armed Figures.

Painting very much followed the techniques and paints used in painting the Australian’s , without the Initial phaffing over getting the correct colour of uniforms.

Two of the above figures have cammo covers, so I tried an experimental shading ready for when I do my US Marines.

This consisted of a very thinned out GW Gutrippa Flesh  , with dabs of Speed paints Forest Sprite, and GW Snakebite Leather.

The decals I picked were for USMC ,as I had decided on doing a Marine force for my Americans.. It’s markings on the model are from  mix of vehicles I found from various Sources. I was going for a Cross on searchlight  but couldn’t get it right so reverted to painting it white with provided decal Ace of Spades.

Once applied and set  I  liberally applied neat GW Agrax Earthshade to the lower half of model, for weathering , based on idea Vietnam is pretty muddy . Hopefully this will represent the grime from driving through mud.

Finally I dry brushes Game Colour Desert Yellow. Mainly on lower half again , but gave upper hull and Turret a light dusting.

For final base colouring I put a paint I got from thr Halo paint set by army Painter, UNSC white which is a good one coat white on headlight lens and vision suits.

The sand on the canvas gun mantle  cover is then coated with GW Seraphim Sepia wash  to give it a  khaki tint to it and provide shading.

Then a thinned out Army Painter speedpaint Magic blue is put over headlight lens and vision ports previously painted white.

I’m now ready to apply decals, I won’t shade the tracks etc and do any weathering till decals have set.

Once wash gad dried I initially dry brushed it Army Panter Army Green.

As this is the same as base you don’t get the normal dry brush effect.

For this I tend to use the cheap “The Works’flat ended brushs .

I find that flt ended brushs work best for my technique.

Then for highlighting I lightly drybrush with Army Painter Cammo Green.

Then it’s time to start detailing  sp 1st of all Speedpai ts  Enchanted Steel is used on Tracks odd bits of metal work and a bit of chipping on hull front track guards and rear of tank.

Then German Desert Sand is put as base colour on canvas gun mantle and sides of search light cover, for a base shade. No particular reason for using that shade other than it was the only sand coloured paint I had.

Well I wasn’t but I did  , I brought a Rubicon M48 as I’ve decided to Add U.S.Marines to forces. WHY Marines you may ask. Simple  they had M60’s I  base box and as far as can tell U.S. Infantry don’t.,  plus I got a cool corgi Huey Hog for the Marines.

Anyway this part of the project will be better documented as I’ve completely forgot which rattle can Green I used for base colour!

Anyway the Rubicon M48 is a really nice model to assemble with no fiddly bits. So nice in fact that I’ve ordered another!

And here it is assembled.

Of the various rattle can Greens I have Army Painters Army Green is the darkest, so I gave it a base coat of that.

I then gave the model a coat of thinned out Nuln Oil around 50/50 water, which darkens and shades models.

During the great tidy up and re-organise, odd things I’d forgotten about turned up ( and no doubt some have disappeared to ‘the put them somewhere safe!!!).

One was a little white box on which being opened I found

Arnie’s team from the 1st  Predator’ movie which was prophetic as I’d only re-watched the movie a couple of nights before. Now I can’t remember who made them, or the original reason I brought them   other than they would be usefull for something. I do have a couple of the Ainstay clear resin Predators somewhere.

So I thought for the theme of this project ‘why not!’.

These figures did need cammo, but not as much as you’d think, as only Hawkins and Mac were fully cammo’d   the rest other than Dillon had only cammo trousers. The Cammo as far as I could tell was general European DPM’s , so I used a light green base contrast, then daubed GW wraithbone and Militarum Green for cammo effect  which seems to work.

Annie was the hardest to get the face even semi right.

Joey was a really nice figure, and fairly easy paint.

Likewise Blain  was a fairly easy painting exercise.

Dillan and Mac   were done as slightly thinned GW contrast Snakebite leather  for the base skin tone  with Dillons being slightly lighter, Mac was the easier to do which is shown in photos.

Dillons base colour was a very thinned light green contrast

Finally we have Hawkins and Poncho

Well having some Fantasy opposition for the ANZA’Cs,  I managed to paint my 1st squad of Viet Cong who may be more frightening than rhe weird and wonderful.

Nice and easy paint job being mainly GW Basilicum Grey Contrast for the pyjama, and Speedpaints palid bone for the linen items

Rubicon give you mix of female and Male Viet Kong, so here are some ladies.

I said earlier that I had been experimenting with various Speed Paint/Contrast Greens  and it was this 1st batch of Lizardmen from Wargames Atlantic.

Bit of a rush build so excuse necks not put on correctly.

The last with Militarum Green was the one I liked least, so the rest will be the previous 2 shades. I used the darker shade on the back and tail scales.