History and wargaming

I finally got to run a game of Nam’68 with two mates of mine visiting the scorching hot(!) north. We rolled up a Search and sweep scenario with 5 search points, sweeping down a main road in the late evening(the approaching night sub-plot). I gave them a reinforced squad and a M60 team (dividing the two fireteams between them and sharing the M60 team), a slap on the back and let them out into the jungle. Oh yeah and a partly generated Mission briefing to set the scene (not necessary to read): MISSION BRIEFING • Date: 14 January 1968 • Location: Village of Phu Lac, Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam • Unit: 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. OBJECTIVE Conduct a search and sweep operation in the village of Phu Lac, a small rural settlement suspected of concealing Viet Cong supply caches. The village is located approximately 12 kilometers southeast of Quang Ngai City and lies adjacent to Highway 521, a ke...

I've managed to finish up another US piece, a Forward HQ unit used in Battlegroup, or some kind of senior command for other wargame rules. They're all 15mm Peter Pig, well fed and nice little pieces to paint up.

I've finished the last of the current batch of vc figures, very much a bits and pieces set. I Will have to go back and finish up a few more SKS and bolt action riflemen, but for now I have a few of each type of gun that can come into play early-ish. Next up is terrain, civilians and the US second squad. But we'll see how quick I can work through that, as of course we go into summer vacation mode, which entails... going outside...  

Time for a few new more VC models, mainly freedom fighters with smg's. I haven't really found proper VC's with smgs in 15mm, so I had to improvise a bit. The lad with the slightly oversized mp40 is a Peter Pig vc sapper, the rest are actually from the PP Montagnard range. The guy to the far right is a VC NCO model, but he'll work double shifts as an infiltrator with pistol when I'll need him to.

After a few productive nights I've managed to finish the second fireteam of 1st squad, the Plt leader and staff Sergeant, as well as a second M60 mg team. The second fireteam from left: M16 rifleman, Rifleman with LAW, M79 grenadier, team leader From left: Ammo bearer, m60 gunner, Plt Sgt, RTO, Plt Leader

Hobby time has mostly been focused on Vietnam rather than WW2 the past month, but I did manage to finish this Bazooka team on the side at least. The usual Skytrex figs, quite decent poses really. I get a distinct ambush vibe from them.  And as a brief interlude from the US infantry with this 3d printed Sdklfz 223 I got from the Plastic Soldier company. Overall very impressed with the print detail, the few visible print lines I tried to cover with some stowage. The packages got absolutely destroyed by the Swedish Postal service Postnord (a common enough occurence as to spawn the loving company nickname Postmord ), but to PSC's credit all the 3d prints survived scot free, and they definitely feel less brittle than other 3d prints. I left the paint job quite simple as I wanted it to mesh with my old, not too that well painted Sdkfz 222's which were one of the first ww2 vehicles I did back in 2019 when I returned to miniature painting after a brief 20 year hiatus....  ...