Lizards in The Nam

One of the little known dangers of the Vietnamese jungle was the Giant Chameleon.

Long range patrols into deep forests were most likely to encounter them.  For years they were thought extinct at best or a mere legend at worst.

But by 1968 several patrols had reported contact with the great beasts, this diorama is based on one such encounter.

The point man for a squad size patrol of US Marines looking for reported NVA activity in the area was instead surprised by a Giant Chameleon.  It's natural ability to change color made it almost invisible in the jungle until the point man got within range of the Giant's tongue.

Only rapid engagement with the Marines implementing their reaction to ambush drill and laid down massive fire upon the Giant Chameleon.

 The point man, while obviously surprised, emptied a whole magazine 20 round magazine from his M14, straight into the left eye of the Giant Chameleon, and coupled with the support fires from the rest of the squad, the Giant released him and ran back into the forest.  The squad withdrew a full click and requested napalm air support over the whole grid square where they had just been.

Not being quite sure what the target was, the US Navy still sent in four Skyraiders and dropped napalm on the target area.  The next day a careful search by the squad, by then reinforced by the rest of the platoon, was unable to find anything definitive.  

1/72nd scale plastic USMC Vietnam by Pegasus. 

Landing Craft and Loads

LCVP by Pegasus with HO scale 2 1/2 ton truck, too big for the LCVP, I think.

LCVP by Airfix with HO scale 2 1/2 ton truck, too big for the LCPV, I think.

LCVP by Airfix with HO scale Jeep, looks good!

LCVP by Pegasus with HO scale Jeep, looks good!

Airfix poly LCM with a Heiser Models Sherman tank in HO scale.  Looks good.

Same / Same in green, looks good too.
 

More Landing Craft

The Aurora LC,V landing craft with the LCA and LCVPs.

Added the Airfix LCM, notice how big it is!

Really too small for a tank.

Even a 2 1/2 ton truck is too big.

Jeep is just right.

LCVP is also too small for a 2 1/2 ton truck.  Vehicle are all HO scale by Heiser Models.
 

LCVP and LCA

Pegasus LCVP landing craft.

Airfix LCVP in light gray, with the Pegasus LCVP and two Airfix USMC figures.

Close up.

Both are pretty good and both have their own good and bad parts.

LCA in resin, the LCA and the LCVP are the two most common landing craft used by the US in WWII.

The LCA was armored and had two machine guns in the front so it was good for landing on opposed beaches.
 

Pegasus Landing Craft and Airfix

Airfix LCM landing craft poly plastic.

Airfix and Aurora side by side with Airfix Marines.

I build my LCVP landing craft without the rudders or screws since they will likely be broken off in game play.

The Pegasus LCVP with Airfix crew.

The LCVP is too large to fit in the LCM.

Pegasus LCVP with it's semi-clear plastic water base, very cool I think.
 

Soviet Rocket Forces

Then in the distance someone noticed a huge cylinder.

Sitting vertically on a concrete pad.

It could be a new military rocket to bombard enemies of the Soviet Union.

No one seems to know what it is for.

Fuel trucks and a cargo truck and a luxury sedan surround the rocket.

BT7 Tanks in the Soviet Union

It's the summer of 1941.

Comrade Stalin himself called us out for service.

A whole battalion of tanks, but no one knows why.

Maybe a large propaganda movie, but why did they issue us ammunition?

Could it be the Germans are planning to attack?

Imex Conversions

North Korea often had propaganda teams that would dance and sing to inspire the troops and the civil population.

This pose started as a dead guy laying on his back.

I cut off his canteen and re-positioned it, and then glued him to a base.

The four man 120mm mortar team.

Heavy machine gun team.  In my rules set a three man heavy machine gun team can fire indirect fire.

A surrendering man becomes a relaxing soldier.

Welcome to readers from the UK!

North Koreans

IMEX makes one set of North Korean and one set of Communist Chinese troops for the Korean War.

I have been trimming them off the sprue.

And has been trimming the plastic, and gluing the mortars and machine guns together.

They also got a few conversions.

These are the special troops I was working on, the regular infantry are in their box and the wounded / dead guys are in the spares box.

One of the sets comes with a Japanese heavy machine gun, many were left over in Korea after World War Two ended.

You don't get much of a machine gun crew, just the gunner, so I added a seated guy, probably wounded, as the loader and a kneeling man with binoculars.  Four of the Japanese machine guns I "transferred" to my WWI American army as they used the Hotchkiss machine gun which was the basis for the Japanese gun.  In exchange, I gave the North Koreans four Esci WWII Soviet machine guns.

The North Korean come with great 82mm mortars but I wanted to increase their firepower, so I added a Pegasus 120mm Soviet mortar.  I converted some figures as a scratch crew for them.  The arms and mortar shells left over from the Pegasus set were added to "wounded" North Koreans.  I still gotta come up with three more 120mm mortars.

Each battery of four mortars got one man with binoculars as a forward observer, and a small ammo supply dump.