"Buying Baguettes and Banh Mi" of my "Shopping in Long Thanh" diorama series

[Jungle James O'Leary]

I just completed this diorama the other day. It is the first in a series of smaller vignettes and dioramas with the theme of "Shopping in Long Thanh". Long Thanh was the village that was outside Camp Bearcat, Vietnam and this particular diorama depicts a time when 1LT Brice Barnes of 2d Battalion, 47th Infantry (Mechanized), 9th Infantry Division was returning from a mission with his platoon and decided to stop in Long Thanh to buy some baguettes to go with venison sausage that his father had sent to him. The platoon parked their M113s and some guys went to some of the vendor shops to buy souvenirs for the folks back home while 1LT Barnes visited the local bakery to buy the baguettes.

The two American Soldiers are conversions of Bravo 6 figures with Hornet heads. The shoulder holster was added to the figure depicting 1LT Barnes and the original belt area was filled in with Magic Sculpt. The Vietnamese children are from Paracel Miniatures. The Vietnamese woman who is a customer is from Masterbox. The two women working at the bakery are conversions consisting of Masterbox, Dragon, and Callsign Miniature pieces. The cats are from a manufacture that I do not recall the name of. The structure was built using elements from Hansa Systems covered with AK Interactive Industrial Mud that was sanded down when cured to create a stucco effect. The roof is from Victoria Miniatures. The display case is scratch built from sheet styrene. The bread is made from Magic Sculpt. The dishes and bowls of fillings for Banh Mi are from Reality in Scale. The leafy vegetation is from Diorama Respe and the money is from ETA Diorama Accessories. Acrylics were used for all painting. The ERDL camouflage pattern on the privately purchased boonie hat worn by the Soldier carrying a bag containing a flower patterned Ao Dai was copied from a personal example.

This is 1LT Brice Barnes


Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James

 

[MoboSchreuder]

Beautiful work

Mobo

 

[Nap]

Hi James

Great to see your modelling , well painted , well presented and a great storyline , wonderful to link to a real soldier as well

Lovely work on the base along with weathering

Thanks for supporting the Vignette & Diorama comp as well

Look forward to seeing more from you

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Ferris]

Excellent diorama. Great work on converting the figures.

Adrian

 

[Mike - The Kiwi]

James always enjoy the provenance behind your projects & this is no exception with so much detail captured reminiscent of a quieter downtime for the young Lieutenant after a patrol.
Especially like how you help give story of everyone involved, not just the soldiers.
Also appreciate all the notes in how you made each part, foliage looks particularly good - do you paint this as well? If so what do you use?
Thanks for sharing another of your personal tributes, look forward to seeing more.
MikeTheKiwi

 

[Dolf]

Very nice diorama! It tells a story for all the characters involved!

What is the scale, btw?

Cheers!

Dolf

 

[Jungle James O'Leary]

Very nice diorama! It tells a story for all the characters involved!

What is the scale, btw?

Cheers!

Dolf

Thanks, Dolf.

It is 1/35th scale.

Cheers,
James

 

[Jungle James O'Leary]

James always enjoy the provenance behind your projects & this is no exception with so much detail captured reminiscent of a quieter downtime for the young Lieutenant after a patrol.
Especially like how you help give story of everyone involved, not just the soldiers.
Also appreciate all the notes in how you made each part, foliage looks particularly good - do you paint this as well? If so what do you use?
Thanks for sharing another of your personal tributes, look forward to seeing more.
MikeTheKiwi

Thanks, Mike.

I am glad you like it. When I work on figures or build a diorama, I look at each figure as if they are a real person (and for my military figures they usually depict an actual person) and think of a back story for each character, actually kind of similar to your method that is described in your book. I think that helps me pose and position the figures to tell a better story.

The vegetation consists of preserved plants. They already were rendered in colors that were close to what I wanted. The bright green, leafy plants did receive some Citadel Contrast paint to tone down the brightness which ended up providing a bit of depth to the leaves.

After the holidays I plan to find time at the bench to do a few more vignettes/dioramas in this series.

Cheers,
James

 

[Jungle James O'Leary]

Hi James

Great to see your modelling , well painted , well presented and a great storyline , wonderful to link to a real soldier as well

Lovely work on the base along with weathering

Thanks for supporting the Vignette & Diorama comp as well

Look forward to seeing more from you

Happy benchtime

Nap

Thanks, Nap.

I an glad you like this. I hope to have more to show in the near future.

Cheers,
James

 

[Jungle James O'Leary]

Excellent diorama. Great work on converting the figures.

Adrian

Thanks, Adrian.

I am glad you like the conversions. It is hard for me to make figures as intended by the manufacturer for some reason.

Cheers,
James

 

[Mike - The Kiwi]

Thanks, Mike.

I am glad you like it. When I work on figures or build a diorama, I look at each figure as if they are a real person (and for my military figures they usually depict an actual person) and think of a back story for each character, actually kind of similar to your method that is described in your book. I think that helps me pose and position the figures to tell a better story.

The vegetation consists of preserved plants. They already were rendered in colors that were close to what I wanted. The bright green, leafy plants did receive some Citadel Contrast paint to tone down the brightness which ended up providing a bit of depth to the leaves.

After the holidays I plan to find time at the bench to do a few more vignettes/dioramas in this series.

Cheers,
James

Thanks for following up mate about foliage, also could get sense you take a personal approach to each figure & these are a legacy for those that were caught in the turmoil of the times.
Keep us posted on your next vignette please.
MikeTheKiwi

 

[1969]

Nice work James, lovely scene you have created.
Steve

 

[Oda]

Original and very impressive!

Oda.

 

[Dolf]

"It is 1/35th scale."

Wow! Even better! Actually I thought it was a larger scale!

Wonderful work, congratulations!

Cheers!

Dolf