Jungle James O'Leary
PlanetFigure Supporter
- Joined
- May 13, 2022
- Messages
- 88
I just recently completed the third piece in my "Shopping in Long Thanh" diorama series which depicts two Soldiers from the 9th Infantry Division shopping at a local combination souvenir and tailor shop located in the village of Long Thanh which was near Camp Bearcat where the 9th Infantry Division was headquartered at in 1967.
This shop was owned by one of the more prominent families in the area. Unlike the bakery featured in "Buying Baguettes and Banh Mi" of this diorama/vignette series, this shop did not have a sign posted on the building. Not sure why that was, but it did not. The shop sold a variety of items including clothing items such as tour jackets that were popular keepsakes purchased by many Soldiers and Ao Dais, camouflage uniforms and hats, cameras, Vietnamese dolls, conical hats, various types of carrying bags, small trinkets and souvenirs, cold sodas and beer, boxes and footlockers that were salvaged and repainted to be sold to GIs as storage boxes for their quarters, and Vietnamese black lacquer paintings.
This diorama is in 1/35 scale. The Soldier with the tour jacket draped over his shoulder is a conversion of a figure that I sculpted for Custom Dioramic's Yanks figure line. I replaced the head with one from Hornet, switched the right arm with one from Hobby Fan, and sculpted the tour jacket. His hat has the unit crest of the 47th Infantry Regiment. On his left shoulder is the 9th Infantry Division patch. The Soldier that is looking at the various jackets on the rack is a conversion of a Bravo 6 figure from the "Rubber Lady" kit. On his hat is the unit crest of the 15th Engineers which was an Engineer Battalion that was organic to the 9th Infantry Division. The two older Vietnamese gentlemen are conversions of figures from Masterbox. The one speaking with the Engineer has a body from the "Somewhere in Saigon" kit with a head from the "Charlie on the left" kit. His clothing was altered from being a uniform into civilian clothing. The other guy has a head from the "Charlie on the left" kit and a body from the spares box that received some clothing from Magic Sculpt. The Vietnamese woman is a conversion of one of the prostitutes from the "Somewhere in Saigon" kit. Basically all I did was sculpt more appropriate clothing over that she was already wearing. The figures, as with everything else, was painted with acrylics.
The structure was created using the building block system from Hansa Systems which was then covered with a layer of ground texture that was sanded down to replicate stucco texture. The roof is from Model Victoria. The title floor is from Plastruct. The boxes that were repainted civilian colors are from Armand Bayardi. The clothes rack and the shelves were made with styrene products from Plastruct. The tour jackets on the rack were sculpted from Magic Sculpt and were painted to represent the two most common types of tour jackets - those made of black cloth with a white silk linings and those made from ERDL camouflage pattern poncho liner material. I had originally sculpted two Ao Dais and a separate tour jacket to include with these, but when it came time to paint them I could not find them and even to this day cannot find them. Since I needed at least one Ao Dai, I took one of the Diopark figures of a lady in an Ao Dai, cut away the leg portions and added the collar area and the sleeves. On the shelves once can see a blue bag with yellow straps that ties this diorama with the one with the bakery, cameras, a camo hat, folded camo uniforms, a rolled up spotted camo poncho liner, folded civilian clothing (mostly Ao Dais), bins containing boxes that contain trinkets and small products, Vietnamese dolls, woven bags, conical hats, boxes of beverages, a cooler, and a storage box. The three black lacquer paintings were made by printing off images of real paintings and attaching them to heavy card stock once they were cut to size. A gloss varnish was applied to give them some shininess. The cat is from Paracel Miniatures and is painted to look like one of my cats.
The small patch of groundwork was made from Magic Sculpt and textured with AK Interactive's Dark Earth texture product. This was then painted to resemble the tannish brown soil found in this part of Vietnam which was unlike the red clay from the Central Highlands that most people associate with Vietnam.
The photos are of this piece from various angles that hopefully show the various small details. Also included in the photos is one of the three pieces of the "Shopping in Long Thanh" series displayed together at the Tulsa Figure Show last weekend and one of the same three in my pop up photo booth.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
This shop was owned by one of the more prominent families in the area. Unlike the bakery featured in "Buying Baguettes and Banh Mi" of this diorama/vignette series, this shop did not have a sign posted on the building. Not sure why that was, but it did not. The shop sold a variety of items including clothing items such as tour jackets that were popular keepsakes purchased by many Soldiers and Ao Dais, camouflage uniforms and hats, cameras, Vietnamese dolls, conical hats, various types of carrying bags, small trinkets and souvenirs, cold sodas and beer, boxes and footlockers that were salvaged and repainted to be sold to GIs as storage boxes for their quarters, and Vietnamese black lacquer paintings.
This diorama is in 1/35 scale. The Soldier with the tour jacket draped over his shoulder is a conversion of a figure that I sculpted for Custom Dioramic's Yanks figure line. I replaced the head with one from Hornet, switched the right arm with one from Hobby Fan, and sculpted the tour jacket. His hat has the unit crest of the 47th Infantry Regiment. On his left shoulder is the 9th Infantry Division patch. The Soldier that is looking at the various jackets on the rack is a conversion of a Bravo 6 figure from the "Rubber Lady" kit. On his hat is the unit crest of the 15th Engineers which was an Engineer Battalion that was organic to the 9th Infantry Division. The two older Vietnamese gentlemen are conversions of figures from Masterbox. The one speaking with the Engineer has a body from the "Somewhere in Saigon" kit with a head from the "Charlie on the left" kit. His clothing was altered from being a uniform into civilian clothing. The other guy has a head from the "Charlie on the left" kit and a body from the spares box that received some clothing from Magic Sculpt. The Vietnamese woman is a conversion of one of the prostitutes from the "Somewhere in Saigon" kit. Basically all I did was sculpt more appropriate clothing over that she was already wearing. The figures, as with everything else, was painted with acrylics.
The structure was created using the building block system from Hansa Systems which was then covered with a layer of ground texture that was sanded down to replicate stucco texture. The roof is from Model Victoria. The title floor is from Plastruct. The boxes that were repainted civilian colors are from Armand Bayardi. The clothes rack and the shelves were made with styrene products from Plastruct. The tour jackets on the rack were sculpted from Magic Sculpt and were painted to represent the two most common types of tour jackets - those made of black cloth with a white silk linings and those made from ERDL camouflage pattern poncho liner material. I had originally sculpted two Ao Dais and a separate tour jacket to include with these, but when it came time to paint them I could not find them and even to this day cannot find them. Since I needed at least one Ao Dai, I took one of the Diopark figures of a lady in an Ao Dai, cut away the leg portions and added the collar area and the sleeves. On the shelves once can see a blue bag with yellow straps that ties this diorama with the one with the bakery, cameras, a camo hat, folded camo uniforms, a rolled up spotted camo poncho liner, folded civilian clothing (mostly Ao Dais), bins containing boxes that contain trinkets and small products, Vietnamese dolls, woven bags, conical hats, boxes of beverages, a cooler, and a storage box. The three black lacquer paintings were made by printing off images of real paintings and attaching them to heavy card stock once they were cut to size. A gloss varnish was applied to give them some shininess. The cat is from Paracel Miniatures and is painted to look like one of my cats.
The small patch of groundwork was made from Magic Sculpt and textured with AK Interactive's Dark Earth texture product. This was then painted to resemble the tannish brown soil found in this part of Vietnam which was unlike the red clay from the Central Highlands that most people associate with Vietnam.
The photos are of this piece from various angles that hopefully show the various small details. Also included in the photos is one of the three pieces of the "Shopping in Long Thanh" series displayed together at the Tulsa Figure Show last weekend and one of the same three in my pop up photo booth.
Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
James
