Well... This weekend I have worked on my Vietnam display for the Ft. Thomas show. First, let me update you on the Cooper Firebase diorama. On Saturday I was able to get the holes and seams filled with some joint compound. I didn't use very much, just enough to fill cracks and seems. I really didn't want to increase the weight of the modules if I could help it.

Today, I was able to get a coat of latex paint on the modules, this is how the diorama currently looks. This took quite a while as I used some paint we already had and brushed it on by hand.

Here are the two modules from a slightly different angle. The bunker seems huge, but I really think it is going to be just right once everything is in the diorama. The addition of the tower and the howitzer do a nice job of balancing out the various parts of the scenery. I am planning to spray paint the diorama tomorrow night with a variety of different colors; black, dark brown, medium brown,  and a couple of different shades of a reddish tan. I like to overspray in such a way that all the various layer show up to some degree as I feel it creates a sense of depth (well sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't). Mrs. Point Man started working on sandbags this weekend too. She did the first five of a whole score of what will eventually be needed. This is what they look like. Try to imagine them building up the wall of the trench and gun pit as that is what they will eventually do.

This is perhaps not the most detailed picture, but she has found a material that has a nice scaled appearance of burlap. They have real sand in them and they stack and lay really nice. It is going to be very cool when they are all completed, They will probably make the overall diorama.


I ALSO WORKED ON THE 1:1 PART...
...of my display this weekend. Creating a lot of the paper items that I want to be part of the display.

My research of the various paper cards and documents held by average infantry soldiers during the Vietnam War began quite a while ago as I attempted to find suitable artwork for my 1:6th Projects. I only recently decided that I wanted to have these items in 1:1 scale and determined that I wanted to create authentic reproductions rather than spending the money that would be required to get my hands on originals. The result has been a rather fun and rewarding project that I will be able to show off in my display.

My Ace of Spades Death Card is based on an actual card used in Vietnam, but it is not an exact reproduction. I could have copied the art exactly, but I decided that I wanted a slightly unique look all my own and so I used a more contemporary looking Scull and Cross Bones. The death warning on the back of the card is also in French, rather than Vietnamese. By the way, that helmet band in the picture is made with actual material from the Vietnam War.

RATION PACK ACCESSORIES... to the best of my knowledge, these items are as correct as I can make them. I have had to scale them out from a Cigarette pattern found online. This is a ration pack flip top box of cigarettes containing just 4 cigarettes. It looks incredibly small to me, but all the pictures seem to bear out that this is the correct size. The other items were relatively scaled off of the book of matches. The copy is all correct.

Pocket and Wallet sized cards and pamphlets seemed to be one of the ways that the Army got important information into the hands of the Vietnam Infantryman. Here are four such items, the larges being a little four paged booklet called READY REFERENCE FACTS. There was also the two-sided card called, NINE RULES (of Conduct), another folding card called, THE ENEMY IN YOUR HANDS, which gave rules for prisoner treatment. And finally in this group another folding card which featured tips on Booby Traps. All of these examples were put out by MACV.

Three examples of Wallet sized cards. On the left, a Geneva Convention Card, In the center, a Meal Card and on the right, a Liberty Pass; the meal card is the only two sided card in the group.

The outside of the 4 fold MACV Ration Card and a Business Card for a local Taxi Driver in Bangkok; this was an actual card. Again, you can get the relative size by the book of matches. Everything has been weather to create the illusion of aged and wallet beaten items.


Well, that is what I worked on this weekend. I will be eager to hear what everyone else has been doing. Catch you later,
Have a good one!

Well, tonight I am going to continue the discussion from last night on the subject of displays. In tomorrow morning's email UPDATE I spend a little time talking about my own plans for Ft. Thomas and then look once again at some historical displays that I have looked at before, which feature both 1:6th and 1:1 scale items. I see a lot of merit in that sort of approach, especially in a situation where education is a goal as well as recruitment. Tonight though, I want to take a look at some display examples from previous Ft. Thomas shows and make a few observations.

My first illustration comes from the Evil Dr. Zorkon, this is one of his figures which has been done as a very straightforward, simple display that is incredibly effective. If you had just the figure of Bob Hope on display, it would have been a great figure, but it would not told a story. Zorkon has included the story here by making it available as text and pictures. Now, those school children who have never even heard of Bob Hope can suddenly understand his (and the USO) importance to US service men in several wars.

On a somewhat larger scale was this incredible display of WWII militaria. Boy, I sure hope this guy is going to be at this year's show. This is a beautiful display and I would sure like to see it first hand. It would be a great display with the photo board and the gear, but the clerk's desk and footlocker make you feel as though you are looking at a museum display. I don't know the particular story behind this display, but what a fantastic tribute this is. This certainly falls into the category of Museum-Quality display that I have been talking about wanting to achieve. I know I can't personally put together anything this grand, but it certainly gives me a bar to shoot for.

And while we are on the subject of 1:1 stuff, all I can say Sniperjoe is that I will have money in my pocket, so bring some of this stuff to this year's show. I would be all over this table. The merchandise is well displayed. "In your face as it were" and a reenactor would be glad they came.

This display (above) appears to be purely informational, but I want to call attention to the board with the photos on it. I think this can be very effective behind any number of figure displays. Example, you have a display of WWII American figures, the backboard could have a historical picture for each figure and a brief history of the unit. Now the next couple of shots are actually really old pictures from a show in Colorado that I attended, but they kind of demonstrate what I mean.

Both of these boards are those cheap foamcore presentation boards that are used for school science fairs, etc. The first one traces the development of action figures (as they existed at that time) to give the viewer an idea of the progression. Notice at the bottom of the board the copy with large red dates. This is sort of what I mean in the previous example. This could just have easily been copy about a particular uniform or unit.

The second board I did was about scratchbuilding and customizing. Pictures and small examples displayed on the board and in front of it some actual examples. My point in all of this is that for the price of a cheap cardboard presentation board and some color prints, you can really add a lot to your 1:6th display.


I don't think any of this is stuff that we all don't already know. I am not saying anything new here. I think we just sometimes are so focused on our models that we forget about the environment in which they are sitting. I know that I constantly struggle with this very thing. But enough about what I think. I want to hear what you all are thinking. So...check out the email update in the morning and then come back and post some comments here. We want to hear from everybody.


Until next time, Have a good one!

Over the next couple of days, the email DAILY UPDATE is going to be centered on a discussion of displays; in particular, ideas about the type of displays we want to do for Club Shows. As you all know, I have a lot of opinions and I am pretty vocal about most of them. I think it is very important though that we really put a lot of thought and planning into what each of us want to display and how we are going to go about it. Tomorrow's discussion in the email starts out with a look at how we want to do a large club diorama; is it a floor diorama? is it on tables? how many buildings are required to effectively get across the illusion of a larger city? How many vehicles, how many figures, etc, etc, etc.

I think it is important to plan. You all have already seen this drawing of my firebase concept.

Of course you have also seen the module in it's beginning stages and are aware of the fact that it doesn't look exactly like the plan because there were issues that came up during the building that I didn't anticipate. However, all of the features that I planned to incorporate in this drawing are in the actual module, even it it varies some in appearance. And I guess that is sort of my point, when we have a plan, we know where we are going, even when the road is rocky.


Example two;

Anyone who has ever seen a Haunted M5 story, has seen these buildings, but did you know that they started out as small scale drawings. My plan in building them was to have five buildings that could be set up in different patterns to create different parts of a city or town, or even a different town. I knew each building had to be a little bit different, but not so different that they would be instantly recognizable when they were meant to portray a different location than the last. So I started with rough drawings. And the result is seen below.

Well, that is all for this evening. Read the email UPDATE tomorrow and then feel free to post comments on both here.