After procrastinating for years (literally), I’ve finally managed to finish 12 Empress Vietnam-era USMC miniatures. The paint recipe is described here. The Empress miniatures are very nice with realistic proportions, and go together well with the few Gringo 40s miniatures that I have finished earlier. 

This means that I’m once again in the planning stages for a Hué-based gaming table. I want something small, with as centerpiece the colonial mansion that I 3D-printed some time ago. The challenge is to give players meaningful decisions on such a small table. Luckily, both period photos and current Google Streetview imagery show an abundance of walls and vegetation, so it should be possible to make the table feel bigger than it really is. Another challenge is finding suitable buildings. There are actually surprisingly few options, with some of them out of production since I last took inventory – another reason to keep the table small. Sarissa Precision has the biggest selection.

• The African/colonial range looks nice, but would need roofs.
• The Mediterranean range is not entirely unsuitable, but they all aren’t very deep, which makes them look a bit strange.
• The Japanese range has a few slightly larger buildings that could work.
• The Far East range has a more modern building that is somewhat similar to the MACV compound and could work as well. The hooches are more suitable for countryside games.