Updated for 2026 I’m once again in the planning stages of a Vietnam wargaming project. After previous attempts in 10mm and 20mm, I’ve now decided to go for 28mm. There’s just so much more detail on the miniatures that for Skirmish games, I now consider 28mm the way to go. […]
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 […]
I’ve finally found a paint recipe for 28mm US Vietnam troops that I like. Most period photographs show the uniforms to be pretty green, whereas many paint recipes that I’ve found are too dark or too much on the brownish side. I also struggled with highlighting. I’ve used Vallejo Olive […]
Most Vietnam wargaming focuses on fighting in the countryside, usually jungle or rice paddies. This means that there is a very limited number of buildings for sale that is suitable for Hué. But what is a suitable building? Many buildings, especially in the part south of the Perfume river, where […]
Disclaimer: I read this book in the Dutch translation The 13th Valley by John Del Vecchio has been called the classic Vietnam novel. Other classic books (e.g. Dispatches by Michael Herr, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian, Chickenhawk by Robert Mason) were first-hand accounts, although O’Brian often crosses the […]
In its 30+ year career with the US Air Force, the F-4 Phantom II wore several distinctive paint schemes, unlike its Navy brothers. They started out in the same scheme, though – Gull gray and white: This scheme was still in use during the first months of the Vietnam War, […]
To me, the F-4 Phantom II is the greatest jet fighter, and possibly the greatest combat aircraft, ever. A development period of just a few years (compare that to current project such as the Eurofighter, F-22, or JSF) yielded an aircraft that, from its first flight in 1958, set new […]
Ambush Valley and Cold War Gone Hot are the latest additions to the Ambush Alley Games/Osprey line of Force on Force wargaming rules. My wife bought both for me at Crisis 2011 in Antwerp. Ambush Valley is 180 pages in full color. It contains theater-specific rules and six scenarios, but […]
In Street without Joy, Bernard Fall describes and analyses France’s failure in the First Indochina War, focusing on the second half (1950-1954). Based on his personal experiences and thorough research both in French and Vietnamese archives (he met and interviewed Ho Chi Minh during one of his visits to North […]
Chickenhawk, by Robert Mason, tells the story of a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. Mason had always wanted to fly and already held a private pilot’s license when he volunteered for the Army to fly helicopters. His flight training is recounted in the book. He is then assigned to […]
My 10mm Vietnam project is partly completed – all troops are painted. Terrain consists of a few hooches, some terrain features by TimeCast Models, and some home-made trees. Two test games using the Ambush Valley rules for Force on Force showed that 10mm works great for skirmish gaming. Future additions […]
I have re-read two books by Stephen Coonts, Flight of the Intruder and The Intruders. They tell the story of Jake Grafton, a US Navy pilot flying the Grumman A-6 Intruder, during his second Vietnam war cruise in 1972 and a peacetime cruise in in 1972. Coonts was an Intruder […]
