US Airman in Vietnam figure - COMPLETED!

[JamesOLeary]

My dad who is a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran and retired Army Senior NCO is getting back into modeling (he was the one who got me into it when I was a kid) and wants to build a street scene and needed to learn how to paint figures so they look halfway decent but do not take too long to build and paint. With the new MasterBox "Somewhere in Saigon" kits, I set out to help my dad paint some figures. The figure I used as a teaching tool is the one on the bottom right of this sprue shot of a guy with his hands in his pockets. Since the guy has his boots unbloused, I decided to paint him as an Airman in Vietnam.

For this figure, to simplify the painting process, I used a base color with one highlight and one shadow color. I painted this figure in probably around 8 hours or less. Here he is before receiving his Air Force insignia.

Here he is with his nametag, US Air Force tape, and rank insignia:

Now to make a small base for this guy.

Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Did they have line badges then?

Great tones, just fantastic.

 

[JamesOLeary]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Not sure. I'll have to do some research on that. I can always add one if they did have them back then.

Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

I'm sure they did but not sure what his job is. Might not need one at the trailer shop.

 

[jknaus]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

WOW but thats nice. Really wish I could paint like that.
JAmes

 

[JamesOLeary]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Thanks, James. I will be doing a SBS on the next figure I do for this campaign.

MP, from the pictures I could find of Air Force Personnel wearing jungle fatigues in Vietnam in 1967, very few had anything other than their name tape, US Air Force tape, and rank. Some SPs and PJs had their patches and flight crewmen had their badges. I don't know what this guy's job is either. I made the figure into an Airman mainly because of the unbloused boots and I wanted to do an Air Force figure with the blue and white patches.

Cheers,
James

 

[moon puppy]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Works for me. :salute

 

[SA Dave]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Fantastic

 

[lupanzer]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Well don,James

Luiz

 

[Frank]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

Looking good James.
It must be cold where he is at, I see he has his Air Force gloves on.
Frank :yipee

 

[JamesOLeary]

US Airman in Vietnam figure

With Soonercon 2017 approaching, I thought I should go ahead and make a base for this figure after my dad told me that the figure kind of looks like one of his neighbors when the neighbor had served in Vietnam. I got some basic information about him and it turns out that he was an Air Force Airman First Class at Cam Ranh Bay in 1967 and 1968, so that is the setting I chose for this figure.

Here is the figure on a groundwork made from Magic Sculpt that I tried to make look like the sands at Cam Ranh Bay. A1C Fred Jones said that he bought himself a reel to reel tape recorder at the exchange as a Christmas gift for himself so I incorporated that into the base.

Once the putty dried, I painted it flat black, then drybrushed successive layers of lighter and lighter shades of sand colors. Here are the final results:

Sorry about some of the images being kind of blurry.

I titled the figure:

Airman First Class Fred Jones, Cam Ranh Bay, RVN December 1967

I brought this to Soonercon 2017 and entered it into the figure category and it won second place. I was kind of surprised as I thought some of my other figures were better, but perhaps it was the subject matter. There aren't many Air Force figures being displayed as single figures or in many dioramas.

Now this project is complete...Air Force Ribbon...check.

Cheers,
James

 

[SA Dave]

Awesome

 

[Duke Maddog]

Magnificent! As an Air Force brat myself; I appreciate my father's branch being represented as well. Way to go and congrats on the award.