From Curt: Viet Minh Infantry and Palm Trees (75 Points)

I can't believe we're coming near to the close of the Challenge. Where did the three months go? I must say I've really had a great time this season, visiting some of my ongoing projects - adding a unit here, topping off a unit there. It was all a bit mad really.

One project which I'm happy to revisit is my slow foray into 1950s French Indochina. I've been working on this collection since 2013 and, heaven forbid, with this group done, I think I may actually have enough to put on a game. So yes, it may take a while, but the manic squirrel eventually gets the job done.

Here for you today is a Viet Minh assault squad along with some new palm trees for them to advance through as they close in upon their French foes.

These figures are from Empress Games and are sculpted by the talented (and bewilderingly prolific) Paul Hicks. I had the pleasure of painting most of this unit while visiting with Greg in Winnipeg last month. Being pretty much an all khaki force, it allowed me to think-less and drink-more while working on them - a great, if often unsung feature of this period. :)

This squad was originally composed of 10 castings, but I felt these boys really needed a banner bearer to properly send them off. I have this pathological need to have flags in as many units as possible, especially for any modern force that had the stones to carry a flag into pitched combat. I find the whole notion of banner bearers (eagle guards, draco carriers, etc.)  all very nutty, utterly vainglorious and absurdly romantic. Anyway, I didn't have a suitable figure in my unpainted pile, so I used a model which was originally posed to throw a grenade. So a few minutes under the saw and pin vise and presto-flago: a suicidally keen banner bearer! I liberally brushed the flag with watered-down PVA and then shaped it so that it's rolled around the flagstaff. This way he looks like he's slowly unfurling his banner which he has had cased while moving through the jungle.

I freely admit that the basework may be a little over the top, but having seen pictures and film footage of the verdant undergrowth in Southeast Asia I figured I could indulge a bit with these guys. I like that when they're all bunched up they convey advancing through a rainforest.  

Finally, speaking of terrain, here are a few more palm trees to add to my burgeoning rainforest. These were made with a clustered wire armature, wrapped with glue-soaked medical gauze and then artificial fern leaves were hot-glued on the upper wires. 

As to points? We have eleven 28mm infantry and a grove of palms which are approximately the equivalent of a single 6x6 cube. With mitts and socks off to count fingers and toes, my math puts that at 75 points.

A big thank you to Robert and the Friday Follies for letting me join in today. Have a great weekend everyone!

Curt

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We interrupt your usual Friday Follies to bring you a special guest entry.

Fresh from the brushes of the Snowlord himself comes a sojourn into the elephant grass of French Indochina. Though the palm trees will work almost anywhere, though.

75 points of splendiferousness and another Squirrel point for the Snowlord!