Anzac Day 2022- M60 Gunner, Vietnam

Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) were deployed to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. The proportion of conscripted National Servicemen ('Nashos') rose throughout the years. From 1967, New Zealand contributed an infantry company as part of the ANZAC Battalion.

Each doctrinal section had one M60 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun. 

5RAR 1966

7RAR 1967

7RAR, 1970

3RAR, 1968

7RAR, 1970

Oil painting by Bruce Fletcher, 1967

2RAR, 1971

This gunner is patrolling professionally, albeit with a finger on the trigger. He’s got his sleeves rolled down and has cam paint on. He wears a scrim scarf and a giggle hat. He’s made a protective belt sleeve from a cut-up plastic air mattress.

This is a companion piece to my 2016 Anzac Day post, a rifleman with an SLR. It’s an OzMade 54mm sculpt by Mike Broadbent I painted about 20 years ago. I made the distinctive front sight from a bent staple! I have given the figure a bit of a touch-up with a wash, and added some tufts to the base. I also used some HO ferns from JTT. The improved basing really brings it up a notch, but I could blend the groundwork in better. The plinth needs a touch-up as well.

Lest we forget.

Picture sources:

Top: Lyles, K. 2004. Elite 103: Vietnam ANZACs. Osprey Publishing.

All others: Australian War Museum

28mm chainlink fencing

I've been neglecting this blog recently as I concentrated on AHPC XII. Last week's battle report had some fencing scenery which I made for the Challenge. My first idea was to use spare 20x100mm bases from Renedra. I also thought I could refashion the sprues as the posts. Here's my first frustrating attempt:

A lot of unsatisfying work to get to this.

Then! I recalled I own a 3D printer. I bodged some simple shapes together on TinkerCAD, an elementary browser-based 3D program.

I'm a 3D sculptor now

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V

A couple of hours later I had all the fence posts I would need. Much easier than making them from sprue... The top arms were a bit long so I cut them to size. I made some corner bases from plasticard. I cut some aluminium mesh, and secured it with twists of wire. This was fiddly. Then I PVA'd some grit, and sprayed the whole thing grey. I slapped on some browns and orange, and finished the basework. Voilà!

Ready for priming

64" of fencing, 16"x16"

One has a hole

I think I should make a gate*. Maybe some signs which could be swapped out depending on the game I am playing.

Robodoggies from Imitation of Life

* Opening or static? One gate or a pair?

Soviet NBC troops

Is there anything more terrifying than Soviet gasmasks?

I painted ten of these Eureka figures over ten years ago and really liked them, so I got another five riflemen to round them out. I finally got around to painting these five last week- shame on me! I took the opportunity to finish off some details on my originals, and to rebase them. My paints and painting style have changed, but these were refreshingly quick compared to a lot of the GW stuff I've found myself slogging through lately.

GP-5 gasmasks

Leader has a GP-5m with 'voicemitter'

PKM machine gun

SVD marksman rifle

DP-12 Contamination Survey Meter. This figure is a ringer for art in Osprey Elite #12

Osprey Elite #12 Inside the Soviet Army today

AT-3 Sagger operator. Minimum range 500m!

So now I've gone and ordered a copy of Zona Alfa... I can see some sort of subterranean Stranger Things/ Delta Green thing coming on... The bear came over the mountains of madness?

PS: If you haven't seen HBO's Chernobyl, it is superb.

PPS: Oh no, I just saw Eureka has more figures in this range... may need to get them...

PPPS: I would love these in 15mm.

PPPPS: I really need a BRDM or a BTR...

Barks in Japan- Kure naval museums

I took a 30 min train trip from Hiroshima, along the Inland Sea, to Kure. Kure became a shipbuilding town after the Meiji restoration of the late 19th century. It is most famous for constructing IJN Yamato, then the world's heaviest armed battleship, in the late 1930s.

Yamato Museum

The Kure Maritime Museum is better known as the Yamato Museum. It is a well-laid out museum with adequate English signage, following the history of Kure's shipbuilding from its earliest days, through early 20th century conflicts and pivoting to post-war merchant vessels. The highlight, of course, is the spectacular 1:10 scale Yamato model- 26m long! There are also many 1:100 model ships, and some WW2 midget submarines and a Mitsubishi Zero.

IJN Yamato

46cm guns

Yamato was sunk in April 1945 by aerial attack, on a one-way mission to Okinawa. Her wreck has been located and she lies in 350m of water.

Bow on the left, stern and mid-section flipped on the right.

Brace yourself for a lot of 1:100 model ship pics! We'll start with early 20th century and move forwards chronologically.

Dispatch boat Miyako

First Class Cruiser Tsukuba

Submarine No.6. This boat sank, and the trapped captain became a posthumous hero for his recovered notes.

Battleship Kongo

Battleship Nagato.

Aircraft Carrier Akagi

First Class Cruiser Mogami

I-16 and I-52. Note the midget submarine!

I-37 and I-400. Note the seaplanes and midget sub!

Postwar tanker Nisseimaru

Tanker Ihi

Even my eyes glazed over when faced with more ships...

All those models above are the same scale!

Mitsubishi Zero

Kamikaze submarine/ manned torpedo

1:3000 scale model of Kure

The Iron Whale

On the other side of the road from the Kure Maritime Museum is the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) Museum, better known as The Iron Whale, for obvious reasons.

SS-579 Akishio

JDS Akishio is a Yushio-class diesel-electric boat which was in service from the mid 1980s to the mid 2000s. She's 76m long, and has had holes cut in her so visitors can walk around without having to squeeze through hatches.

On the inside.

The JMSDF Museum is free, and has one floor devoted to submarines, and another devoted to minesweeping. Japan send the minesweeping tender Hayase to help clear up the Persian Gulf after the Gulf War.

Postwar submarines

Hayase- note the rotary cannon on the bow.

20mm rotary cannon from the Hayase for destroying surface mines.

Kure is a nice little day excursion from Hiroshima. Highly recommended for those of a naval interest.

Panoramic view out over the shipyards

Next time- notes on Japanese hobby shops.