Vietnam War in 20mm

Here are some 20mm Vietnam War US Army minis, from various manufacturers.  More pics and info about the project after the bump.  Thanks for looking!

A short platoon in the field: three squads of 8 men each, a platoon command element, and two M-60 teams

My favorites from the bunch, from left to right: the LT, a radioman, the platoon sergeant, a heroic rifleman, and "Ginger"

It had been my plan to do both the French Indochina War and the American involvement in Vietnam in 15mm.  However, my friend Russ came into the store for our regular game and brought boxes of 20mm Vietnam stuff.  He already had very well painted US vehicles and tons of unpainted American troops, as well as some PAVN and NLF troops. We decided to paint these up. I can still do French Indochina in 15's later, since the only terrain that's terrible scale specific in Vietnam would be small village structures.

I have an order of Esci plastic Vietnamese incoming from a seller on eBay.  The US figures here are a mix of manufacturers--I'm really not sure who! RAFM, Combat, Platoon 20, and Elhiem, I think.   They are based on US pennies.  I added radio aerials to the radiomen; the wire is obviously out of scale but easier to handle and more resilient.  I tried something a bit different with the bases, to create that dry, orange clay so common in Vietnam--I used a mix of flocks (fine brown gravel, yellow-brown flock, and orange flock), topped with green static grass tufts.

For the Americans, I didn't bother doing the camo on their helmets.  In many photographs, the camo pattern is barely visible, especially at a distance, because of intense fading by the sun, rain, and dust/mud.  I'm doing the Vietnamese in a mix of khakis, green jungle fatigues, and civilian wear.

As for rules---we have several to try out, including Too Fat Lardies' "Charlie Don't Surf" and modified "Troops Weapons and Tactics," Nordic Weasel's "No End in Sight," 2 Hour Wargames "FNG," and my own "A Sergeant's War," modified to suit Vietnam.