"The Don Mc Cullen of North Yorkshire" Topic

And all without leaving the village on the North York Moors (thank God!)

I did say I had some spare backgrounds and had meant to show the bazooka team. As before all Gringos40 28mm figures from the Hue range.

Plus my favourite photo, also as before, is the last one!

nice but as a photographer I prefer Tim Page for that era

Good call! Now you mention it……..so do I.

Ged might think I got a sneak copy of his yet to be released M48. I like the weathering on this version. It looks very realistic…

Again backgrounds are all Hue either then or now….you can probably tell which is which!

blimey Liam you have excelled yourself ..the melding of the real and model soldiers is clever,,having trouble working out which is which and the are my figures!!..love the Super Bazooka picture…tres realistic!..the Patton tank in colour with Gringo40s Marines behind looks awesome!

regards
Ged
gringo40s.com
gringo40s.blogspot.com

That is just amazing work. Hard to tell the minis from the photos.

Ged,
When will we see more NCOs? I am planning an order, but I really don't fancy the guy with the grease gun.

Yer kidding nnascati. That guy with the grease gun is one of the best of the range, I think personally (but see below)

I imagine everyone assumes I am somehow commercially linked to Ged's work. No way. Never even spoken to him, in the real world. Even on this new electric telephone idea.

I am a Napoleonic fan……with an interest in Pearl Harbour, Finland 1939, Liberation of Paris, Waterloo of course, etc

I put up some more Hue 68 pics now, as a new topic. I still like the Black and White best, as easiest to make look realistic. I have Photoshop (well one son does have it and I have access, but no idea how to even start using it. I could do far better then!)

I have said that some of this new range is probably the best I have ever seen in 28mm, for modelling and casting. But I can criticise. (with a Z, over the Pond). I think some are too short in the leg and I added a few mms length to three of these figures. Esp the Colonel….I actually overdid it. But also the LT raising his hand in caution.

Front Rank do it, as Hobbits, and get away with it. We want tall guys with long legs (I stress I have been married to three human females over the last 40 years, none at the same time, so when I say "We want etc…" I mean… we want to see…etc). I am trying to say that…Oh forget it.

Not my favorite at all. I want my NCOs with M16s or M14s.

Nice work !

Don't know if any USMC had M14s at Hue. But it is possible …

Good response.

(On this forum any response means someone is listening)

I will not get onto the current TMP problems and how folk are responding.

I think the contributors, who still persist, are superb.

The word is that an SMG is right for a chap who just happened to dismount from an AFV….to be honest, if I met Charles or, more likely, Nathaniel Victor, at two to three yards range, whilst celebrating the Vietnamese New Year…..I would chose an MP3.

I would take a grease gun anyway. But if you mean the model, he is amongst the best in the range. His legs are too short, I agree. That is is just 100% in any range for most (any?) range.

The M 14s by 1968? I doubt it. My understanding is that the Marines got the crap left over, ever since 1942, but I have not seen an M14 in Hue in my research (Again I thank God that an accident of Geography made this an academic issue for me, unlike a Cousin who left Ireland for the US, served and came back intact…probably because he never remotely left a service area, ticking boxes on a sheet, day after day.)

No, the model itself is great, as is the whole range. It is the grease gun that puts me off. To me, that is a WWII tanker's weapon.

It were very late in WWII as such, were that Grease Gun.

I am an expert (on Waterloo, even then only for 12 hours on 18th June 1815 though)

Much evidence that it was used as "better than nowt if tha's faced wi' Charlie ant Pig's jammed ant sappers art through wire and we put t'claymores pointing in't wrong direction "

as us folk say oop North (even if we are actually Irish and teased by our sons for our BBC accents)

nnascati

there will be some more NCOs for sure!

cheers
Ged
gringo40s.com
gringo40s.blogspot.com

What you mean I have to tell'er indoors I am doing more of these "blooming" Marines? She wants some time with me, I presume for intercourse, across a table, social obviously..

I have said the poses I want added. Ged has said "Oh yes".

Ged, should I hold up on ordering?

Do not be so cruel,

I can hear a sobbing noise, even from here…hr needs the orders bless him

I do suspect we might see the "odd Marine" still….

I must stress that, these days of inclusivity , I have no problem with anyone who choses to…..

Oh heck. All I mean is there are still huge omissions in this range. That is the snag,when you make figures that can be criticised in some cases, but overall, for someone who had had no interest in this period since it actually happened in 1968…..

These might just be the best 28mm figures of all time. At least 75% are anyway. The RTO all three are so. There must be some prize somewhere each year surely!

Nick…take a little while…why not order
and add later…up to you old chap!!

regards
Ged
gringo40s.com
gringo40s.blogspot.com

Deadhead,

You have created and fine tuned the new art of photo diorama.
Some of those pics are done so well, you have to look twice to determine the miniatures from the real Marines in the background. That black and white one looks straight out of the archives.

As to later mention of M14s in '68, not sure about Hue, but they were certainly around other areas of I Corps that year,
including Khe Sanh. I carried one for the most of that year.

NCO weapons, varied from M14s,M16s and even shotguns.
Staff NCOs were also issued M1911s, but most also carried a rifle. Reason being less distinction from regular enlisted men as well as greater firepower.

I too question the grease gun or the thompson for that matter for Marine infantry NCOs or officers.

I can't speak for the Marines but weapons like the grease gun and the M-14 were still in use in some Army units in 1969* and still popped up in 1971-72. Given that the official submachinegun was a sawed-off M-16 and the official rifle was either the original version of the plastic popgun or the A1 version with the "forward bolt assist", a placebo if there ever was one, it makes sense that weapons that actually worked when you pulled the trigger would hang around.

* in Viet Nam. The M-14 remained the standard rifle for the rest of the Army until late 1969; replacing it with the M-16 was not universally popular among the troops.

LT

Good intel Vets !

To me, that is a WWII tanker's weapon.

Some of our AFVs crews still had M3s in the '80s

Ged,
Order placed. I'll use the Lt. figure as an NCO.

You will not regret adding an M3 to your range of weapons.

Some evidence that it was seen in Hue 68;

and I did misspell that photographer's name too!

Deadhead,

Wouldn't have believed it until I saw it! :-) Now you have got my curiosity up. Would love to hear more detail on who and when that photo was taken. Several years ago, lots of unit chronologies have been declassified. Be worthwhile to do a little research on this one. With his RTO close by, I am guessing that he is an officer.

thanks for the post.

The M3 Grease gun was – from what I have read and seen on youtube – very reliable – low maintenance and fired the very powerful .45 round.

As such pretty ideal for officers, RTOs and others not expected to 'put out rounds' in a regular firefight but nonetheless wanting something for personal defence.

As the photo shows they were definitely in use in Hue and elsewhere.

The so called 'Swedish K' was also popular with Seals and other special forces/advisers for similar reasons. They were scarce though due to the Swedish arms embargo on the US during the fighting in South East Asia.

It's great to have a bit of variety anyway.

Bismarck.

Cannot identify the Marine unit, but the photographer was Kyoichi Sawada who took many of the most iconic VN War photos and was killed in 1970. The pic was taken on 4th Feb 68 and it is Hue no doubt.

Concealed by the RTO is another chap whose camera is just visible, but I think there is also a telephone cord seen at highest magnification. ?another RTO? It might just be a camera strap though!

Deadhead,

Thanks for the info and pic. Now with the date, I can possibly trace what units were in that area on that particularly date. I am mostly curious since the M3 was not listed as a TO&E weapon if you look at Marine rifle companies.

On first look, I thought the Marine carrying it was from an ONTOS section, which with the small size of that little beast, the M3 would be a perfect fit. But as narrow as that street was, I doubt they would have brought one in that close. Skarper mentioned the Swedish K, which I did see from time to time, but usually carried by recon units or other special force troops.

Ammunition supply was my biggest concern about M3 use. 7.62 and 5.56 rounds were more commonly supplied. I can see availability of .45 rounds could have been an issue.

Appreciate my marching orders to enjoy some leisure time doing a little research!

thanks again!

Sure. The same photographer took this image. very high resolution so enlarges well. Chap on extreme right is carrying an M3. (if you Google his name it is incredible how many of the most famous images were his!)

So I hunted some more and, pure chance, came across a wonderful YouTube (OK that should be an oxymoron, but not here) video about Tet.

2/5 at 5mins 59 secs….there he is, with a modernised M3 in Hue and he is with the ground troops, it would seem;

YouTube link

low maintenance and fired the very powerful .45 round.

True but like many SMGs it's range is short and especially for the M3 could be inaccurate based on skill level. However at closer ranges is can put a lot of rounds out at a target.

Liam
just a note on correspondents in the Nam…there between 600-700 accredited to the Military Assistance Command in Vietnam!..you would get a little plastic coated card from MACV and off you went! in actual fact there were only 50 hard core…of these probably ten including Stone,Page etc who rose to the top.of the 650 others no one really knew who they were or where they went…many just ended up in drinking dens in Saigon..and on the outskirts of the War.
The hard core guys and girls suffered for their craft..without them I guess a rounded picture of the events would not have been possible. Hats off to them all.
not to forget the artists and photographers that accompanied the NVA and main force VC.
cheers
Ged
gringo40s.com
gringo40s.blogspot.com

Well Kyoichi Sawada climbed up the Dong Ba Tower with the Marines and took some simply incredible colour images of close range fighting, with dead and wounded all around him. He was clearly no "Saigon warrior"

I guess you had photographers, film crews and reporters all seeking the truth in their own way (most without leaving the bars of Saigon of course).

I guess you had photographers, film crews and reporters all seeking the truth in their own way (most without leaving the bars of Saigon of course).

Or getting the Big scoop, get a Pulitzer and be famous like Woodward & Bernstein !

Notably e.g. Joe Galloway with the US 1st Cav was not that way. He picked up an AK and shot some NVA trying to overrun the LZ.