"15mm Medieval Vietnamese?" Topic

I've gotten back to working on DBA armies for South East Asia, and am pondering if there's a good way to build a Medieval (and later end of Early) Vietnamese army. I know there are no dedicated figure ranges, so working out best available models and with some light conversion work if needed that might do the trick.

Currently, top contenders look like Eureka's Nan Chao for the court troops, Grumpy's Ming Chinese with plumes removed to get the conical leather helmets for the peasant levy, and Khurasan's Zhuang from their Sung range for tribal warbands.

Anyone familiar with these ranges to comment on how they might work together? I know Nic reported the Nan Chao as 14.5mm toe-to eye. Are the Grumpy and Khurasan compatible with that?

Anyone else built this army, and if so by what route?

I have Grumpy Ming figures and the Khurasan Zhuang. Different style but reasonably good size match. The Khurasan Chinese are a much more regular 15/18mm scale than their much larger medieval European ranges.
I think they would be okay with the Nan Chao.

That's good news Swampster. I might even get a larger pile of the Zhuang. The old DBM Vietnamese list has an embedded option for Tribal Ally that could easily be broken out for it's own DBA army.

A double-Viet plus Zhuang ally would make a nice big battle army.

For the mass of tribal infantry I use cetain packs of Peter Pig Montagnards from thei 15mm Vietnam War range. The packs would be the spears, crossbows, command, and ambushers. These all have traditional weapons but none have shields. Clothing consists of a loincloth.This is not my idea, I.m following the suggestions of Tony Aguilar.

Khutasan and Eureka work fine together. Ihave no idea regarding Grumpy. My Nan Chao are a mix of Eureka and Khurusan. They look fine together.

Also good news, rvandusen.

What is the toe-to-eye height on the Peter Pig please?

I'll likely stick with the Zhuang plan for more recent sculpts. They're a Thai language group that spans across the Chinese-Viet border. But the Montagnards are a good trick to have filed away.

Cheers,
Cat

The P.P. figs look fine next to Essex/Eureka Khurasan. They have a convincing look for early Vietnam. Should sit fine next to the Nan Chao. My only very minor criticism is that the P.P. crossbow looks a little small when compared with the real weapons I have seen, though these home-made devices might vary in size. In any cse, one could stick with Eureka or Essex for "Chinese-style" crossbows.

Thanks!

You're welcome! Tonight I am priming P.P. resin hooches for my BUA, They are nice litttle models and 1-piece castings without anachronisms such as jerry cans, oil drums, or firearms depicted leaning aginst wallsthat must be filed off. I will send to Timecast for some more hooches and latec paddy fields.

Tonight I got some paint on an Outpost triple Cham army that's gradually coming along more after a long hiatus.

This morning I finished up my BUA hooches from Peter Pig. I want a few more of the simplest type. I also looked at those P.P. crossbows again and reslize I spoke too soon. They are fine as is. My vision is not what it used to be. Once removed from the pack and viewed under magnification it eliminated the false perspective and the weapons are sized correctly. I wish I had taken advantage of the Outpost ranges years ago. The T'ang and Sui looked pretty cool and would fit in nicely. I have several of their European Dark Ages figures and they fit right in with the others that I have from various manufacturers.

Shortly after the turn of the century, I stocked up on a lot of Outpost, and got a fair start on painting before getting distracted into other projects. Very happy with the lot, and hope to get some big SE Asia battles brewing this year. Triple Cham, triple Khmer, one Burmese and one T'ang.

Need to make some Tropical terrain now too…

Essex do some barbarians and dagger axemen in the Han Chinese range which would be good for Vietnamnese.