"Vietnam War Skin Tones" Topic

So I really expanded my forces by adding figures for CIDG, Mike Force, Laotions and Cambodians. Now I have a bigger dilemna. Most of these groups were all of very different ethnicities and the skin colour varied a lot.

Now, I am not that guy that paints eight colours of paint, highlights and then washes and then does ink. No not at all. I find the best and closest colour of paint and slap it on. So, please don't waste any time selling me on techniques, washes or inks.

I tend to either stick with Stone Mountain minis paints for flesh or Coat D'Arms.
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Here is what I am thinking.

Vietnamese and Nung ethnic Chinese, stick with the oriental flesh paint colour.(215)

Nung and Hmong, perhaps oriental to suntanned flesh.(215-214)

All the various Montagnards,,, I can go anywhere from the Middle Eastern and tanned flesh all the wy to the dark flesh. (115-216, the Coat d'arms dark flesh really is more brown than black)

Laotions would be pretty similar to the Montagnard skin tones.(115)

Cambodians would be all over the board from oriental to suntanned to tanned. (215-214-115)

Could i get away with the Amerindian skin tones?
(124)

Maybe a comparison of similarity would help.
stone Mountain flesh series compared to similar number of Coat d'arms shades.

C10 caucasina
C11 ruddy-214 suntanned
C12 african-really dark black-216 dark flesh- a shade of brown to it
C13 amerind-124 dwarven
C14 oreitnal-215 oriental
C15 middle east-115 tanned

I usually take a lot of time dithering over paint colours but then once I make my choices I paint an entire taable top worth of figures as a block.

How dark or red a skin tone can I use?

You are missing out by not taking a few seconds per figure to apply a wash. Ideally you would then highlight etc (which is laborious), but a simple splodge of wash with a brush, move on, a splodge with a brush, move on etc. A "splodge" is a technical term defined as enough to flood the target, but not enough to drop on the carpet.

Eye sockets "stand out" (OK, stand in, strictly) as dark recesses, lips appear out of a blank uniform colour. The skin/uniform helmet demarcation is enhanced. They are totally transformed and come to life.

Of course you could the paint them all the same and use different washes instead!

That is kind of how I paint a platoon at a go.
Prime them all.
Base coat everybody.
Cam colour number one to them all et cetera.
Skin tones for them all.

Since I am really only dealing with faces and hands, I really can't see too much crazy need for highlighting. Now if it was some buck naked little dude in a loincloth where he is pretty much standing in his birthday suit with a pointy stick,,, maybe highlighting different areas of the body might make more sense. I suspect that the cam, if any, will probably be what gets the attention more.

As far as washed go, sometimes I just use the pot of rubbing alcohol I clean my brushes in and wash over the figures to get a bit of that affect. Normally, I just let dust and dirt do the job too.

I did take a look at some modern Indian troops I made up years ago that i painted in the amerindian paint colour and they actually look prety good.

Maybe that amerindian and middle eastern colours will be more useful than i thought.

Who am I kidding?
I have two platoons of those 1st Corps marines converted and maybe another two worth to go and here I am already dithering over paint colour it may take months before I get to them.

I can hear everyone here already laughing at me.

Ho ho ho.

We are all just a bit OCD, let's face it

I use pretty much the same flesh color on all of my 25mm-28mm Human figures (fantasy gamer, so I use a variety of "flesh tones" for diverse, non-Human, races). I apply The Dip Technique to all of my figures, so I get a wide range of Human flesh tones, just through the urethane stains I apply as a finishing wash -- no two figures are exactly alike, as some get more, and some get less, urethane stain, causing lighter/darker skin tones. I also use a couple of different colors of urethane stain, similar, but different.

I don't sweat the small stuff, and flesh tones on my Humans, at 3+ feet distance, on the tabletop, is very small stuff. YMMV. Can you really see much of a difference in skin tones, on the tabletop, en masse? Does it matter? Is if worth the effort?

If you can tell the difference, and it is worth the effort to you, then proceed. Otherwise, paint on, game on! Cheers!

Does a typical Laotian have a significantly different skin color from a Cambodian?

Laos tended to have more ethnic diversity of tribes compared to Cambodia. So, most likely tribal variety would have altereed skin tones widely.

Probably a good idea to do a mix of the darker tones from platoon to platoon since the units tended to be ethnicity based.

Cambodia is relatively a homogeneous ethnic block at about 85-90% Khmer or ethnic Cambodian. That is a pretty solid block of one peoples, compared to all of its neighbours.

Hey man, I think you have it the wrong way around. Cambodians should be darker than Laotians. Remember that they migrated from southern China, like the Thais and as opposed to the Khmers, who are indigenous.

I was thinking that anywhere from the middle eastern to the amerindian colours and I really can't go too far wrong.

Seems to be darker skin tone for the most part going from Laos and Cambodia through to the Thais and Malays.

Dude, you've got it totally wrong again. Malays are noticeably darker than Thais and their cousins the Laotians, but hey, you're set in your thinking and they're your toys, so why even bother seeking people's input.

Rocco, I think you are arguing the same thing I am saying.

Lightest to darkest the further south you go.
Vietnamese, Hmong, ethnic Chinese Nung-lightest

Lao-darker

Montagnard and odd tribes from Laos=darker again

Cambodians-again darker

Malays-with the darkest end of the spectrum

Sound about right?