from SteveM: 15mm Vietnam War US Air Cav, NVA & Howitzers (237 points)

Steve provides us with another entry which is a bit off the beaten path: Vietnam War US Air Cavalry,  Howitzers and North Vietnamese Army Regulars.

These are 15mm Battlefront miniatures that were featured in Wargames Illustrated a few years ago (the December 2009 issue, if I have it right).

I'll let Steve describe his project:

'They are based for use with 'Force on Force' to go with the LZ Bird North of An Khe December 26, 1966. The US forces in the firebase and the NVA coming out of the jungle. Part of the 12th Cavalry, C Company 2^nd Battalion, had just celebrated Christmas and thought that the base was secure because of the heavy rains, swollen river, and the fact that the base was surround by the Kim Son River on three sides. The 22^nd Regiment of the NVA did an all out assault on the base and these figs will recreate the battle as the US forces and the new beehive rounds fight them back.'

'The guns are 105mm howitzers by Battlefront from their WW2 line. For the color scheme of the staff, I was having trouble determining if the white/red scheme was still used in Vietnam or if just Olive Drab was used as most of the images I looked at had the staff removed. Since the staff is modelled on, I decided to just go with it instead of painting it out of sight.  The gun pits are being constructed per the Osprey Firebases book with ammo dumps so I used plain bases for most of the howitzers.'

Back when the earth was still cooling, I did my thesis on the Vietnam War so I find this all very interesting.  I quite like the work he did on the howitzer bases - very nice.

This group of 25 US and 30 NVA with 12 guns will give Steve an enviable 237 points.  Enough for him to bypass Ray and claim second place!