During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese propaganda derided the collective Free World Military Forces (including US, Australian, New Zealand, Phillipines, South Korea and Thailand) as "Mercenaries" in the pay of the "illegitimate cronies" of the Republic of South Vietnam. In this vein, I have used this bonus round in homage to one of my favourite screen characters: Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore - callsign "Big Duke 6" - Commander of 1st/9th Air Cavalry, in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Kilgore is fantastically portrayed by Robert Duvall and delivers some of the most memorable parts of the movie including: distributing Death Cards, the 'Charlie Don't Surf!' beach BBQ scene, the Helicopter Assault playing Ride of the Valkyries and the iconic 'I love the smell of Napalm in the morning' monologue.
I have endeavoured to faithfully reproduce Kilgore's uniform from the film, though trying to get his flat jungle greens looking a bit more exciting was a challenge.
 |
| "You either surf, or you fight soldier!" |
From start to finish I loved painting this figure and attending to detail like shiny spit polished boots, the orangy tint of the Vietnam soil, making the death card in front of him, and of course the pearl grips of his M1911A1 Colt sidearm.
 |
| "Big Duke 6" watches his boys in action |
In addition to this Bonus round submission, I guess that I have now started a Bolt Action Vietnam force. Maybe just a few of those nice Company B grunts to watch his back in the jungle... :-)
 |
| The sculpt is from Wargames Illustrated's "Giants in Miniature" range |
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese propaganda derided the collective Free World Military Forces (including US, Australian, New Zealand, Phillipines, South Korea and Thailand) as "Mercenaries" in the pay of the "illegitimate cronies" of the Republic of South Vietnam. In this vein, I have used this bonus round in homage to one of my favourite screen characters: Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore - callsign "Big Duke 6" - Commander of 1st/9th Air Cavalry, in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Very lifelike, well done.
ReplyDeleteNice brushwork mate!
ReplyDeleteArgh! It's a never-ending interweb iframe vortex!
ReplyDeleteVery well done, and I liked the background story too. He came out great!
ReplyDeleteGreat iconic figure, nicely done!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Vietnam in 28mm? It's a slippery slope mate. ;)
ReplyDeleteVery well executed.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely executed
ReplyDeleteLooks great Paul!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Smells like... victory.
ReplyDeleteThe death card is an excellent touch.
Some day this war's gonna end.
Nice work on this iconic character.
ReplyDeleteWhat a figure! Excellent work on the greens!
ReplyDeleteA great entry. Looks the biz!
ReplyDelete