Danger Close movie

Highly recommended!

I recently read someone recommending the movie Danger Close as a good war movie.  I had never heard about it, but do know about the Battle of Long Tan.  I did not know the specifics of the battle, so went into the movie not knowing much.  I'm always up for a new war movie and also have an interest in wargaming the Vietnam war.

After watching this movie I have to classify it as one of the top war movies I've seen.  There is very little non-war content and focuses on the full timeline of the battle.  All the aspects of the battle were covered, except the North Vietnam side.  The key aspects were the D Company, chain of command, communication, artillery, APCs, and helicopters.  A close movie comparison is We Were Soldiers.  As mentioned the movie Danger Close focused solely on the battle, which We Were Soldiers did not.  It jumped back and forth to the home front.  Don't get me wrong, the battle scenes in We Were Soldiers was good, but the movie is disjointed.

While watching the movie I kept thinking Hollywood and figured there were going to be mistakes in uniforms, equipment or terrain.  The battle was mainly in a rubber tree plantation, the film seemed to be actually filmed in a rubber tree plantation.  The uniforms to my knowledge were completely authentic with all sorts of variety.  The weapons, artillery, APCs and helicopters were spot on.  The details on how all the equipment was used was cool.  Maybe someone can pick out a mistake in the movie, but it looked bang on accurate to me.  Maybe the NVA uniforms looked a bit too mint condition.

It is interesting to learn new things from a movie, such as I had no clue Australia had conscription during the Vietnam War.  A lot of focus has been on the American involvement in the Vietnam War and this movie was good to watch showing some of the Australian and New Zealand involvement.

Whether you are interested in the Vietnam War or not, I recommend this movie as a great war movie and a must see.  It is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.

CMH Meeting in 360°

Ever wonder what our monthly club (Colorado Military Historians) meetings look like in 360°?  Well, here are a couple photos.  I'm still experimenting, so I'm sure there will be more photos in the future.  A bit blurry, but I think that is due to low light.  I think the camera works better outdoors.

Click photo for 360° version.

Elephant Grass Terrain for 10mm Wargaming

For my Ia Drang Vietnam scenario I read there was elephant grass in the battlefield, so I did my research how I was going to create the long grass.  It seems that the best way to represent long grass or wheat people are using is using faux fur.  I struggled to find faux fur at my nearby fabric/hobby stores.  I ended up finally finding it at a decent fabric store in town (Denver Fabrics).  The sales clerk got a kick out of me buying the fur during a snow storm that day, saying I could use it to keep warm leaving the store.

The fur itself is too long for my 10mm scale battle, so I had to figure out how to trim it.  Also I did not find much help online regarding painting, but figured spray paint would work.  So I gave it a try originally with Krylon Camouflage ultra-flat olive green but found it was too dark.

Below is what I came up with.  I might add some more shades to the current green, but it is start.

Piece of faux fur cut as a terrain feature.



Hair trimmer with a 3/8" attachment to trim the fur.



After trimming.




Krylon emerald green gloss spray paint used on fur.

The faux fur after spray paint.  I did spray a lot of paint trying to cover all beige colour.

It starts to get glossier the longer you spray the fur, which I think is okay because it is supposed to be grass.

 

Elephant grass with 10mm NVA figures.  I might try adding some lighter green spray paint patches to tone down the uniform green colour.