Profile Photo
Thomas Sweeney
36 articles

The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise…

October 30, 2015 · in Diorama · 9 · 1.2K

The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks by the Vietcong (rebel forces sponsored by North Vietnam) and North Vietnamese forces, on scores of cities, towns, and hamlets throughout South Vietnam. It was considered to be a turning point in the Vietnam War. this is my attempt to show Tet from the other side

Reader reactions:
Awesome

16 additional images. Click to enlarge.


9 responses

  1. Great effort! I'd love to see larger pics so can get a better look at your detail!

  2. John, could be Cholon, in Saigon-that-was, or Hue, or Long Binh. I arrived in country on the tail end of Tet I (there was another the following year, on a smaller scale."Little Tet"). My Division was dropped by helicopter or roadmarched from the Delta in ACVs, getting into street fighting in Cholon, around the "Y" bridge. I also remember being driven to the 90th Replacement, and seeing the bullet scarred buildings in Long Binh. Made a young PFC thoughtful.

    I'm with Greg, like to see larger pictures, if possible.

    Big surprise to a lot of folks, but they bounced back fairly quickly. Tet gutted the VC, which cynics say was the NVAs endgame, anyhow.

    Looks like oriental architecture, to me, well done!

  3. Those signs are right on! "Spend your leisure..." Lots of "I love you too much, you buy me Saigon tea?" Oh, yeah! Doing GI laundry made some folks wealthy, by RVN standards. Hope they got to enjoy it, before the NVA arrived. You hit two of the major industries incountry. Rice farming being the biggest, of course. Lot harder than starching uniforms for us rear echelon folks. I Was a REMF for Uncle Sam.

  4. Interesting diorama's, one and all. I'd be interested in seeing what other builds, such as aircraft, armor or automotive subjects you may have done (or plan to do). Keep playin' with those pixels, Tom and you can make those photos a tad larger. Good luck.

  5. Craig Ifind it very hard to do planes, I can't ge the panel lines correctly
    I envy aircraft modelers. but some day i'll try again
    Bernard the setting of my diorama is Hue

    Thanks

    Tom

    • NOBODY get's the panel lines "correctly"...give it a shot.

    • Tom, thanks.

      Experiment with panel lines, less is more. If you use pencil, you can erase your mistakes, leaving scuff marks, normal for maintenence. Artists inks, pastels, try them and decide for yourself. Look at good color pictures, and actual aircraft, and it will give you ideas as to how it ought to look, generally, and for specific aircraft. Go to shows, see what the entrants do. Most of them are friendly, and will discuss techniques or make suggestions. If you're not in a club, join. Folks in mine give demonstrations. You'd be surprised what you can learn by watching and asking, and listening to the general discussions that follow. Clubs are a place to share and learn things from your peers.

      Craigs right, but keep in mind that we replicate, NOT duplicate.

      Good luck! Keep coming back!

  6. Hi Thomas. As others have noted, an interesting concept for a dio. If I could offer a constructive observation re the photos, you've set your piece adjacent a bright-light window, the glare of which overwhelms any detail we might otherwise be able to see. It's usually a good idea to set up a few lamps (if you don't have photo lighting gear) to cast even lighting across the scene, and use a spot effect nearer the front (for example) to open up the darker recessed areas, and of course avoid high impact light sources like windows.

  7. Bernard Thanks for the info on panel lines I will try it
    Rob Thanks for the lighting info
    I'm glad I joined your modeling site Everyone is very helpful Thanks to all of you and if I can ever be a help to you just ask

    Thanks again

    Tom

Leave a Reply