The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG) was a clandestine special operations unit of the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
MACVSOG's missions included reconnaissance, cross-border operations, sabotage, and psychological warfare. The unit was composed mostly of Army Special Forces, Marine Corps Force Recon, and Air Force and Navy personnel. MACVSOG also employed hundreds of indigenous personnel, including Montagnards, Nung Hill tribesmen and South Vietnamese.
The unit's operations were conducted in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam, as well as South Vietnam. These missions were highly classified and often denied by the U.S. government. MACVSOG operated under tight secrecy, and its personnel were required to sign non-disclosure agreements and could not wear any identification or insignia. They were also encouraged to use equipment that would not identify them as Americans, leading to recon teams kitted out in a hodgepodge of gear.
During its eight-year existence, the unit conducted over 3,000 missions and suffered an over 100% casualty rate, meaning that everyone who served under the unit was either wounded multiple times, or died. Its legacy is felt long after the war's end as its innovative tactics and techniques influenced the development of modern special operations tactics.
For more information on MACVSOG I highly recommend the books Across the Fence and SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos, both of which are authored by veterans of the unit.
The MACVSOG miniatures I will be painting in this blog entry are from Gringo40s. I love painting Gerard’s minis, they have big, pronounced details which makes highlighting really easy, so let’s crack on with these guys because I’ve only got until September to finish them in time for Pacificon.
First I zenithal primed the miniatures by spraying them black, then spraying them grey from above, and then dry brushing white over the entire model. This should create white raised sections, grey midsections, and black recesses, which will accentuate the contrast paints shading and highlighting properties.
For the purpose of deniability, MACV-SOG did not wear the typical gear of US forces. Instead they opted for an eclectic mix of gear and uniforms in different camouflages and green tones. I applied different shades of grey, black and green contrast paints to clothes and hats.
Next I painted the straps, sacks, ALICE webbing, vests, boots, backpacks and canteens in various tones of black, brown and green. I also painted the weapons.
Most of the time when painting military figures, hobbyists go through some effort trying to get accurate colors for uniforms, luckily MACVSOG purchased their own gear and modified/dyed it as needed, freeing painters to decide what colors they want to paint each piece of equipment. As long as you stay within the earth tone range, you’re good.
Next, I did the skin and hair. I tried to give them European, African and South East Asian skin and hair colors. Once that was finished I highlighted the skin, weapons, and black clothing. I'm not going to highlight the green clothing because I'm going to paint a camouflage pattern over them, which would just hide any highlighting anyways.
Oh and I also painted the wrist watches and ammunition belts
...and the dog. Its a German shepherd!
Alright, almost done. Now for the fun part, the camouflage. I’m going to use 2 different patterns: Tiger Stripe and ERDL. Now I get to reveal a handy secret I use for uniform references.
Video games! This particular game is called ARMA 3 and it’s been very useful for painting my Vietnam project. It has most the equipment and vehicles used by most the militaries around the world going back almost 90 years. You can even zoom in for close ups to observe fine details. Try doing that with an Osprey book! Another great series for uniform references is the Total War series which has detailed uniforms for Rome, The Three Kingdoms, Medieval periods, Sengoku and Bushin War Japan, the Napoleonic Era, and more.
Anyways, using these references, I have a general idea of how to paint the camouflages patterns I want to use. ERDL is made up of large brown and olive patterns and a thinner black pattern on top of them. Tiger stripe is a green base with thick black horizontal slashes with tiny off-white and brown strips in between the green and black. Sound easy enough. If only I wasn’t bad at painting the shape of camouflage patterns, but that won’t stop me from trying.
These are the colors I went with, a dark grey, a brown, a light olive, and an off-white. You don't need to worry about exact colors, just get close enough and it'll be fine.
First, tiger stripe. I took my olive base coated guys and painted thick, horizontal tiger stripes with the dark grey. If possible, use a dark grey over a pure black as pure whites and pure blacks look unnatural.
I then used an off white to paint thinner tiger stripes between the black stripes. My stripes turned out looking quite fat. Fatter than they should look. Don't be like me, try to paint very thin stripes. Thin and stringy.
I then washed the camouflage with Athonian Camoshade...
... But I didn't like how the wash covered the white stripes, so I went back over them again with the off white. If I ever do this again, I'll wash first, then do the white stripes. Alright, I'm calling these guys done.
On to the ERDL pattern. I took the guys base coated in dark green and add brown "splotches" of paint.
I then used the light olive to make more splotches. They're hard to spot on the dark green for now, but we'll fix that in the next step
Then I used the dark grey to add thin strips, trying to place them in between the light olive and dark green, this helps bring out the difference between the 2 colors.
Finally, I washed the camouflage with Athonian Camoshade.
And thats it. These guys are 90% done. I just need to base them, but its 2:16 AM and I need to pass out. Goodnight folks!
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