MACV-SOG Figures in 20mm

SOG has always been a favorite unit of the Vietnam War for me. I have been reading and rereading books on it quite a bit recently. I have also been watching the YouTube videos of SOG episodes on Jocko Willink's podcast, and those on John Stryker Meyer's SOG Cast. So that got me fired up to paint the rest of the Elheim SOG figures to add to the Britannia and SHQ figures I use.

As SOG recon teams were usually 6-9 members, sometimes 12, I have more than I will ever need. But I like them and the differences.

Here are photos of my SOG figures:

The first one is of three Americans. Each team was to have three Americans and the rest indigenous troops. These three are by Elheim. There is actually a fourth figure in the set, but I did not paint him. He was standing, talking on the radio. He held a cutoff  M-79 grenade launcher in his hand. That was pretty cool. But the antenna from the radio was very thick. I tried bending and thinning it. I should have just cut it off and drilled a hole in the radio for my own antenna. I ended up breaking the muzzle of his CAR -15 off. The CAR was slung on his shoulder, muzzle up, It did not survive my heavy handed work.

The kneeling figure holds a Swedish-K SMG. That's a cool gun, but had little stopping power. Early in the SOG days, they had to use foreign or obsolete weapons for "plausible deniability." When modern U.S. weapons flooded SE Asia modern weapons were allowed. When CAR15's became available, Swedish-Ks saw limited use.
The figure in the center carries a cut down RPD, the then current NVA light machinegun. The barrel was cut down to the gas port. It made the gun a lot lighter than the M-60 and was easy to handle. Cutting the barrel back that far made a blue flame leap out which startled anyone on the receiving end. That show stopper would help give the team a momentary opportunity to break contact.
The figure on the right is just a guy armed with a CAR-15 and a cut off M-79 grenade launcher. From my reading, it seems that by 1968, at least at CCN, nearly all Americans on SOG teams carried a cut off M-79. You can see that I added one on his right hip. I cut it down from an MJ Figures (20mm) model.
Both of the other figures have them too. They don't show from these angles.



The next photo is of four indigenous personnel from Elheim. Those on each end have CAR-15s. One has a full size M-79 and the other has an AK-47.



Next are four more indigs from Elheim. From your left to right they have another M-79, an M-16, another cutdown RPD, and a CAR-15.



Now we move from Elheim to other manufacturers. The left four are SF figures from Britannia that are fine for SOG. All carry CAR-15s. I have given all of them cutdown M-79s. The left hand figure was given his when I painted him several years ago. I did not then have access to loose thump guns, so I did it myself. I added them just recently to the other three. But their other gear saved me from having to do much more than the mini barrel. The fourth figure is a large 20mm armed with another Swedish-K. I cannot remember who made the figure. They only did a handful. Nice sculpts, but oversized.



Here come the "little people" as the Yards and Vietnamese indigenous team members were affectionately called by their American leaders. In the first photo, all except the figure on the far right are SHQ U.S. Special Forces figures. SHQ are on the small side of 20mm, so work well for the indigenous troops. I think I had to add the rucksacks on them. The far right figure is dressed, equipped and armed like an NVA. That might give a point man a second or so lead in a chance encounter with the bad guys. I do not recall the manufacturer.



In the below photo, the figure on the far left is Platoon 20. He is very similar in pose to one of the Elheims. But I painted him because he had the Yard bracelets on his arm. All the others are more SHQ.



Tom

These look great Tom, and offer me lots of ideas. I didn't think of using a VC figure as a point man.

I note too that they are all wearing plain jungle fatigues - no fancy tiger stripes, which were not commonly worn.

I am thinking of giving some of my guys black spraypaint stripes on their fatigues, but I'm not sure how commonly that was done either before missions.

Nice paint jobs, and great clear photos.

Ash wrote:Nice paint jobs, and great clear photos.

Agreed

Thanks guys.
OTB, I have read that the black stripes were commonly applied. However, looking at the photos, and I have seen lots, they are very hard to see. And often I don’t see them at all. I tried doing them once and they looked awful. I gave up. They may work better on 28s.

Camo applied to the face was quite common. Tried that too, and gave up.

You’re right that tiger stripes were very seldom used on missions. I would not paint any that way. They did wear them loafing around and perhaps training between missions. But I recently saw a photo of a team on their slick with at least one guy in tiger stripes.

Regarding the dressing as an NVA, rarely the whole team did that. There is a photo of St. Martin (I think that’s who it was) decked out that way. He looks like he was over 6’ tall. The helmet really looked funny on his head. Way to small. He would have bought his split second edge over the NVA by making the guy double up with laughter.

Tom

Platoon 20 did an indig (Kit Carson) scout figure. Guessing that's what the one with the bracelets is.

Could be Mashima. Platoon 20 does a Kit Carson scout with a brimmed hat on, with one side tuned up. Britannia did one that was almost an identical copy, but larger as their figures are.

Tom