How to Paint Vietnamese Miniatures

Wash your miniature with soap, water and a hard-bristled toothbrush to remove the release agent that it was coated with during manufacture. Release agent is rather oily, and can prevent paint from sticking to the surface.

Remove the mold lines and bits of flashing with an X-Acto knife, doing the details with a set of jeweler's files. These imperfections of the molding process can negatively impact the look of your finished miniature, so cutting them off is important.

Paint the entire miniature with a couple of very thin coats of black primer. Remove any molding or flashing that you may have missed before applying the primer, and add one more coat. Super glue the soldier to his base.

Choose your colors for the miniature. Researching the Viet Cong and looking at photographs is a good way to attain historical accuracy. Browns, greens, and blues dominate on clothing, with a rich yellow for bamboo hats. Dilute your paints and apply in thin layers to keep from obscuring the details of the model. Paint the skin first, followed by lower layers of clothing, and finish with the outermost layers.

Mix black ink with equal parts water and apply a wash to the surface of the miniature, to add shadows and detail. Brush across the grain of wrinkled clothing to fill in only the parts that should be shadowed.

Drybrush the model with lighter colors, using a very small amount of paint and crossing the contours the same way you did with the wash. Use very little pressure, to avoid getting paint in the cracks.

Finish the model with several thin coats of a matte spray sealant. Glue small rocks or artificial bushes to the base, for a more realistic terrain.