Wargamers you know the feeling when you just want a little adventure in an era of combat that your troops don't cover?! I have a recent strong desire to maneuver troops across wide combat theaters by helicopter. I have had several "Tours of Duty" with sets of Vietnam wargames figures most always in 1/72 scale. I can remember scratch building VietCong with British N.A. troops and a hole punch of paper for the straw hat! And of course I have had several boxes of the ESCI US Special Forces and North Vietnamese. I always end up selling off the stuff when the urge wears off and then regretting it later. New ideas come from all sources and the internet is one great place to shop for ideas. I came across a site called Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers and their Dustoff pages. This is enough to give any gamer and figure collector an urge to wargame the Vietnam era. I signed up for another tour of duty! In my impatience I went out and started grabbing up all the 1/72 equipment that I've had before and then realized there might be something more. Further links on the internet revealed a listing of figure manufacturers that specialize in Vietnam figures. I made several calls and requests for catalogs and my search led me to a Company called Pendraken. Of all the companies I looked at I was most impressed with the Pendraken range and assortment of figures. I have settled on this company for several reasons and I want this figure review to tell you the best of the reasons for wargaming Vietnam with this figure range and scale. Lion's Den Wargamers are interested in large scale skirmish actions with 54mm troops. Vietnam could be done in this scale and some games could be run with the commercial troops available but something would be missing. It would not be possible to see a Company of helicopter mobile troops land on one wargames table. Even we do not claim to have that much room. And in essence that's what the Vietnam war conjures up in my imagination- Helicopter troops traveling all over the map and landing to fight the guerillas of the VC. We would have to settle for a smaller scale. Next question should focus on what is available in smaller scales. My search focused on the Pendraken range of 27 items listed in their catalog of 1/200th scale troops. As I looked at the range I saw completeness- everything from troops to Helicopters. I saw variety- every sort of armored vehicle and APC. And I saw spice- VC civilians and supply bicycle troops! I needed to get these samples and see if this was going to be the range of figures I would use for my latest project. Here is what arrived in my order of one of each catalog item: V1 US/ARVN infantry section: ten figures advancing with M16, two poses mixed 2 of 1 and 8 of the other. V2 US/ARVN MG section: ten figures advancing two with MG the rest a version of infantry. Linked ammo very prominent on MG figure. Nice! V3 NVA/VC infantry section: ten figures with AK47, two poses. V4 NVA/VC Machine gun section: two MG, two RPG, six infantry. V5 M48: one tank model, searchlight very prominent, turret rack with gear stowed. V6 M41: one tank model. V7 Sheridan: one tank model, turret detail is really very good. V8 M113: one model, buttoned with all hatches closed. V9 M113 ACAV: one turreted APC with two side armor shields and three MG all around, three troops manning the guns. V10 M577 command vehicle: one buttoned vehicle with awning rolled and lashed on rear. V11 Duster: tank with troop manned open turret, excellent ammo racks and equipment on deck and turret. V12 T54: one well modeled round turret on very good deck. V13 PT76: an interesting looking tank, very nice deck detail. V14 UH1 helicopter + door gunners: This is the one that I dug through the box to see first because my decision would be based on the quality of this piece! Acceptable. I was a little puzzled about no rotor included with the model but then I would use an acetate circle any way so it was not to detract. This is a very good model and what I like best is the detail of the doors open on both sides and it shows the interior seats. Door gunners are separate and get glued in place. The landing racks are a little hard to clean of flash and mold sprue because they are delicate. Overall this was going to be the range for my new Vietnam wargame! V15 UH1C Gunship: doors closed, weapon pods glue on the side mount. V16 Helicopter door gunners: extra poses of the same figure that came with V14. V17 M125 81mm mortar: APC with open back end and crew firing a mortar tube. V18 M150 Tow Launcher: APC track with open back hatch and figure firing a Tow missile tube. Glues in place. V19 M109 155 SPG: big weapon on massive turret. V20 There is no V20 line in the catalog- keep reading. V21 Vietnamese Civilians: 10 figures in pajamas barefoot and wide brimmed coolie hat. V22 VC Supply Bicycles: These are too cool. Three bikes loade with bags boxes and equipment, VC are walking them alonside. Very good flavor for this piece. V23 NVA/VC mortar teams: three tubes on tripod stands, two man crews for each weapon, standing and kneeling poses. V24 US/ARVN mortar teams: three tubes, two man crews, kneeling and standing poses. V25 US recoiless rifles: three weapons on tripod, fairly large, two man crews for each. V26 Armd truck, Quad 0.5MG: fairly good truck with welded on side armor. Probably the only piece that has some rough molding and modeling. V27 Armd truck single MG: same okay truck with a different MG mount for the back end. All figure packs were .80 pence each. Helicopters were 2 pounds. Pendraken Figures can be reached at: 1 Easby Grove Eston Middlesbrough North Yorkshire TS6 9DL Telephone: 01642 460638 Pendraken is run by Lynne & Dave Pengilley. Their catalog has a wide variety of 10mm & 1/200 scale troops. Well worth a look. Thanks for your attention, Ken. Back to Table of Contents Penny Whistle #40 Back to Penny Whistle List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Lion's Den Publications. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com