Vietnam NVA Painting Guide

A guide to how I painted my Vietnam NVA

NVA ref The colour of the Uniform used by the North Vietnamese Amry (NVA) changed throughout the course of the war.
At the start of the war (1965-66), the NVA wore khaki/tan uniforms. During the following years, this was phased out to be replaced by a dark green, and finally an olive green, uniform.
My miniatures are based upon the illustration on the left, which comes from the Osprey 'Men-at-Arms' series; No. 143 - Armies of the Vietnam War (2).
The description of the plate, which is of an NVA regular circa 1968, describes the uniform tunic and trousers as being dark green in colour, but the illustration shows them as almost grey.
This is how I then painted my models, based upon this picture:
Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3

Colour Palette

Detail Basecoat Shade / Highlight / Detail
Tunic and Trousers, Helmet Humbrol Black Green Highlights: Humbrol Dark Green / Citadel Shadow Grey
Webbing and Equipment Citadel Bubonic Brown Shade: Brown Ink
Highlight: Citadel Bubonic Brown
AK47s Citadel Bolt Gun Metal Shade: Citadel Armour Wash
Detail, Stocks: Citadel Snakebite Leather
Boots Citadel Chaos Black
Flesh Citadel Bronzed Flesh Shade: Citadel Flesh Wash
Highlight: Citadel Bronzed Flesh
Base Tamyia Flat Earth Highlight 1: Tamyia Dark Yellow
Highlight 2: Citadel Fortress Grey

Painting Techniques
The model is undercoated in matt black (I use a spray can of either Citadel Chaos Black, or car body matt black primer)

Once the main uniform had been painted in Black Green and received it's first highlight, I then drybrushed the entire uniform lightly with Shadow Grey, in order to give the figure a grey 'tint'.

The yellow 'colour of the day' markings were painted by first painting the detail area with Citadel Skull White, and then repainting them with Citadel Sunburst Yellow.

Highlighting is done primarily using a drybrushing technique.

Once the base has been painted, I apply dabs of PVA(Elmers) glue, and dip the base in flock.

Finally, I varnish the figures using a single coat of Humbrol Gloss Cote, followed by a single coat of Humbrol Matt Cote.

Last Updated: 12th September, 2002