Pimp Your Jungle

Pimp Your Jungle with Mike Haught The jungle strips are designed to give you some riverside cover on your Mekong Delta battlefield. They are made to give a great-looking result straight from the box. But here are some easy tips for adding a little extra visual appeal and realism. Check out the Jungle Bushes in the online store here...

Brown Water Navy The waterways of the Mekong Delta are busy with sampans, merchants, villages, and farming communities. They are the life blood of South Vietnam, through which over half of the entire country’s rice flows. It is remote with few roads accessing the interior’s rice fields and jungles. The Việt Cộng have launched their liberation movement from within this formidable fortress. However, the US Army and Navy have come together to create the Mobile Riverine Force, a joint operation of infantry and assault boats. They are reinforced with helicopter gunships, devastating Skyraider aircraft and more. This new force is ready to take the fight upriver. Learn more about Brown Water Navy here...

The jungle is an iconic thing in the Vietnam narrative; dense barriers that hid both deadly booby traps and a cunning enemy from view. However, on the Mekong, thick, endless jungle was (and is) relatively rare, especially where people were settled. In these areas agriculture has claimed most of the land right up to the riverside, where narrow strips of jungle hide the rice paddies with a thick curtain of vegetation. In short, riverside jungle is an essential component to the Mekong battlefield.

The Jungle Bushes (BB187) set has four jungle pieces that measure 8”/20cm by 2”/5cm. The vegetation is dense and gives you a sense of riverside flora.

Two small bags of flock are included in in the Jungle Bushes box. These are the same two ever-reliable colours we include with our terrain sets, to give a good basic option straight out of the box. However, the intention is that you should use whatever flock products you prefer, to help your terrain pieces merge with your current collection.
	Green Static Grass (GFS001)		Meadow Blend (GFS017)

If you are using the Mekong River Mat, the best flock to use is a combination of these two products:
	Parched Straw Static Grass (GFS002)		Spring Undergrowth (GFS010)

To match the Mekong River Mat, I used the Spring Undergrowth in fairly large, irregular sections, broken up with small patches of Parched Straw Static Grass.

Applying the ground cover materials to the base pieces is very easy. Begin by applying a fairly generous amount of PVA white glue to the areas you want to cover.

Add Parched Straw Static Grass in roughly circular clumps of varying sizes.

Fill in the areas around the Parched Straw clumps with an irregular pattern of Spring Undergrowth.

Plastic Foliage
Once the base pieces are flocked to your satisfaction, you just need to plug the plastic foliage clumps on to the raised pegs. The box contains as many as you need to fill up your base pieces, but if you want to shop around you can add some variety. The design of the jungle bush base pieces was based on plastic aquarium mats as the source of the bushes. These come in 12”x12” (30cm x 30cm) square sections with many of these bushes attached. These squares are meant to be linked together and fill the floor of a fish tank. I first saw these at a pet store, but I jumped on some internet sites and ordered some samples from bulk providers.

Above: A couple of samples of the different vegetation styles available.

Before you add the platic plants, the final (optional) step is to ‘dull’ them down a bit. They’ve got a bit of that plastic sheen to them, and they are a very vibrant green. So I asked James what he thought about it and he suggested giving the pieces a dusting of a dusty khaki colour through the air brush or a spray can. So, holding the spray can (or an airbrush would work just as well) about 2-3 feet away from the piece, I sprayed above them, letting the paint fall on top. The result was to unify the colour without looking monochrome and it took the sheen off the plant surface. Thanks, James! That’s exactly what I was looking for!

Mike used an old can of British Armour (Italy) (SP08), which is a khaki colour. Really any dull yellow or dusty coloured spray would give the right effect, and Panther Yellow (CWP210) would be perfect.

Plugging the foliage pieces on to the base could not be simpler. Just push the part down on to the peg, making sure both 'layers' of plastic go on.

It really is worth spending a little extra time to make your jungle bushes look their best. Happy modelling! ~ Mike.