"Ace of Spades"
Model and photos By M.C. Leung
The story is based on the playing card---ace of spades. I've read some books about the Vietnam war, and some mention that the ace of spades, is a card of death to the Vietnamese. So many GI's held one or two ace of spades on their helmets to make morale high and cause fear in their enemy. I just wanted the diorama to portray some of that satirical humor. I used the VP 120mm chopper crew as a basic to convert the four figures from standing to sitting. Two of them have a cross cut on the upper half to allow the spine to bend, which would create a more relaxed pose. I repeat filling putty, painting, sanding off the painting to check if there still some void on the figures. The three heads came from Kirin and 1 from VP. The boots also came from VP 120mm airborne soldier. Drum barrels, rifles, machine gun, ammo boxes etc.....from VP. I use paper putty to form the sand bags. I used a copier to reduce the size of the playing cards; lucky me I get the " money " from a bank ad. in a magazine. Maybe its a bit over size, but I use it anyway, because I had no choice at the time. It won me a first prize in a local modelling competition in 1995. I think the title and idea get the higher marks, not the skill itself. Hope you like the dio as I do, thanks!
