Pass in Review: Landing Craft in Warlord Games' Cruel Seas

(Image found on Harry Turtledove Wiki)

Once I finished my torpedo markers, I began work on the next smallest vessels in the Cruel Seas miniature series—landing craft.

Another reason I chose to work on these amphibious workhorses was to integrate them into my extensive micro armor collection.  (Which is one of the main reason why I got into Cruel Seas in-general).

(Image from Military History Now--9 Things You Didn't Know About the D-Day Landing Craft That Changed History)

I bought each of the three available sets, which consists of 4 craft, and painted each one with a generic grey primer paint.

Starting with the British set...

(Image of British LCM3 Landing Craft set)

...I painted each craft with Army Painter Fog Grey, which has a bluish tint that seems to closely match most of the images I found online.  

Once that was dry I decided to paint the troops using Vallejo Panzer Colors US Olive Drab.  I chose this color for the versatility of representing any of the allied soldiers in the European Theater.  Finally, I dry-brushed a grey ink wash over each craft to give them a weathered, grungy look.

Here’s the final results, first of British LCM3s approaching a beach made by Wizard Kraft:

Here’s an elevated, starboard-side view:

A sea-level starboard-side view:

And a sea-level port side view:

Next, I painted the American LCM3s which are armed with two M2 Browning 50 caliber machine guns.

(Image of US LCM3 Landing Craft set)

I painted the American landing craft and troops with the same colors as their British counterparts, with the addition of Army Painter’s Gun Metal for the machine guns.  While I’m happy with the results, I think the Gun Metal color is a bit too light for machine guns.  For the next set of vessels I paint, I’ll probably add a dash of black paint to the Gun Metal for a more realistic look.

Here are American LCM3s approaching the beach:

Here’s an elevated starboard-side view of a trio of landing craft:

And here’s a sea-level view of a pair of vessels.  In the hubbub of my photo shoot, I forgot to include port-side views.

The fact that I only have a handful of Japanese micro-armor tanks, didn’t stop me from buying Japanese landing craft.

(Image from Wikipedia)

The set currently available are the Daihatsu-Class landing craft.

(Image of IJN Daihatsu-Class Landing Craft set)

Based on the pictures I could find, I painted the vessels with Army Painter’s Filthy Cloak grey, which is considerably darker than the Fog Grey I used on the allied vessels.

For the troops, I painted them with Army Painter Basilisk Brown, which to my aging eyesight looks close enough to the official “khaki-grey” used in most Japanese uniforms.  I also used a touch of Army Painter Hemp Rope for the cables, along with Gun Metal for the machine guns/cannons.

Here’s what a Japanese landing force looks like approaching the beach:

Here’s an elevated starboard-side view:

And the sea-level starboard-side view:

Since I’m still learning the art of painting warships, my next Cruel Seas project is painting the handful of merchant ships I have.  

This way, I’m not too worried if my civilian vessels don’t turn out “ship-shape” by naval standards.