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Making a Landing Craft Vignette

I don’t know why the thought of landing craft entered my head when it did - but it did!  So, I went onto my favourite on-line hobby supplier - Modelsforsale.com - and checked out the listings.  Airfix 1:72 scale kits for £3.75 sounded a fair enough deal to me - I bought two.

I game in 28mm.  There was no way these models were ever going to fit precisely with that scale. However, all I wanted them for was to represent a bunch of US Marines having landed on the beach at Oghawa (my fictitious Pacific Island that’s going to be used for my campaign game - eventually). To that end the size of the kit was perfect. Let’s be honest, for the price of a 28mm resin piece I can have seven of these babies.  I know, for £25, which will look better on the wargames table. Enough rambling.  On with the construction of the vignette.

First things first.  The kit was stuck together. I dispensed with the fiddly detailed bits, e.g. the thread that was meant to lever up and down the ramp, and cut to the chase.  The model was skill level 2, which was clearly too advanced for me. You might notice the galling mistake, particularly on the first photo - the side armour doesn’t reach to the end of the boat!! Damned fool!! In mitigation there was a ridge on the model that I though was to be butted up against the side armour, turned out it wasn’t. Of course I did both boats at the same time and when I eventually noticed the mistake the cement had dried - so I just left it.  As far as anyone is concerned they’re a new prototype the Marines used in 1944.  Other than that it was quite a simple kit to assemble.

Next I did the sea.  It was pretty much the same way as I used for the dingy but in a flash of obviousness I realised I could, and should, have used milliput to represent the wave.  It comes to a point perfectly, so I ended up with a much better defined surf. Four wave sections were rolled out and tapered up to a sharpish point.

When the waves had dried watered down tile grout was then applied. Then I did the beach section.  This was simply PVA glue painted on then sand scattered over it.  Lastly, I covered the sea section in PVA, making sure I has some sea lapping over the beach.  The model was left to dry out overnight.

Next morning I began to paint the vignette.  The craft was undercoated in balck and painted up from an Olive Drab, dry brushed with German Field Grey; Russian Uniform and finally Medium Grey (these are all Vallejo colours).  The decals were then applied. I managed to arse up one of the diamonds on the side of the boat and hand to hand paint it on, but other than that it went unusually well.

The sea was then painted with Turquoise/Green mix, adding some Sky Blue, then Sky Blue on its own.  The remaining highlights were done by gradually adding more and more Buff to the Sky Blue paint. Buff was then used on it’s own and the last highlight coat was simply White.

The model was given a good spraying over with Hard Gloss varnish.  The boat was mostly matt varnished, leaving the bow section gloss to represent water.  The beach was painted Orange Brown and dried brushed with Desert Yellow and Buff.

There it is the first, but certainly not the last, of my landing craft.