From SylvainR: Regia Marina at 1/300 (52 points)

I'm such a sucker when I think I will make a "good deal". Last year, I was googling for 1:300 landing crafts for my Canadian army and I "re-discovered" the game Cruel Seas, launched in 2018 by Warlord Games but now under the banner of Skytrex. Anyway, I was using Facebook's Marketplace to look for adapted equipment in the area of Montreal and, just for fun, entered the search words "Cruel seas". Lo and behold, I found a guy who was selling 14 unopened box sets for all nations for $200, shipping included. I thought that for less than $2 per ship (about 100 in total), that was a "good deal" and ordered the whole lot, which included many landing ships I was looking for. I'm such a sucker.... 

Above is a starting fleet for the Regia Marina: 4 MAS boats and a Gabbiano-class corvette. 

I like to base my ships and there are two reasons for this. First, it protects the miniatures because players are manipulating the base instead of the model. Second, it creates the illusion that the boats are moving, which I find very satisfying.

 

For fun, I wanted to have one of the MAS boat jump off a huge wave, holding on the crest by the tip of the stern. But then I realized that these models are cut at the waterline and it would look silly to have what is obviously only the upper hull flying out of the water. Deception. So I sculpted a smaller "big wave" and kept most of the hull in the water.

 

I did similar big waves for 2 of the Vospers I painted last year. They look nice in rough seas, but the truth is that these fast ships would never be allowed to go out in this kind of weather. If there is any interest, I could write a short tutorial on how I created my sea bases. 

Here is the Italian corvette with her unmistakable "barber shop" identification mark. I admire painters who can do a clean paint job on these small ships, but my own personal preference is to do heavy weathering with rust spots and rain stains. 

 The little life rafts add a nice touch of color.

I like the little crewmen. The whole boat feels like a diorama to me :-). 

 

The AA crew keeping a watchful eye on the sky.

 

A aerial view on Capitano Paolo Schettino. His grand-son, Francesco Schettino, captain of the Costa Concordia, obviously did not inherit his seamanship...

 

Points claimed: 

I looked up past entries for reference:

4x MAS Boats @ 8 points = 32 points

1x Gabbiano-class Corvette @ 20 points = 20 points

Total = 52 points

Thanks for reading!

 [P.S. Paolo Schettino never existed.]

 

Wonderful looking WW2 small craft Sylvain, kinda like aquatic micro armour.   I agree on basing ships and love the planing MAS boat.  Well done on the barber strips and other fine details.  FYI, I a one point planned to do some Gabbianos in 1;2400 scale.  I'll trust your research on the points.