Some ships and a submarine or two

Here are a couple of 3D-printed ships and boats from 3D-Print-Terrain.

 Their models are scaled for 20mm gaming but I upscale them to 130% to fit my 28mm games.

That periscope is seriously to big, but I let it be for now. I might change it later, if I'm going to use the sub form ore than a scenario or two

Finally Proteus, a free download from Thingiverse. That will be used as an evil overlord's get-away in a pulp game.

Paddle Steamer

Here’s a large piece for a Pulp Alley game. I just have to paint some small pieces to get that on the table.

It will work in an Old West setting also, I’m thinking a shoot-out on a limited space.

It’s 3D-printed and the files come from 3D-Print-Terrain and their ACW-kickstarter from a while back.

I had to fix the stl-files to get something printable, as there were some faults in the files and the paddle-wheel were not very good as it was. That I had to de-construct and modify a bit. Turned out well enough in the end.

I'm thinking about printing one of the even bigger paddle-wheelers for a truly spectacular Wild West shoot-out.

Mini submarines from Verlinden

Seehund and Neger from Verlinden Productions, anchored in a heavy algae-bloom in Soerabaja Harbour.

My harbour always need more boats and this is the latest find, two German midget submarines in 1/35 scale from Verlinden Productions, the larger Seehund and the tiny Neger.

I’m not so concerned about scale as especially the larger Seehund,will see use in mainly Pulp-settings as proper subs manned by all sorts of no-good evil overlords.

They are built mainly as is with some small modifications as I wanted a proper hatch for the Seehund and not a see-through cupola.

A really nice little set that was quick to finish.

If you want one of your own it might be an idea to hurry, as Verlinden seem to have gone under. 

BK-2 Soviet Riverine Gunboat in 28mm from Barrage Miniatures

The harbour is under expansion and there will of course be more space for ships and boats. This one, the BK-2 Soviet Riverine Gunboat from Barrage Miniatures, is a welcome addition to the fleet that is already crowding the waters in the present harbour. The one under construction will be 6’x4’ compared to the present 3’x3’, so there is certainly a need for more vessels.

In the kit you’ll find the one-piece hull, a turret and also an insert for the open cockpit (seats and a machine-gun mount) and a heavy machine-gun. I skipped the latter two parts as I wanted space enough for a miniature to stand in the cockpit.

The hull needed a tiny bit of green-stuff to fill a couple of small bubbles but otherwise everything was great.

I painted with a brownish green colour, stippled on different metal colours and gave it several different washes to make it look well used.

River Launches from Ainsty Castings

The final boats for Soerabaja Harbour (at least for now).

River Launch with Binnacle Controls

These two resin kits from Ainsty Castings are a bit bigger than my other boats. Plenty of room for figures in them and a welcome addition to the fleet that will crowd the harbour.

I decided to make one worn, dirty and rusty and the other mostly just dirty.

Turned out rather OK.

River Launch with Cabin

I just added steering wheels from toy cars.

On Wednesday next week we will finally play a Pulp Alley game in the harbour. I guess that means that the harbour project is finally finished. Hooray!

Pics of the harbour in all its glory next week.

Removable cabin roof.

Yabuta Junk and Five-Planks Houseboat from Barrage Miniatures

Yabuta Junka, Five-Planks houseboat and two River Boats

The Soerabaja Harbour project is nearing its end and I’m finishing the last boats and starting on a couple of piers. In a couple of weeks time it will all see action in our Pulp Alley campaign at the club.

These two new boats comes from Barrage Miniatures just like the two river boats I’ve just finished.

The Vietnam Five-Planks Houseboat is a one-piece kit that sets you back €12. Excellent casting and a very useful boat. Larger than the river boats.

The Vietnam Yabuta Junk is a two-piece model for €15. Hull is ordinary resin and the cabin is 3D-printed.

The models looked just great, but… they were a bit warped so they didn’t sit flat. Maybe not a great problem, but I wanted to fix it. Also, the cabin for the junk didn’t sit very well in the hull.

No problem, I thought. I dipped the boats in hot water and carefully bent them so they sat flat and the cabin for the junk fit much better.

They cooled and everything looked great, but slowly they warped back. I noticed that when I had started to paint them so it was too late to do another dip in boiling water.

So now they are a bit warped but not too bad actually. And the cabin doesn’t fit perfectly as there is a rather large gap between cabin and junk-floor. Nothing that I can’t hide with a couple of boxes and other stuff that I’m going to stuff the boats with.

All in all two nice additions to my growing fleet.

Edit - I've had contact with Barrage Miniatures since this blog-post and they have informed me that they have changed resin since I bought my boats. The new resin shouldn't warp and you shouln't see these problems any more.

Vietnam River Boat from Barrage Miniatures

Barrage Miniatures produces a whole lot of different resin boats and also a handful of very nice early armoured cars.

The boats range is substantial, Viking ships, rowboats, WWII assault boats and landing crafts, Vietnam War local boats (like these) and armoured boats and more. All in all more than 30 different models.

I ordered a handful of different Vietnamese boats for my harbour, and these two are Vietnam River Boats, for €8 each. They are one-piece resin models with crisp detailing. A few very small bubbles that a bit of paint hides. Otherwise pefect.

Great for my Pulp Alley games and also Thomas' French Indochina. I think he is drooling now :-)

A couple of other similar boats on my painting table now. More on them shortly.

Paints Used:

Wood – Vallejo 872 Chocolat Brown

Painted wood – Citadel Foundation Orkhide Shade or Fenris Grey

Everything drybrushed with Chocolat Brown, 843 Cork Brown and 819 Iraqui Sand

Service from Barrage Miniatures was excellent with a very short delivery time. Highly recommended.

A big welcome to Eric the Shed with Shed Wars – a great blog on what is happening in his shed (yes, it’s wargames-related... J). He’s also working on a harbour, by the way.

Steam tugboat from HLBS

The latest addition Soerabaja Harbour is this steam tugboat from HLBS. They’ve got quite a good range of boats and ships, mostly military, and this one is perfect for my little harbour.

It’s made of six pieces of resin and everything fits well. 

A 28mm figure to get a feeling for the size. It is unfortunately a bit cramped for based figures.

I looked at photos of older tugs and found this paint-scheme – black, red and yellow - that I quite like.

I weathered the boat heavily as it is, in my mind, having a hard time in the Dutch East Indies colony. Where ships go to slowly die of neglect.

A fun piece to paint.

The algae bloom is severe in the harbour this time of the year :-)

Sea Dog 2 sailing ship from Games of War

The first bigger ship for my Indonesian pulp harbour. This is the Sea Dog 2 from Games of War and it will supplement the colonial steam river launch and sampans from Sarissa and small boats from Games of War. I still hope to receive a couple of bigger ships in time for the game.

It's a resin kit with wooden mast and bow-spit. It is painted just like the river launch. The stern is white and Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red. I might make a free-hand painting of something suitable, mermaid or whatever, sometime in the future. But at the moment that and a name for the ship have to wait. Too much stuff that needs to be done.

I had to scratch-build the tiller. Made from a chop-stick.

Great value at £18.

Welcome new Follower:

Evan Hughes who contributes to two blogs, Cannister & Grape and Die Kriege des Zobelshuts. The former is filled with lots of post raging from this to that, a very good mix of everything about miniatures games. Not a totally unheard of crew, by the way, as they are the ones making Wargame Blogger Quarterly free PDF-magazine. Well worth a read, both the magazine and the blog. The latter is a record of the wars between the imagi-nations Grand Duchy of Saxe-Coburn und Buchholz and the Principality of Velikye Byelgorodniya. Lots of tips and ideas if imagi-nation wars is your thing.