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.

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.