Brown Water Navy unboxing and assembly

At the Sheffield Triples show at the weekend I was able to pick up both the Kelley's Heroes and Patrol Boats set from Battlefront, for their recently released Brown Water Navy expansion for Flames of War Vietnam.

The standard small box packaging from Battlefront for the PBRs. The boats in Kelley's Heroes came in lots of bubble wrap instead

The contents of the PBR box set

And 5 minutes of assembly later I have two PBRs. I have not glued down the deck turret or the crewman at the rear for easier painting

Recesses have been made in the hull and turret for magnets, but no magnets are in the box, luckily I have lots of appropriate magnets, but its a shame they weren't included

Onto the bigger boats, this is the ASPB (VUSBX15 according to the bubblewrap)

Again, this was very easy to assemble

And there is a recess for a magnet for both turrets

The parts of the ATC(H), which includes an extra turret for the optional grenade launcher

This decal sheet is included with each of the boats and in the PBR box. Obviously set up for the 9rh River Assault Squadron, but it could be cut up and redone for other units.

The assembled ATC(H)

The monitor in the box includes parts to make all three variants (Monitor, CCB Monitor and Zippo Monitor), but the parts to make the ATC(H) as a standard ATC are not in the army box

A size comparison of Brown Water Navy boats, smallest to largest

I really like these boat models, and my only criticism is that they aren't cheap. I don't doubt their value in terms of the amount of resin I am getting for my money, but I wonder how much table time I will dedicate to messing about on the river in boats.

It is also a little frustrating that the boats will not be available outside of the Kelley's Heroes box until sometime in June, as will the river mat set, I suppose it gives me some time to get them painted.

The painting guide in Brown Water Navy suggest the new Heer Green paint from the (also unavailable currently) Colours of War range, to which Vallejo's German Camo Dark Green is apparently the closest match, so hopefully a follow up post with some painted boats will be forthcoming.