Revell's 1/72 scale
Schnellboot S-100 Klasse

by Don Jamieson

images by Brett Green

Revell's 1/72 scale S-Boot Klasse 100 is available online from Squadron

Well, it has taken me since March this year to finish this kit and I have had a lot of adventures along the way with it. It is a model, which captures the sleek aggressive lines of the real thing. I just couldn’t help myself and had to build it. Unfortunately, a chronic case of AMS set in and I could not build it out of the box.

Inspired by Chris Wauchop’s work and two reference sources, David Krakow’s Schnellboot site on  http://www.PrinzEugen.com  as featured here on HyperScale's Links page and the Squadron Signal book Schnellboot in Action, I set out to add that little bit extra.

The photos attached show some of the modifications I made to the boat and most of you who have this kit will recognise the differences. Basically, I followed this sequence.

Hull:

Opened the exhausts after refinement and other holes on the hull.

Props:

Yes, I know they are horrible but I did the best I could with them.

Bridge:

Door handles, voice pipes and other details were added to this area.

The sighting binocular pedestal was also detailed further.

Weapons:

I rebuilt the torpedo tubes so that the doors opened the correct way and added extra detail to them. The torpedo blades were carved down to represent contra rotating ones. The forward 2cm cannon had extra detail added with plastic strip (no brass) to represent the elevation and sighting device on it.

The dual 2cm mount midships was further enhanced with a ready use magazine and helmet rack. An additional armour shield and sight was added. By far the biggest mod was the 37mm mount. I pretty much rebuilt this, as I was not happy with the appearance of the kit rendition. It matches the reference pictures I have seen and now looks like it can be manned and fired and not a fairground ride.

Other Details:

Many other bits and pieces were added to bring the boat to life. Coiling the kit-supplied string onto paper created the coiled ropes. Once dried, it could be cut off and put in place.

Grab ropes were added to the floats and the compass was dressed up with wire and plastic strip.

According to the references, I filled in the skylights of the engine room ventilation trunks, as they were not on this late model S100.

Chris Wauchop was kind enough to give me a sheet of that lead-backed paper which I used for the canvas dodgers.
The smoke makers had piping and hoses added to them. They appear when rigged, to be connected to the pipe that is on the centerline sternpost so that the smoke is discharged and mixed with the wake of the boat.

I also added a mast with the FuMB 32 ‘Flores’and FuMB 24’Cuba’ antennae detection sets as these were seen on some boats.

Finally, what boat would be complete without a ships bell? I carved one and put it on the starboard rail as seen in the references. Unfortunately, my operating microscope wasn’t working so I had to settle for a piece of string instead of a woven bell rope.

Painting and weathering was enjoyable and I pretty well followed Chris’s paint mix formula. The comet design was seen on at least two S boats of the 4th S-bootsflotille and the runic s is my own creation. Both were hand painted.
 

The solid teak base with dowel supports was made by my next door neighbour. He is a wizard with wood. It has a 3mm routed edge to take a clear acrylic cover for display.

I really enjoyed building Revell's 1/72 scale S-100.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

German E-boats 1939–45 New Vanguard 59 Author: Gordon Williamson Illustrator: Ian Palmer US Price: $14.95 UK Price: £8.99 Publisher: Osprey Publishing Publish Date:  September 18, 2002 Details: 48 pages; ISBN: 1841764450 Shop Buy it from Osprey Publishing

Model and Text by Copyright © 2004 Don Jamieson
Images Copyright © 2004 by Brett Green
Page Created 10 July, 2004
Last Updated 11 July, 2004

Back to HyperScale Main Page