Revell S-100 Schnellboot

I recently finished Revell's new 1/72nd scale S-100 schnellboot model. Quite a nice kit, and very impressive when posed next to Revell's PT boat and Airfix's Vosper MBT. You get a good idea of the S-100's sheer size compared to its smaller rivals, and though German naval doctrine discourged gun battles with Allied fast attack craft, one suspects that given equal leadership and crew quality, S-100s would have held their own at least.

But I have to ask something. Why, given the high quality of the kit in general, is the 37mm gun such a wreck? Everything else is so good; why is the 37mm gun so simplified and blocky, and why its its barrel and muzzle so unlike the real gun? Not a big deal, but it's kind of annoying. Maybe someday I'll build (or find) a replacement barrel for it. I have an Airfix 40mm Bofors in my collection; I suppose I could donate it to that cause since some S-100s carried the 40mm Bofors, but I have pre-existing plans for that gun, namely, arming a late-war US PT boat at such time as I find another model of said boat. I'd try to cast it in resin, but I historically have problems casting long thin pieces like gun barrels. 120mm figures? Sure. Small-scale guns? Tricky.

I also didn't pay enough attention to the instructions. I like to study the instructions before I start building, mainly so I can plan construction around painting, but this time I was apparently watching TV while I studied them and completely missed the requirement to drill holes in the hull for the Effekt rudders and outboard propeller shaft housings. I had to measure and eyeball and drill the holes from the outside, and I think I placed the propeller shaft housing holes just a tad too far aft, and the Effekt rudder holes just a tad too far outboard. It's not really noticeable since all this is under the hull, but just knowing it's there kind of irritates me.

I also failed to cut off the mounting rings for the two inboard smoke generators, so when I went to put the depth charge rails on, they didn't lie completely flat. Doh! Again it's not terribly noticeable, but when I get around to scratchbuilding some depth charges, the problem may get worse. I suppose I could always cut them off, sand the area flat and respray it, but it would have been easier if I had been paying attention in the first place.

So who's up for some schnellboot weiss? Not me! My local hobby shop carries schnellboot weiss, but only in acrylic form, and I personally don't have much success airbrushing acrylics. I prefer my paints toxic and smelly, apparently, so I found an extremely light gray in the Model Master II rack and used it.

Even though I put the boat on the shelf, I'm not sure I'm done with it. I still want to do something about that terrible 37mm gun barrel, I want to scratchbuild some depth charges, I need to paint up some 1/72nd scale crewmen, and I think the boat needs a little weathering. Given my current rate of progress, I'll get to it in, oh, about four centuries.