Hi Julian,
I mentioned these small hatches earlier. I believe both WEM and Eduard supplied them in their 1/72 etch sets. I first thought they might be fuel filler caps but that's not what they are. The four filler caps for the formost fuel cells are on the deck, on both sides of the pilothouse, (something must be wrong with the model here because three of the four couldn't possibly be used because the compressed -air cylinders of the torpedo tubes are in the way ... ).
I'm sure the items you mentioned will be part of future aftermarket etch sets.

Cheers,

Arjan

Hi Arjan,
No problem, I'll scratch these myself, but I was wondering what they are. Can't be a filler cap because the tubes are underneath them. Has me stumped.
I sprayed the curved tube covers SW today. Looks different and shows up the shading a lot better. Have started weathering the main deck as well now. Will post some photos tomorrow.

Julian

Photo update posted here:
http://cs.finescale.com/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1074541 " TARGET="_blank"> http://cs.finescale.com/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1074541
cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian,
I like your paintwork a lot, to me the Schnellbootweiss you mixed yourself looks spot on. The weathering, the anti-fouling paint and the waterline stripe also look the part. I started adding pe to the Kalotte this afternoon. The pe steps on the sides seem to have been copied from the "Kek" boat, Lang and Ha-Jü had slightly different ones (it would appear that no boat had identical steps so they were probably not fitted in the shipyard). I struggled a lot with the hinges of the armoured cover for the centre window. Since I wish to have it opened, I tried to bend the hinges in the middle and I also tried to give the "pin" in the middle a round shape. After trying for over an hour I had to admit defeat. I really screwed them up, so I will have to make plastic ones. I recommend studying pics because the Italeri plan doesn't show the correct position of the opened cover and the hinges. It's probably best to glue a bit of stretched sprue on the pe hinges to represent the round pin.

Arjan

Hi Arjan, it seems to get more and more clear that Italeri did a Revell -rip in 1/35th. This means that a lot of details will have to be scratched. Worth doing in this scale though
How about some photo's?
cheers,
Julian

I cannot keep my promise as far as modelpics are concerned. I still haven't received my Model Master paint and the bigger rivets, besides I won't have much time in the days to come. Instead I will give you a link to a fantastic S-Boot picture site, which I only discovered this weekend. The photos are from Herr Gerd Bollermann who probably has the biggest Kriegsmarine picture collection in the world. I rang Mr Bollermann to ask for some more pictures and he kindly offered to send me some on cd (some that have been published already). Please don't bother him ,though, if you have nothing to offer in return.To my delight the site contains a pic of S-205 I had not seen before. It shows a round metal cylinder on the quarter deck. As I have discovered in the mean time, this is a smoke buoy and not a fire extinguisher or anything else. By the way, the two rearmost filler caps (of the four beside the pilothouse) are meant for water. Concerning the armour covers for the Kalotte windows, it's best to consult the Italeri reference manual (which in general happens to be rather useless when compared to the one contained in the PT kit). Last night I started on the pe Kalotte windscreen. I knew that this wasn't going to be easy but it turned out to be worse than I had anticipated. It"s probably best to separate the two window frame halves because it's difficult to get the windowpane high enough into the folded frame. The latter can be seen in the manual as well....
http://www.schnellboot-seeadler.de/Kriegsschnellboote/index.htm

Arjan

I was wondering about the bridge windows. What exactly is the problem? is the opening too thin or the plastic screen too thick? A thinner piece of clear plastic might be the solution here.
Julian

Hi Julian,
The problem here is that the top of the windowpane should be level with the posts of the frame. Because there is a connection between the frame halves, the posts will always be higher than the top of the windowpane. You could solve this problem by either separating the frame halves or by cutting away a bit of the windowpane at both topcorners. Then there is also the problem of bending the lower part of the frame (which I haven't mentioned so far). The windscreen was angled slightly forward, whereas the "vertical" panels of the Kalotte are angled backward. Even using an etchmate this is extremely difficult to accomplish because the strip that should be bent is about 1 mm wide, which gives insufficient leverage.

Cheers,

Arjan

Post script: Heating the pe parts in a flame does help to make them bend more easily. I also compared the gun tub cover to the real ones in pics. It is hardly surprising that just like the part in the Revell model, the Italeri cover is terribly oversized both in diameter and thickness.

Okay, clear. Haven't reached this stage yet but will start thinking about a solution.
Julian

I made some photos to show what the rivets look like. On the Kalotte I only used the smallest ones (0014). On the pilothouse I used both sizes. I used 0014 ones for the strip next to the door and for the bottom row, the rest is from the 0015 sheet. Michael was correct about the size, the smallest ones would come closest to the correct scale but the spacing in between the rivets is also a factor to consider. Both sheets, 14 and 15, offer slightly different spacing . The decals are easy to work with but microset is necessary to improve the adhesion. If you don't use this or the future stuff mentioned earlier, the decals will come off at the slightest touch. For the Kalotte I needed a curved line of rivets and I discovered that this cannot be accomplished with these decals. Whichever size rivetsheet you go for, you will be needing two sheets because one single one doesn't contain enough rivets for the whole job.







Arjan

Hi Arjan,
nice pictures!
I'm glad to see the rivets I introduced to you, making such a good job. I'm still waiting for mine...
But now, let me give you some advice: I think, the right door (with bulleye and without hinges) in the wheelhouse is a sliding door, which will open to the right (because of the lock on left side of the door). So the upper and lower attachment of the sliding door is to be enlarged to the right side. Or what do you think?

So long
Michael

Hi Michael,
The sliding door is a mistake inherited from the Revell kit. These belonged to the S-38 type boats. There's a good picture on the Prinz Eugen site showing what it should look like:


I won't correct this door because you won't see anything of it once the Kalotte has been fitted. I only filled in the porthole so you won't see light shining through when you look through the windows of the Kalotte.

Regards,

Arjan

Beautiful work on the rivets Arjen, looks fantastic. Are you going to add the wiring to the torpedo aiming binoculars? Can't see on these photos if you have.
Really enjoyed browsing through the photos on the link you posted. I noticed that the duckboards onder the 20mm in one of the photos are not painted. The instructions and most books advise painting the duckboards grey but I remember from my sailing days that painted duckboards can be unbelievably slippery. The duckboards that were painted were in storage spaces for mooring lines etc. or better said places where you didn't walk on them. What's your view on this (I have left them unpainted on my model but am curious what other builders are doing).
cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian,
So far I haven't added any detail to the bridge. If you have, I would love to see some pics. I have been wondering though, what material could be used to represent the ribbed speech tubes. I think small springs like the ones used in lighters might be glued on a plastic rod or something. As far as duckboards are concerned, you are quite right that painted wood is very slippery , that's why I used to mix some sand into the varnish I put on the gangways of my sailingboat. Perhaps something similar might have been added to the paint used for duckboards. I assume you are referring to the colour pic of the 20mm gun. To me it seems there are still traces of paint to be seen, however badly worn, but it's difficult to be sure. If you look at the gangways and duckboards on the foredeck in the Speer S-Boot pic it would appear that the woodwork has the same colour as the rest of the deck (again difficult to judge, especially as it's a black and white pic):


Groet,

Arjan

Voice tubes should be easy: wrapped guitar strings. That's what I am thinking of using. Should be getting my lead foil and the infamous bicycle tomorrow
Julian

Thanks Julian, great idea. I have just checked my girlfriend's guitar and fortunately the strings are too long anyway . I assume it's going to be a Tamiya bike, as far as I know only Italeri produced another one years ago.

Arjan

Howdy,
I just got a book off of Amazon, E-boats and coastal craft by Paul Beaver. It is one of the WW II Photo album seris. It has some good crew photos and some good shots of S-38 type boats. Some mine, depth charge and torp photos. Not bad for the price. later, Ryan

Thanks for the info Ryan, I made a note of the title. I received Harald Fock's Die deutschen Schnellboote 1914-1945 last week. It's a great book which contains many drawings but it's mostly text and has very few pictures (especially of the S-100). I still haven't decided whether or not to buy Steve Wiper's Warship pictorial. I'm afraid it will contain few S-100 pics I don't have already but I'm not sure. The problem with buying books through internet is that one can't leaf through them and I think € 20 is too much for one or two new pics. Is there anybody who knows this book? I have also been wondering if it might not be a good idea to add some Archer weld beads to the Kalotte as well:
http://www.archertransfers.com/AR88017.html
Finally I will probably add three screws/rivets to the base of each railing stanchion (that will keep me off the street for a while ....)

Cheers,

Arjan

Hi Arjan,
last week i placed my Amazon-order: "German Schnell-Boats" by Steve Wiper; today I was informed of the shipping, so I hope it will arrive on monday. This book is not the warship pictorial, its the Shipcraft-series with a S-100 on the frontpage - but maybe the same content!?.
I think, on mondays evening I will be able to tell, if it's a bargain with some more information about the S-100 or not.
Concerning the weld beats, I have to appraise the photos.... I`ve ordered this surface detail with the rivets . Perhaps for a little battle damage repair?

Bye
Michael

Just thought you guys might like to know - Cammetts now have the resin depth charges and rails for sale.

Brian

New photo's posted at:
http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1074541/ShowPost.aspx " TARGET="_blank"> http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1074541/ShowPost.aspx

Yes, the infamous bicycle has arrived (well, two actually with a PE set with munchkin sized pedals and chains. Looks rather daunting so don't know yet if I'll use it. Might end up murdering a bicycle). I will wait until Robert Schatton comes up with his mines, think that would look slightly more spiffy than DC's.
Cheers,
Julian

Hello,
I can't seem to find Steve Wiper's Book, Schnellboote #15 anywhere. I have tried the publisher and amazon, no luck. Does anyone have one? I'll pay well for it. Any help would be awesome. Thanks, Ryan

Very nice pics Julian. I wonder where you got the idea for the label on the torpedo-tube lids. By the way, I could have sent you some Tamiya bikes, I didn't realize they were difficult to obtain in Holland (just let me know if you can't get the Dragon rubber boat). Could you tell me what colours you used for the torpedoes, they really look great. Michael the book you ordered is no doubt the same one I got some time ago, it's the book that contains all the modelpics. Ryan, I thought I could get the Wiper Pictorial but it turns out to be the same Wiper book containing the model pics (64 pages, published in 2006), so not the Warship Pictorial book. I'm glad I didn't order it else I would have got two identical ones... Thanks Brian for the info, like Julian, I'd rather buy some mines when they are available.

Regards,

Arjan

Arjan, check page 40 in the squadron/signal book: starboard tube appears to be tube no. 1, port tube is tube no. 2. Thanks for the offer on the inflatable, haven't checked on the availability of that article yet. The paints on the "fish" are Vallejo colours, warhead is Vallejo modelcolor "Russian Uniform" no. 924, Body is Vallejo "Liquid silver"no.790 and the tail is Vallejo "rich gold" no.793. I order these from Mol modelbouw in Velserbroek near IJmuiden but maybe you can find them closer to home. The metal foil is fantastic: super thin so will look in scale when used as dodgers. Have been "blackening" underwater exhausts and vent openings in the hull. Port side is nearly ready for some rust and grime and scratches.
For some fantastic weathering tips check out these links:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/1458 " TARGET="_blank"> https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/1458 the guy who did this uses scouring pads to get that scratched effect. Toned down a lot it seems to be the effect I am looking for to put on the sheerstrake (I hope thats the correct term)
All for now, cheers,
Julian

The Warship Pictorial #15 isn' t available in germany this time, and I've asked a lot of book sellers!
But I heared, that there will be a reissue soon - due to the demand of the S-100 I think. Let's hope!

Michael