Doh! Thanks Arjan - will teach me to pay more attention. Here is another pic I took. I see a lot threads mention the rivets on the bridge - sorry to be the bearer of bad news - all of them are round headed screw top bolts with a nut on the rear. Hope this is not really bad news for the ultra-detailers

Interesting observation on the anchor stowage Arjan, and I have been unable to find a photo of an S-boat with the anchor on the fore deck. Would seem to confirm that they rarely anchored (I shudder to think about the effort required to lift an anchor that size from the main deck to the fore deck manually ).
My Azimut crew showed up for service yesterday with the mail after a transit time of 2 weeks from France to Holland ( the little guys probably had several nights on the town in Paris before reporting for duty). Well worth the wait though, nicely cast and lots of variation in uniforms, life jackets etc. The officer posed sitting on the edge of the bridge is a gem, this will ad oodles of character to the model (even has a beard or maybe hasn't shaved during the stay in Paris )
Also sincere thanks to Moduni.de for obtaining a new set of decals for me from Italeri after I messed up the decals that go on the model stand. Italeri didn't answer any of my e-mails but Moduni.de got things up, running and delivered to my house in 1 week exactly so that is magnificent service.
Cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian,
Most S-100 boat missions were probably accomplished within 8-24 hours and then they returned to the relative safety of their bunkers. Anchors were probably only used in emergency situations such as engine failure in shallow water, but then it's unlikely that al three engines would cut out at the same time (only possible if the fuel was contaminated or something like that). I also have my doubts about the bearded figure, in the pics I know S-boat crewmembers are clean-shaven. This figure would be more appropriate for a U-Boot, whose missions lasted for weeks if not months.

Arjan

Hello guys,
I only found KKpt. Büchting's pic (CO 1st. S-Flottille); I think he was a beard-bearer

...but all pics we can find in books and www. are taken for official reasons - conferring of an order or something else - so they are well shaved. I would like to see pics of them in action. leaving habour in the evening after a day of preparing the boat for the next hard fight and returning to shelter at dawn... it's possible that some hairs regrowed...

My Commander will keep his beard for a "martialness and cool appearance"

Michael (not with a beard, but mustached!

PS.: joking aside, its my 1st figure in 1:35 with a beard! All others I know and I have (tank crews, pilots etc.) are well shaved, so the sailor wiil keep his beard - looks good!
PPS.: Yes I've built other little figures with beards in the past, but I think, they are looking too strange on that KM-vessel: long bearded dwarfs from Games Workshop!

(cough, cough) Ahem, mine will keep his beard as well (because I have a beard as well ).
As you say Arjan, the boats from Ijmuiden used to kick up a fuss around Great Yarmouth. It took us, (my days at Smit-Lloyd), about 12 hours from IJmuiden to Yarmouth (If I remember correctly at a sedately 12 knots). These boats were there before you could say "Torpedo" .Annoy shipping, pop off some rounds and generally make themselves unpopular before heading home to the IJ-bunker in IJmuiden for ersatz coffee and a quick bratwurst for breakfast before popping off to bed for a snooze. (I'll try to remember to take some snaps of the IJ-bunker to give an idea of how big that WW II monster relic is).
Cheers,
Julian (with beard)

PS: This link includes photo's of the IJbunker , see baupunkt 75:
http://www.bunkerdocumentatie.nl/component/option,com_rsgallery2/gid,96/ " TARGET="_blank"> http://www.bunkerdocumentatie.nl/component/option,com_rsgallery2/gid,96/

PPS: Link to some add-ons I bought from JB models + the motley crew:
http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1120447/ShowPost.aspx " TARGET="_blank"> http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1120447/ShowPost.aspx

Anyone have any idea what colour the Kriegsmarine flags for hand signaling were?
JUlian

Hi Julian,
Great pics, looks like your boat is nearly finished. With regard to caps and shoulderstraps see Michael's links on page 11. The officers wore a cap with a white top in summer and in the other seasons a cap with a dark-blue top . In view of your figure's clothes a dark top would seem more appropriate. A link on KM flagsignals:
http://www.kbismarck.com/flags.html
I found 1 pic of an S-100 boat , and several of S-38b boats with an anchor on the foredeck . So is seems you can either leave it there on your model or (re)move it.

There's also a good pic of an S-boat pen in the Bundesarchiv :


Cheers,

Arjan

Hi Arjan,
I'm not sure, but I believe the blue hat top has to be worn from all KMsoldiers in wartime . Only the Commander of the boat or ship had the white top ... in wartime.
It was similar during my time with the Bundesmarine; all ranks had the white top, but we all received the dark blue one for the case of war and the hat's band - in peacetime showing the ship or the unit - has to be changed to "Bundesmarine" for secrecy reasons.
So, on wartime pics you can only find dark blue hat tops and bands with "Kriegsmarine"-lettering.
:-H
Michael

PS.: ... I have a pic, the master of signals was wearing a piece of cloth on his head - like a . But this was at the time Zerstörer Bayern was sailing under the Jolly Roger when all NATO-ships were leaving SNFL for X-mas! Long time ago in a cold war.... but fortunately allways with white tops... oh, upps
Good night

PPS: Arjan, on the pic with the mines, there's a can in the forground - between the left an right row of mines. And you can see an equal can on the other side of the boat. Perhaps for smoke - you remember the fittings, we puzzled over some days ago? For the french and the german smoke buoys ...

Arjan and Michael,
Thanks for the very informative answers to my questions. Yes, the build is nearing the final stages now but there is still a lot of work and weathering to keep me busy for a few weeks yet. The photo and drawing of the hand signal flags will be a great help, just have to have a signaller in the "pulpit" on top of the bridge. I have changed Herr Flick's cap cover from white to black and will check out Michael's link on epaullettes etc. before starting work on "motley crew".
Micheal points out correctly that in the photo with the deck full of mines (and I wish someone would hurry up with a resin set) you can see what would appear to be smoke cans next to the stern entry hatch. I followed your suggestion and added home brewed cans using the Italeri field workshop oxy/acetylene set (just visible on some of my screenies).
Thats about all for now , cheers,
Julian

Good afternoon gents,
The cylinders hadn't escaped my attention either, I think they are what is described on the Lürssen drawing as the Nebelbojen deutsch. I think the French ones can be seen on pages 41, 47 and 50 of the Frenchman's book. They seem to be connected to the life-buoys which would make sense. I've got a book with colour illustrations of German naval uniforms, I will try to make some scans.






Arjan

Beautiful Arjan, Just what I was looking for (my knowledge of WWII KM uniforms is shakey).
Hope you manage a scan but this a great help for finding the right colours
cheers,
Julian

Hi Julian
Glad you were able to see my build as it was your one that started me going. The arrival in Aussie was long after every one else.
I was pleased with the timber decking as it made a great difference although it does not appear so dramatic in the photos you should consider it . Try a mock up.
Glad you answered the rust question so graphically
Regards Les

Hi Les, yeah, didn't mention that the photos were of a kalotte that had been under water for about 60 years My build is rather dirty for an S-boat though, the photos would appear to point to a high level of maintenance (especially during a war).
Cheers,
Julian

Hello All -

After life interfered with my progress on my S-Boot (funny how life in that way, huh?), I have assembly finished. I did not really comprehend the amount of parts and sub-assemblies there are to paint until I started priming everything!

I now have a 'stealth' S-boot - I use flat black primer so I can build up color depth and create shadows as I paint - it looks pretty sleek in all black. The Archer rivets look wonderful under a layer of paint, what an innovation!

Hopefully I will make some meaningful progress over the weekend - if my wife cooperates

Chris

Hello everyone!

From Rome, we could experience rocking bed at nights, crackling walls and shaking chairs for over a week, but we survived the Italian earthquake. Now that we've unpacked, I am back on tracks, working now on the binoculars and targetting computer. Not such an easy task... But you all know that already!

This might interest you: in the May issue of "Ships Monthly," page 12, there's an article about restoring the wrecked S-130 in Britain. The Wheatcroft Collection runs a website covering the salvation rescue. But this too, you must be well aware of! Anyway, as a reminder, here's the link:
http://www.s130.co.uk/restoration.html

Robert

PS: I really looking forward to seeing her with the painting, Chris,

Hello All -

I am looking for input again on painting, specifically the torpedo rails on Ha Ju. I could see a portion of the rails on pictures of Lang and they looked dk. grey to me - but I could not find a picture of Ha Ju that showed the rails. I did see that the smoke generators and mine rails all looked dk. grey.

My inclination is to paint them the deck color, maybe a slightly different shade. Any thoughts?

Also, I have also decided to become a wooden deck blasphemer and paint the wooden deck portions a weathered grey color. I could not see a really discernible difference between the wooden parts and the surrounding deck colors on pictures of Ha-Ju and Lang. I also remember that the wood on U-boats had a dark stain applied when I did research into my 1/72 wintergarten conversion. No doubt the wood color looks better though.....darn it.

Chris

Chris

Hi Chris,
There's a clear pic in the Squadron book that shows the Ha-Jü torpedo-rails were Schnellboot weiss (page 28 left). The Lang boat had normal grey ones.

Cheers,

Arjan

Hello Arjan -

OK - that is it! I need new glasses

I looked through the book last night and missed it. Thanks!

Chris

Hi Guys,

I have a question for you and to Micheal in particular.
I know, I am far, far away to get to this point but I would like to bounce back on the machine guns located on both sides of the skull-cap.

Are we sure they were MG34/42? With the double-drum magazines they appear to be more like MG15s and consequently, quite different in design from those quoted before.
Can somebody get that doubt out of my head, please?
For info, if I were right, the very well provided in 1:35 scale items, Exter Company in Germany sales an MG15. Here's the link:
http://www.exter-company.com/en/A-80/german-mg-15.html

Robert

Hi Robert,
I think the mg 15 guns were pretty much used up by 1944. The Wiper book has one clear pic of an mg 34 on an S-30 boat (which as you know was a much earlier boat). Besides the double drums were also used on the mg 34. The book also provides design specifications for the earlier boats and in all cases the mg 34 is mentioned . By the way, no machine guns are mentioned in the specifications of the S-100 boats so these were apparently no longer standard armament. To my horror I discovered this morning that the armoured covers (port and starboard) have the recesses for the hinges on the wrong side, or to put it differently the four lips on the covers are facing the wrong way. They also "forgot" the hinges for these covers on the Kalotte itself. By now an A-4 sheet of paper no longer suffices to sum up all the errors in the kit.

Cheers,

Arjan

Hello Arjan and anyone else who wants to chip in -

As I was looking over pictures last night I noticed several inaccuracies in the painting instructions for Ha-Ju and Lang. Can I get your opinion on my conclusions?

Bow: tub cover and forward deck hatch either a very dark grey or black (glossy), rails were all dark grey which leads me to believe that the turret ring was grey also.

Aft deck: on page 28, 24 (far left) and 27 (lower right) of the 'in action' book it sure looks like the raised portions of the decks were all the same grey as the lower deck. Pg. 24 shows this angle the best - not that the vent covers are all white but that everything else, even the compass, looks grey. On pg. 27 you can see that the portion under the modified ammo lockers are grey; also note that one of the two ammo lockers looks a shade of grey also. The galley exhaust stack is very smoke stained but still looks like it was white.

So, it looks like I will be painting most of the decking and details grey. What do you think and is there anything that I am missing?

Thanks all,

Chris

Hi Chris,
You are absolutely right about the colours. I did use Schnellbootweiss for the inside of the tub walls but that was to show off the rivet detail, I painted the rest of the tub parts grey (apart from the slat bottom). I hope you will paint the tops of the main vents grey, I think this is an important distinguishing feature of Ha-Jü (it's a pretty useful feature as well to tell which is which when you are looking at the pics of the two boats together).

Arjan

Hi Robert,
I think the MG 15 + MG 34 are the right choice.
Starting in late 1940 the MG 15 in use by the Luftwaffe was replaced by the Mauser 7.92 mm MG 81, MG 81Z (twin-MG 81), MG 131 13 mm machine guns, or MG 151/20 20 mm cannons. Many MG 15s were modified for infantry use as this heavier weapons replaced them on Luftwaffe aircraft; maybe a number of them changed to KM!
Both weapons can be used with the double drums; the MG 42 was only belt feeded and therefore only the single drum could see action with this "saw".
Thanks for the link - I'm going to order 2 MG 15 for my boat. I guess, the MG 15 was used without shoulder rest and bipod on the boats and it was more used than MG 34 for its higher firing rate (MG 34: 800-900 rpm, MG 15: 1,250 rpm) .

@ Chris and Arjan: absolutely right about the colors, especially the top of the main vents and the rails!


Michael

PS. Maybe helpful with the Azimut crew or for converting...

Thanks Michael and Arjan -

On the main vents - should I go with a lighter grey? They look lighter than the main deck but not a pure white as seen on Lang. If you look at the picture on pg. 28 they do seem much lighter - but not quite a match for the torpedo cradles. I assume that all three main vents were painted the same colors?

Chris

Hi Michael,
Glad for having been of some help with the link. The Exter Co. that sales the machine guns seems to not include photo etched parts for the sights but if you have some more euros to spend (!), I've found an Australian review which talks of an MG42 that has it:
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/reviews/vehicles/k59/k59_c009.html
Now, ff someone has a cheaper way to get those sights, I buy!

Arjan,
Reading closely my Squadron issue, on page 43, the picture on the top left (the 'Ha-Ju' in England) as a footnote that says in its last sentence: "A machine gun pintle and an oval hand grip are located..." and again, if you go to page 25, the above left picture represents the 'Lang' with that same pintle. Ahah! Seems like you'll have to add this one more error to our A-3 sheet !

And Chris,
Hope you'll indicate us all the colors used in your painting when you start posting pictures. I am sure I won't be the only one to thank you for that!

Best regards to all of you,
Robert