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German Fast Attack Craft S-100 Class  |
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Just released by Revell, Germany, their latest model kit
of German S-100 class comes in the well known sea green box with
the usual art painting and built-up shots. The box measures 54 x 21 x 6.5
cm (sorry for staying metric) and is surprisingly heavy at 560 gr (metric
again), which promises a lot of contents. The 1 to 5 range of difficulty/complexity
levels indicates a top end 5 (...indicating to me, that it is not made
for total novices on the glue and paint front. I can tell by my not-so-nice
“Flower-Class"-experience!). As usual, the painting range of colors -shown
on the outside of the box- is given in Revell’s in-house code of colors
for their own color products line.
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As you open the box, you find the construction
menu, a decal sheet, a spool of rigging yarn (echoing “Flower-Class” again?)
along with the object of desire: The big, welded bag of light gray, injection
molded plastic that is to become a 486 mm long vessel.
The construction menu, printed in black on unbleached paper, shows a built up photo and gives a short history of the vessel in German and English. Following the paints and mixes list everybody can see the parts display (..., but I can not see the sheet for the bridge armor or wind shield; whatever it is, this part doesn't even have a number in the display list!). On the following 15 pages we can see our S-100 grow in 57 clear steps, including 4 decal/rigging schemes. .
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below to enlarge  |
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| The decal sheet is in fair condition, even though it was protected by nothing more than the construction menu. The rigging yarn looks just like miniature grayish brown rope. Test burning the rope indicates natural fibers, maybe it will need super glue for fixing |  |
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| Browsing through the frames discloses a little disappointment:
The are no ships personnel figures is this kit: A definite set-back for
the Diorama men and -women among us! And I still can not find the sheet
for the bridge armour/wind shield!
The frames present themselves in very nice shape. The 140+ pieces are flawless. Even after close checking I cant locate more-than-necessary amounts of flash, given the injection mold way of production. The bridge part is protected by two small poly foam pads. (How thoughtful!). |
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By holding the two pieces of the hull together,
you will get a good idea, how nice this model will be.
The kit supplies two spare torpedoes, to be placed
on mid quarter-deck racks. There is no option for having the torpedo tubes
open, displaying torpedo heads. Even though you can install mine/depth
charge racks, there are no parts for mines or depth charges supplied. Another
set-back for the Diorama fraction? (Attention: in case you decide to leave
away these racks, you do not need to drill, as required in the early stages
of construction.)
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The decks and structures are crafted very nicely
and show a lot of detail as most other parts do. Personally, as I am not
much of a paint artist, I would have liked more details in separate parts.
The solid railings seem to be just a little bit too solid and the torpedo
propellers are definitely out of proportion, owing to the injection mold,
I guess.
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Still, the railings will definitely do. As will,
with a little careful sanding, the torpedo propellers. (Oops! ...there
goes one part. All other stay firmly in place!) The 20 mm and 20 mm twin
AA-guns are very accurate. The 37 mm cannon has a lack of detail. Maybe
one considers to replace it by according Tamiya tank parts, if cheaply
available. Other nice details, such as targeting binoculars are supplied.
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Conclusion: Revell’s Fast Attack Craft
S-100 class is a fine model kit. A couple of additional equipment and build-up
options would have made her superb. Anyway, at half the price of
her sister S-100 by Airfix, she is a very nice alternative.
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| Opinion: I bought this kit as a Christmas present
for my brother. I could hardly stop myself from starting to built it. After
I will have finished my current project (1/350 Yamato, Tamiya + GMM + Eduard)
I have to get one S-100 for myself. Even though it is not fitting my 1/350
plans of collecting, it is going to be a lot of gluing and painting fun.
I haven't done any research on literature, yet. If you know good reference
literature, please let me know.
Guido Hopp
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