by Christian Bruer
1/350 DKM S-101 Schnellboot (White Ensign)
The E-Boats used by the Kriegsmarine during WW II were fast and agile small warships made of a wooden-metal composite hull. Powered by three diesel engines with 2.000 hp each the boats reeached nearly 35 knots during wartime conditions and more than 40 knots during their test trials. The boats used from the middle of the war had a closed and armored bridge and some more AA guns than the earlier boats. E-boats saw most of theire service in the English Channel, the north sea, baltic sea and also in the Mediterranians.
The S-100 from White Ensign is one of the kits of theire Narrow Seas Series. Its basically a very nice molded and detailled full hull. The kit contains only some more parts for the guns and torpedoes and excellent etched parts made by Peter Hall.
Building the boat is quite easy, for a bit more detail I added some extra parts to the guns, the bridge and the hull. Painting was done with WEM Colorcoats “Schnellbootweiß”. I built the S-100 type as S-101, this boat saw service with the 2. Schnellbootflottille in the English Channel during 1943. The boats of this Flottille carried clubs, spades, hearts or diamonds as a symbol next to the bridge. For S-101 I used a diamonds symbol!
Impressed by David Griffith’s E-boats presented at Telford 2006 I wanted to display the E-boat in the roll it was designed for, high speed. I used Frank ’s Silicone method for creating the water. The base was made by wood and some plaster for the wavy ground. For the bow and stern waves I used cotton mixed with silicone.
