by Ralf Roggeveen
1/400 SMS V-106 (Mirage)
The Mirage kit with Mirage's own brass photo-etch, a little scratchbuilding and HP Model paper ensigns. This is the best available plastic model of an Imperial German Navy torpedo boat. Decals are provided to label it as any of the series V105 - 108. The Polish company Mirage Hobby are interested in V105 which became ORP Mazur, and V108, later ORP Kaszub, but they kindly provide a separate WW1 version and its photo-etch parts. In reality these ships, being built at Stettin for the Royal Dutch Navy, were impouded when war broke out and used by the Germans in the Baltic. V-106 was actually allocated to Brazil after WW1, but then sold to Britain and scrapped in 1920.
Photo-etch makes all the difference to the very basic plastic kit, effectively doubling the number of parts. It can be even more detailed, as you could cut away the moulded bridge (pale grey on the finished model), put in photo-etch railings and then cover them with metal 'tarpaulins'. I would have preferred it if Mirage had provided etched screws - there is a metal rudder, so it's not as if they think everyone will make it waterline. The plastic 88mm deck guns might also have been improved; nor did they include the two stern davits either in plastic or in metal - they had to be scratchbuilt out of stretched sprue. These are minor criticisms as it's another excellent and reasonably-priced Mirage kit.
The pictures include two of her next to a same-scale WW2 Type IIa U-boat (U2), similar in size to most WW1 U-boats. Also, two taken during construction, showing the etched hatches in place and the completed deck before the masts and rigging were done.
