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Italeri's parting shot to 2017 is the release of the Schnellboot S-38 in a whopping 1:35 scale. This gives you a boat a whisker under 1 meter long at a scale that is easy to add detail to
Currently retailing for around £145 - £170. for your money you get over 600 parts, mainly injection moulded plastic but with one fret of etch and some other bits too.
Packaging.
The Box art shows the boat in the colours depicted in the instructions, a uniform grey, however there are a number of camouflage options that could be used with a little research. The Box measures just over 101cm just enough to accommodate the hull length of 99.9cm.
Inside the box there is two card pieces to help stop the box being crushed a separate box contains the instructions as well as the decals, etch and other bits; these are loose and can travel around the box freely. The two hull halves are lose and can move about also. The sprue are grouped in 3 bags. overall the packaging is poor the risk of parts being damaged is high, not really an acceptable stranded given the price tag and not up to the standard of the leading manufacturers.
Whats in the Kit
As already stated the kit comes with one sheet of etch, the etch is of good quality, unfortunately mine was slightly damaged due to the poor packaging, luckily nothing that can not be remedied. The kit also comes with a selection of fasteners, primarily used to bolt the hull and other large pieces together.
There are two different threads supplied, one of which is used for the railings.
A nice feature of this kit is the pre cut acetate sheet for all the glazing needed.
There are a small number of decals provided, markings for three different boats, a flag, some dials and the name plates for the stand which really look good other than perhaps having the Italeri.
The majority of the kit is plastic. The hull comes as three pieces two hull sides and a stern plate that two deck sections sit upon. The hull detail is nice, I could not see any obvious sink. The upper hull has some very delicate rivet detail, although some modellers may choose to recreate this themselves.
There are 7 sprue grouped into three bags. All the parts seem to be nicely moulded with some great detail. One sprue strangely does not appear to have much on it at all? Some of the highlights are the torpedoes and the rubber boats. There is plenty of scope for scratch builders to modify the detail and for the after market boys to further refine the kit, that cabin is crying out for a resin upgrade to the insides. No sink or flash that I could see the odd seam to remove but looks like the clean up of parts will be minimal. There are some noticeable injection marks in some places.
Other than the dent in my etch I had 4 parts that had snapped of the sprue due to the sprue rubbing against each other in the bags. I will repeat the packaging is poor. fortunately nothing broken but still not good.
Instructions
The instructions are great, very clear and point out both etch and painting instructions through the build, far superior to some manufacturers that just show a one page paint guid with no detail. Italeri do supply a single colour sheet also which shows decal positions as well as hull colours.
Summery.
This is a fab kit all in all, plenty of parts at a big scale will give a really authentic looking feel to this kit. Built straight from the box some experience of washes to pick out the detail will be required.
My bet is that the after market companies will soon be offering a range of updates for this and it is probably worth waiting to see what arrives before getting stuck into building this.
I would not be surprised if there are some conversion kits offered for this ultimately, as this boat had several different armament configurations, we will have to wait and see
The only fly in the ointment really is the poor packaging. To be honest for the sakes of a few pence on 4 more plastic bags, a bit of tape to secure the etch down and a bit more thought on boxing in the hull halves is all that is needed, and the cost on a high ticket item is minimal. feels a bit like penny pinching and detracts from what is a great kit otherwise.
Defiantly one for the collection if you have the space
Jase
jase attached the following image(s): “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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 Rank: Pro    Groups: Registered
Joined: 18/08/2015 Posts: 294 Points: 897 Location: Amesbury, Wiltshire
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Hi Jase Good review looks like it could be an interesting build Terry FINISHED BUILDS---- HMS Victory--Bismarck--Battleship Yamato-D51 Steam Train--Pocher Ferrari Testarossa--Soleil Royal--Schnellboot S-100--StageCoach 1848--HMS HOOD-- Delorean (Back to the Future)
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 Rank: Super-Elite     Groups: Registered
Joined: 19/06/2013 Posts: 4,588 Points: 13,553 Location: West Yorkshire
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Looks a nice kit Jase  look forward to seeing it come together. Al
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Rank: Superelite  Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/05/2010 Posts: 2,608 Points: 7,519 Location: Lincolnshire
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How spooky is that! I was just researching this, and it’s sister the S-100 by Italeri. Excellent review Jase and just the information I was looking for. Still can’t decide between the two, but will be following your build with interest
Regards
Gray
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CaptnBirdseye wrote:How spooky is that! I was just researching this, and it’s sister the S-100 by Italeri. Excellent review Jase and just the information I was looking for. Still can’t decide between the two, but will be following your build with interest
Regards
Gray Other than the slighty diffrent look there is not much between them, although i woupd give it angood 6-12 months to see what comes out in term of detail sets, there are plenty about for the 100 Jase “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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Rank: Superelite Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/05/2010 Posts: 2,608 Points: 7,519 Location: Lincolnshire
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jase wrote:CaptnBirdseye wrote:How spooky is that! I was just researching this, and it’s sister the S-100 by Italeri. Excellent review Jase and just the information I was looking for. Still can’t decide between the two, but will be following your build with interest
Regards
Gray Other than the slighty diffrent look there is not much between them, although i woupd give it angood 6-12 months to see what comes out in term of detail sets, there are plenty about for the 100 Jase Hi Jase, yes I saw some of the kits for the s-100 on flea bay. They have figures and etch for the guns. Wondered if it would be adaptable for use on the s-38. Apart from the armament, the main difference that I can see is the enclosed bridge. Still think either will make a cracking model 
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CaptnBirdseye wrote:jase wrote:CaptnBirdseye wrote:How spooky is that! I was just researching this, and it’s sister the S-100 by Italeri. Excellent review Jase and just the information I was looking for. Still can’t decide between the two, but will be following your build with interest
Regards
Gray Other than the slighty diffrent look there is not much between them, although i woupd give it angood 6-12 months to see what comes out in term of detail sets, there are plenty about for the 100 Jase Hi Jase, yes I saw some of the kits for the s-100 on flea bay. They have figures and etch for the guns. Wondered if it would be adaptable for use on the s-38. Apart from the armament, the main difference that I can see is the enclosed bridge. Still think either will make a cracking model I dont like the look of the enclosed bridge, personal thing, so have been waiting fr this release to come along. much of the etch will be interchangeable but their will be differences if you go for the 38 its worth waiting a bit to see what comes out. figures should be interchangeable though and there is an aftermarket company that makes some very nice mines to replace the depth charges.
Jase“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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Eduard have now released etch for this as I suspected they would.
there are three sets currently no Big Ed as yet
this is what you get.
JaseFile Attachment(s): jase attached the following image(s): “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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