AFV Club German EMC Naval Mines 1:35

[Mike]

German EMC Naval Mines
1:35 AFV Club

During WWII the Schnellboots of the Kreigsmarine were used to drop mines into the shiplanes where more ponderous mine layers couldn't dare to go because of their larger size, slow speed and vulnerability to enemy fast boats and air attack. The mines were loaded onto the back of the S-100 boats with their weighted bases and a reel of cable to allow the mine to float free once dropped and reach a depth beneath the surface suitable to detonate when a passing ship nudged against it.

The Kit
Arriving in a thick-set figure sized box, this set of injection moulded parts is designed to complement the big Italeri S-100 boat released to much enthusiasm some years back. It could also be part of a large scale dock diorama, sitting on the dockside waiting to be picked up and taken out to sea. Inside the box are four sprues with chunky runners in an olive drab shade of styrene in a ziplok bag, a heat sealed bag containing four smaller ziplok bags with a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass inside, a length of string, and a small decal sheet for good measure. From this you can build four identical mine assemblies, and decal your S-Boot with a German flag (with 2-part swastika) and the correct codes for the mine laying vessels.

The instructions are printed on the back of the box, and involves building up the roll os cable from PE and styrene parts, with a roll of the supplied string portraying the cable, which is added to the winch gear on one side of the base, followed by the rest of the base plus fixtures and fittings. The base is sat on a shallow tray with four small wheels to enable it to roll overboard, and then the mine itself is built up from two hemispheres split along the same axis as the real thing (no seam hiding needed here!), plus the sensor prongs dotted about the upper half, and fuse plugs on the bottom half. The mines can then be optionally mounted vertically on a central bracket, or at an angle, with additional tie-downs in PE and styrene.

Painting is straight forward - a choice of German Grey, with colour codes provided for Gunze, Humbrol, Revell and Lifecolor, to give you plenty of choices.

Conclusion
These simple mines give the aft deck of your S-Boot added visual interest, and give it some individuality. They are well detailed, and easy to construct, although initially the instructions look a little daunting due to being close together and covered with red arrows.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of