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Revell Type 143 Albatross Class Fast Attack Craft


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I have come to the conclusion that I have to start reducing the stash of model kits I have, starting with one that has been lurking in the bottom of the draw for the last 15 years. This is a model kit of the Deutsche Marine Type 143 Fast Attack Craft produced by Revell.

 

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Along the way I have lost the original packaging and there has been some minor damage to the mouldings on the sprue but nothing to prevent me building the model. I cannot remember why I bought the model in the first place, it was probably one of those spur of the moment things or I wanted to use it for bits, which was my want back in the distant past. However for whatever reason it was never cannibalised or built and has lain unloved until I saw a marketing picture of a completed model on the internet for the recently re-released kit. Having seen the picture my interest was rekindled and step one in stash reduction has been achieved.

As I previously said, the box was lost along the way and some of the items have come off the sprue so I can’t start with the usual box and contents photograph so a picture of the new box art on the Revell website will have to do:

 

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I have to say that the new instructions with the re-released kit on the website are far better than the ones I have and so I have down loaded them to help me with the project.

 

The German Navy has had a long association with S-Boats and the Type 143 was introduced into service in the late 1970s with a follow on sub class of Type 143A (which was also subject of a Revell kit). The Type 143 went out of service in 2005 with some being sold onto other navies. The Type 143 S-Boats were all named after birds with the lead ship in the class of 10 being named Albatross. These in common with all Fast Attack Craft were heavily armed and suited for operations in coastal waters, in the case of the Type 143, the Baltic, although they did operate as far afield as the Mediterranean. Armament consisted of two Oto Melara 76mm Guns, four MM38 Exocet Surface to Surface Missiles and two 21 inch Torpedo tubes facing aft. The ships were constructed with a composite hull (wood, grp and aluminium) and had four MTU propulsion engines developing a maximum speed of 40 knots. I am not sure what they were like to serve on but I suspect the shallow draught and narrow beam made them quite uncomfortable in a decent sea way.

I am going to have to rely heavily on the internet for modelling reference and found a couple of useful web sites to help me although I am hoping not to deviate too far from the original kit:

 

www.schnellboot.net/

 

http://s-boot.net/sboats-german navy.html

 

The kit is at 1:144 Scale which is quite a nice size for adding detail. However I have decided that I will try and keep to the script and not deviate too far from an out of the box build. Although that said I have already decided I am going to replace the moulded railings, there may be one or two other minor adjustments but this should be a relatively straight forward build.

As for the model kit itself the mouldings appear to be of good quality and I am hoping will fit together with little or no problems. I think replacing the kit railings with PE would make a massive difference and that is my starting point.

 

So that is the introduction out of the way. I will be posting updates of progress of the build very shortly.

Thanks for looking. :thanks:

Paul

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The hull had been assembled sometime in the distant past with no other work done on the model. But subsequently I have filled in the joins with putty and generally tided up my previous work.

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My first job on the superstructure was to remove the moulded railings as it is my intention to replace these with Photo Etch items:

 

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I then glued and fitted the main superstructure components together and filled the joins:

 

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The next item of modification was part 30 and the windscreen on the flying bridge. In the kit this is a single moulded piece which provides the detail for the back of the bridge and the glass wind shield for the open bridge. Instead of painting the glass for the wind screen as per the kit instructions I decided that I should make an attempt at fitting glazing. With careful use of a craft knife and file I cut out the windows leaving the frames of the moulding behind:  

 

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Glazing for the superstructure and wind screen will be fabricated from clear plastic card and applied after painting at a later date.

So that’s it for a starter. I hope to provide an update soon.

 

Thank you for looking.:thanks:

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Great start, 

I look forward to see what you do with the railings.

I've got this kit in the stash too(both 143 and 143A variants) but I can't remember spotting those moulded on railings on the sprue, they look awful! and i'm surpised Revell did that on a 'fairly recent' 1/144 scale kit. 

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21 hours ago, BerndM said:

Thats looks like a great start. These kits are  a rare sight so i am in.

:popcorn:

Thanks Bernd,

I must admit I too am surprised that aren't many examples of this kit around on the different forums. There is an example of a build by Frank Spahr which is an influence behind my build but it is a Type143A. I am hoping my build will fix that.

 

 

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20 hours ago, longshanks said:

Looking forward to this one Paul, I have one of the new releases in the stash

 

Slightly over scale for you though :winkgrin:

 

Kev

Thanks Kev,

 

I used to build 1:96 scale RC model boats but with build times measured in years :waiting: I decided to reduce in scale so I actually finished some of my models! As you can see I am slowly working my way back up the scales again.

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Thanks SUB-SAM,

 

I'm glad to hear someone else is planning on building one of these. While trying not to spoil the story of my build, may I suggest you look at my recent build of a Ton Class minesweeper to give you an idea of how I am going to solve the railing issue. B)

 

 

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Pressing along with the build.

 

The mouldings of the kit are on the whole quite reasonable but one or two items benefit from a degree of enhancement. One of these items is the launcher base for the Exocet missile canisters.

 

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In reality these are a framework construction, however sticking to the story of trying to build this model as an out of the box build I decided to make a small enhancement by adding thin plastic strip to the sides of the launcher bases.

 

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When painted with the Exocet canisters fitted they don’t look too bad.

 

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The Exocet canisters themselves are straight from the kit, although they needed some tidying up with a needle file.

That is it for the moment. The next job I have is to think about how I am going to display the model.

Thanks for looking :thanks:

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It's the little things that lift a kit to the next level...........

Nice touch

 

1 hour ago, Paul E said:

The next job I have is to think about how I am going to display the model

 

Hell you stick 6 bits together and already you're displaying it ....... :winkgrin:

 

Kev

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2 minutes ago, longshanks said:

It's the little things that lift a kit to the next level...........

Nice touch

 

 

Hell you stick 6 bits together and already you're displaying it ....... :winkgrin:

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kev, I need to consider how the model is displayed before I start sticking too many things to it, otherwise I will end trashing it. I tend to get grumpy and frustrated when that happens so I am planning to head off that event...........I'll still do some thing stupid along the way no doubt. :bangin:

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I’m afraid not a lot of work was conducted on the model over the weekend after the initial flurry of activity. I did however start on the display base. Unlike my other builds I am not taking a hacksaw to the hull and cutting along the water line, this time I am mounting the full hulled model into polystyrene sheet which will make the base of the sea scape. The size of the seascape base is determined by the dimensions of the perspex display cover which I had manufactured in preparation for this build. Anyway the intention is to depict the vessel underway at sea. The not so good photograph which follows shows the model in its current state on its polystyrene base.

 

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However something exciting did happen this weekend which will clear up a mystery for SUB-SAM.

 

As has already been pointed out the railings that come with the kit are somewhat clunky and look terribly of scale. I had already planned I was going to replace the railings with Photo Etch ones. With good intention I set out to find a supplier of 1:144 scale railings, I thought there must be plenty around but quickly realised that I was mistaken in my assumption. I did find some 1:144 scale railings but they were relatively expensive and being “fixed railing” type would lack flexibility to add to the model without being butchered.

 

I assessed the cost of purchasing a ready made set against how much it would cost me for the manufacture of my own design and realised that there was not much difference. So using my experience of larger scale ship builds I set about designing a generic set of guard rail stanchions and vertical ladders at 1:144 scale which offered me the flexibility that I required.

 

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The stanchions are designed to use 28SWG wire for the railings which is readily available in Hobbycraft as sewing supplies.

 

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How the wire and PE fit together with the rest of the model will become clearer later.

That’s it for now. Thank you for looking. :thanks:

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14 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

I am hooked on this build already!

 

Martian

Welcome aboard, I will try and keep the updates on the build flowing so as not to disappoint :thumbsup:

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I had a closer look at my PE set last night and I am really pleased with the result, so much so that I decided to have a go at using some of it. I started with replacing the moulded ladders on the superstructure.

 

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The first step is to remove the ladder moulding by carefully filing it away.

 

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I also removed the vertical handrails as I am also going to replace those with wire in due course. I then cut down the ladder to length and measured and marked the locations of the fitting points. The ladder stands proud of the superstructure on supports. I used a 0.45mm drill for the support holes.

 

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I then mounted the ladder.

 

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I am sure it will look much better when all the other fittings are in place.

I am trying to decide whether I should replace all the moulded on hand rails on the superstructure or not. I did include handrail supports in my PE design but I am wondering how far I should go with altering the kit and I wonder how much I gain from doing it.

More to follow in due course.

Thank you for looking. :thanks:

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