"E-Boat bearing Green 20!"

The sharped eye lookout spotted a sinister shape lurking in the (displaying no wake as I had forgot to put one in the picture) and cried out in alarm (see below, my first factory fresh German S-Boat):

Just the basic colours (not even a highlight). I will slip a coat of matte varnish on her ready for the first Cruel Seas scenario. All I have to do is paint up a couple of Vospers! I started with my Airfix Acrylic primer followed by a Vallejo Black Wash.

Painting Notes: 
I had a hard time acquiring the correct '50 shades of grey' as per the Cruel Seas painting guides but I did get the legendary Vallejo Model Colour London Grey to which I painted the S-Boat deck. The light (Vallejo Sky Grey) grey was subbed by Vallejo by the Vallejo Game Colour Stonewall Grey. Oak was in turned replaced by Beasty Brown (decking) and Panzer Periscope was replaced by Imperial Blue (windows). That just left gun metal for the torpedoes, with the top quarter of the fish (or "eels") painted black. I did not bother with the fleck of gold at the rear of the torpedo as suggested in the painting guide. Still to do is a little "grey highlighting" but I can get away without this in the first instance. 

Wish Me Well on Cruel Seas (the Warlord Games Version)

A "Merry Little Xmas" present to myself indeed (See below, and more successful than the "air blown" Happy Snowman shown in the background):

Warlord Games had a little problem with the shipping as they are sending on the "wake markers" as soon as they get them, which all-in-all as there is plenty of reading and assembling to be done in the meantime.

Myself a veteran 1/600 Skytrex range I am looking forward to see how it plays and hope for a game or two over the Christmas period and early New Year. I think it is a "Game in a Box"  to my mind. I cannot see myself running after the "bigger items" as they would be almost too big to get on table (admittedly there are some "big" 1/200 - 1/350 - 1/400 model ships about). I cannot see myself travelling far outside of the North Sea as the other theaters have "lesser appeal" (famous last words). I think January's WI may carry some more Cruel Seas ships which is good news even if they are repeats!

 

December 2018 issue of Wargames Illustrated with the Cruel Seas "Boat" Sprue

Sequence of actions: Big kid enters candy store, sees best candy ever, buys one (restrains himself from buying two but then orders the bigger "pre-order" Starter Set) and takes it home and immediately starts eating or rather making it (see below, the "candy" bar):

Said "big kid" puts together the "candy" and is one happy big kid [albeit no longer in the "candy shop"] knowing that at least the "candy" has been assembled is ready for the 'painting tray' (see below, or on closer inspection are they ready .. drum roll?):

I have a piece left over and it does not seem to go obviously anywhere! Have I missed a bit of a gun somewhere? It seemed to be parked where all the other gun bits were, but I don't want to go just sticking a bit on any old thing! Dilemma! (see below, middle left hand side - the mystery piece):

I did a Warlord Games S-Boat Google search but all the images seem to look like the S-Boats or E-Boats (take your pick) I have assembled. Sadly the "sprue" was considered so straightforward it came without instructions ... argh. Any help appreciated (and thanks in advance) .. they may be crew seats!

PS: I also notice that the "sprues" were a mixture of RN Vospers and KM E-Boats. They seem to be selling really fast! In fact no RN Vospers were left by the time I picked up my copy.