discussion Trumpeter 1/700 HMS Hood

[Jim R]

I bought this kit at Telford about 8 years ago. As I remember it was just about "closing time" and when I picked up the box the seller offered a £5 reduction. There was the kit itself, a wooden deck and the aftermarket PE. Now when I got it home and looked at the PE I immediately put the lid back on and the whole lot has languished at the bottom of the stash since then. Having seen Peter, Ron and Battleship Bob produce such excellent ship models recently I was encouraged to take this out. Now it will be a slow build as I intend to work on it inbetween other builds, such as the upcoming BoB GB.



For 1/700 scale there's a lot of plastic. This 2007 offering is reckoned to be the best HMS Hood kit at this scale. The Tamiya kit was beginning to show it's age and Trumpeter stepped in with this.












The wooden deck. Some luv 'em, some don't!


Now the PE upgrade set. This was what scared the whatsit out of me.




No way will most of it be used. Too small, too fiddly and beyond my abilities. I'll see what's what as I go along.

I hope this may be of interest to some of you and you'll pop in from time to time.

 

[spanner570]

Another ship. Luuurverlyl

Nice choice Jim.
Although I can't see proper like, and I don't know that much about her, it looks like the kit represents Hood later on in her career, around the time of her meeting with Bismarck. Nice to see her as such. Makes a change from her usual original layout.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the progress.

Ron

 

[pjgtech]

Well that looks like a very cool kit indeed, look forward to seeing how you get on with it...

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Count me in Jim. This is going to be interesting,

 

[BattleshipBob]

Afternoon Jim

Count me in please, Hood my favorite! Got this in the expanding attic fleet!

how on earth do you work with 1 700 pe!! My eyes would roll out and go into hiding

Looking forward to this

 

[rtfoe]

I've got this kit too Jim but don't know when I'll be building it. I don't have the afters that you have. Always love the Hood.
Looking forward to seeing how you do it.

Cheers,
Wabble

 

[Jim R]

Nice to see so many talented guys showing interest in this.

A little background although The Hood is such an iconic vessel that I'm sure most know a lot already. This kit represents HMS Hood in 1941. The ship was launched in 1918 and was the largest, fastest warship in the world. She visited many countries over the next few years as "an ambassador for the British Empire". She under went many refits and modifications over her lifetime, the last between January and March 1941. The fateful battle with the Bismarck was in May 1941 when she was sunk with very, very few survivors.
A few mind boggling facts. 860ft long and 104ft wide. She weighed 42670 tons and was capable of 32knots (37mph). Main armament was 8 15in guns which weighed almost 100 tons each and had a range of 17miles.

I have this for reference. A big technical but lots of very useful information.
filedata/fetch?filedataid=251246

​
The website "HMS Hood Association" is also a mine of information.

The first decision to be made was waterline or full hull. A while ago I made the 1/700 Tamiya HMS Rodney. She was part of the British fleet which engaged the Bismarck and I made that waterline.

So this time around I'll make a full hull model.

The stand in the kit was just a ridged rectangle thing which the ship rested on. I used styrene tube and attached the hull to the stand with bolts through the tubes into nuts attached to the hull with 2 part epoxy.




Thanks again.

 

[BattleshipBob]

Cracking start Jim

the Hood association are THE experts on the Hood, there's loads of info on her all free! I joined a yr ago, bargain £12!

HOOD was due a full rebuild in the late 1930's new engines, boilers and superstructure and better protection, sadly due to her popularity and being flagship it never happened. It was planned for 1942 after the new KGV battleships came online

My apologies Jim for the butting my nose in!

 

[Jim R]

No apologies needed. I appreciate your input.

 

[Jim R]

The instructions leave the joining of the upper hull to the lower hull until the very last. I figured that it would be better to do this first as once the superstructure was in place it would be very easily damaged when joining the hulls.

Now the Flyhawk PE set is pretty useless. Much of it, in my opinion, is simply too tiny and pointless to be worthwhile. That's coupled with the worst, most inadequate instructions I've seen. Parts are folded and then nowhere does it say where they fit. Also there are lots of parts that simply aren't mentioned in the instructions! If I had hair I'd be tearing it out!

The upper and lower hulls were joined and the join cleaned up although it was pretty good anyway. First PE to fit was the degaussing cable. I also fitted the propeller shafts and the rudder





Trumpeter say the lower hull was red but my research shows that it was, in fact, a dark grey. The modified stand was painted as was the hull. Dark grey below, light grey above with a black line between. The photos do not show the two shades of grey by they are different .

 

[BattleshipBob]

Very nice Jim, like the pe. Very nice hull too!

The discovery of Hood's wreck, finally put to bed the numerous discussions as to the colour of the lower hull. Grey it was!

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great start Jim. Good decision on the hull.

 

[Jim R]

Thanks Bob and Steve.

A little progress between the gardening and the refurbishment of the bathroom. Personally I'm in favour of a wild garden to encourage nature and the bathroom "worked" ok but my good lady "suggested" otherwise!

Main deck pieces and the walls of the first superstructure level fitted.



All painted and the wood deck fitted. I recognise the short comings of wooden decks but I rather like them. This one needed a bit of fettling to get a decent fit.








A few of the hatches were replaced with PE.


Off now to earn some Brownie points by going round the shower tray with silicone.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I love to look at the deck Jim but would not have liked to fit it. Great job. It really adds some class to the model.

 

[Bri62]

Jim your a braver man than me I loved doing my Hood but it was a little bigger your is looking marvellous and so tidy

 

[flyjoe180]

That decking is amazing Jim. Hood is looking fabulous

 

[scottie3158]

Jim,
Looking very nice mate.

 

[Jim R]

A small amount of progress. Too hot to do a lot and my wife has had cataract surgery and although she's doing really well she's milking the advice " Take it easy, no lifting or strenuous work" = Jim does housework, shopping, washing etc!! And of course her new improved vision means 'no shirking'.

Started work on the second deck.




Typical Trumpeter - loads of itty-bitty fiddly parts. This is built up of 6 parts!


12 parts mounted for painting.

Great detail and the fit is fine, it's just the time taken with clean up and assembly.

 

[stillp]

My SWMBO had her 2nd cataract op yesterday and will not stop disobeying the orders to take it easy! She's also been complaining that this one hurts more than the first one did - I keep reminding her how much she complained last time.

 

[minitnkr]

Thanks guys. Construction complete, decals selected, starting camo.