G;Day from Inman's Shipyard.
While I await some decal sheets for my USS Enterprise air wing I have placed them in hibernation. Even better news the Enterprise doesn't fit in any of my display cases.. it is too wide.. And I have the Tamiya version and a Trumpeter CVN-68 USS Nimitz in the stash so I will have to get a wider case or modify one I have here already. We shall see.
But enough of that it is time to introduce my next build, Trumpeter's 1/350 HMS Hood, that was sunk in her first real battle by the DKM Bismarck, and to this day there is no real proof as to why the magazine exploded killing the ship and hundreds of crewmen.
Be that as it may the Hood is a large ship, longer even than many later battleships and its fine lines make it a favourite with ship modellers all over the world. I built the Airfix one about four decades ago but have no memories of it so it must have been an easy build..
Any way, here we go and first up we have the box art..

Here is an overall look at all the detail sets I will be using..

And some detail views. First up the Trumpeter details set with brass props, main gun barrels with and without blast bags and secondary armament barrels..

Next the Eduard PE set I will be using..

I got the Tom's set before the Eduard set but I found it did not have enough details for me but there may be one or two items I can use..

The etching in this set is much better than one of the other sets I got from them.
Then we have a couple of WEM sets..


I read a review somewhere that the Hood turrets are very simplified. I was too late to get the excellent Lion Roar set with its resin turrets etc so I got the White Ensign Models set instead. Saved me a fair few dollars.
Next we have the Artwox wooden deck..

And that's it for now. I will upload some more detailed views of the various sets etc as I build the ship.
It was a toss up between this one and the Hasegawa 1/350 Akagi with the Hasegawa detail sets and wooden deck, but that will be next.
Until then I hope you will enjoy this build when I finally cut some plastic sometime tomorrow.
Cheers everyone
Warren

Go Warren!

Nice Choice of next build Mr. Iman, some very juicy add-ons too,
cheers,
Julian

Incredible Warren!!! You are going to end enclosed with the psychiatrist!!

Daniel

Nice choice Warren. You can check out my build on here if you need any Pointers.......Cheers mark

I will definitely go and do that right now Sir!

First update..
Yes, it's clamp city yet again!

Luckily the fit between deck and hull is very good for such large pieces of polystyrene.
My kit has a few of these bollards broken off. I found one in the box but the other two are missing. I will make those out of round stock. I glued the left one back on..

Next we have our first PE task, replace part of the small cranes..

As you can see the kit parts are not bad at all, but the PE just adds that little bit extra.
There are 30+ of these ammo lockers scattered over the decks and even though the detail on the kit parts is not bad for plastic it can't match the PE detail you can glue on the front. As you can also see the detail on the kit parts is not consistent.

There are two other sizes and all have been done.
Then when you turn the lockers over ever single one of the 50+ of them have an ejector pin mark on the back.

These have all been filled abd sanded back.
Why can't manufacturers either:
a) Re-design the moulds to get rid of the need to push on kit parts to eject sprues from the moulds, or
b) Wait a bit longer for the plastic to harden a little more before ejecting the sprue from the mould.
Dragon seem to have no problem doing it so why can't Trumpeter?
That's it for now. More tomorrow..
Cheers all
Warren

@ Daniel, I think you may be right...

@ Mark, I read your blog and I think I must be building a different Hood as the fit of mine is fantastic! I see you and Simon both had troubles but mine is going swimmingly at the moment.

On to the update. I don't know what I was thinking at the time but I thought I wouldn't bother adding the new PE walls to the rear of the superstructure, but I finally decided to do it as I paid for the PE set so I better damn well use it. Seems my current state of health is affecting my thinking negatively. All I had to do was remove the details from the existing plastic walls and add the PE covers..

The plastic version didn't have the ship's name moulded on.
I have been busy with hose reels and some sort of machinery that sits on the deck. I can't even find the in the book "HMS Hood Anatomy of the Ship"!


After building the lower decks superstructure it was time to apply the first paint of the build, Tamiya's XF-25..


Then I applied the first wooden deck part as the area will be covered by the upper deck in the next step of construction..


The rest of the time has been spent removing moulded on detail of the forward and aft decks. Upper deck will be done sometime tomorrow and the boat stands replaced with PE ones.
Anyhow, that's it for now
Will update again tomorrow (I hope)
Cheers
Warren

As a guy that putters around with armor models I would like to thank you for the amazing entertainment that I have found from watching your builds. I think I spend more time reading through your builds than I do on armor builds....

Definitely if I ever do build a ship it will be in part because of watching your amazing builds. Conversely, if I never build a ship it will because some of your builds scare the cr*p out of me with the PE, etc.

Either way.... I do enjoy watching so please carry on....
Bob

G'Day Bob!

You are far too kind my friend. I have built many armor models as well but ships have me at the moment. It is like building lots of smaller kits then putting them all together in the end to produce the one big kit. always something to do while waiting for paint etc to dry.

Thanks again and I am glad you enjoy my efforts.

Cheers
Warren

Time for another update folks!
I was working on the forecastle all day, but that included giving all the PE a coat of grey before I installed it. Much easier than painting it after installing it.
So here we have the kits plastic wave-breaker (I have forgotten the exact name)..


Not bad at all for a plastic one. Then we have the PE replacement pieces..

Sorry it is a bit blurry but it looks much better and has more details missing from the kit one. I left off quite a bit of other detail from the breakers as they were just too small and no one would even notice them if they were applied.
And here is the rear breakers..

Them one of the replacement PE hatches that I have left in the open position for a little interest. I painted the plastic underneath matt black to give the impression of a hole.

I also opwnws up the top hawse pipes and now have to work out hpw to simulate the actual pipes..
Also notice I have applied the wood deck to the forecastle.
And the main deck got a coat of paint in a different grey to the rest of the hull.
That's enough for now.
Cheers all
Warren

Coming along in leaps and bounds Warren, looking good !
cheers,
Julian

Greetings fellow ship-type modellers!
Its time for another update on the Hood build. Most things are going very smoothly at the moment with only one or two problems. The main one was the rear wooden deck that was put out of position a bit by the extra PE attached to the rear superstructure. It made it that little bit wider which forces the deck back a bit, but a little judicious trimming got the problem fixed.
So on to some photos!
First up, preparing the patient for a little surgery..

All the hatches and boat supports were removed and replaced with these..


and these..


and these..

Unfortunately if you bend up the PE hatches too much the hatch breaks off the delicate frame, so to reattach them and make sure the hatches stay at about the same angle I use this methed..

Cotton bud stick support..
Then I installed four ladders that you will need a torch and mirror to see much of when the model is finished..

Into the depths of the ship..

Finally today I installed the tops of the four ladders that lead to the aft deck of the ship. The ladders will be attached when these are dry..

That's it for now. The Eduard PE set is a joy to work with as usual.
Cheers
Warren

Greetings from Downunder where we have to endure 5 weeks of political cr&p until the election in September.
But enough of the bad news, have been working steadily over the past few days but it doesn't look like I have done much at all.
Started building up some small rooms that fit on the upper deck and thought that Eduard has stuffed up and made the size of one of them wrong. Si I assembled the plastic one and prepared to fill a few gaps when I realised that I had missed a few bends in the subject piece, one inside and one outside, This was not really possible to bend again as I had no romm due to the other bends, so I simply snapped off a few pieces and used the roof to glue everything back onto after I finished the four tricky bends.

A few gaps to CA to death but it already looks much better than the plastic part due to the mesh.
While I was adding some more PE ladders last night I wnet to add the four at the back and discovered that Eduard has indeed made a booboo as they supply one size for all four ladders but only two of them are the right size, the others too short.

I made them fit and hopefully they will not stand out like dogs-you-know-whats when it is finished.
That's it for now.
Cheers
Warren

Looking good Warren!

You're right about the election for sure, there's not much of a choice, but at least we have your fine build to keep our minds otherwise occupied

Thanks Russell. Glad I could help.

My dear friend .... you look like a pilot of formula Indi !! ..... very rapid and of very good way!!

Congratulations for his foot of page I like this !!

Regards Daniel

Very nicely done so far warren......Cheers mark

Daniel, compared to your scratchbuilt models I am a humble amateur.
Thanks for the praise though..
Cheers
Warren

Thanks Mark.
I am sure it is more difficult in 1/799 than 1/350.
Thanks for looking Sir.

And on that note it is time for another update.

It has been a day spent upgraing the 0.5in Vickers gun mounts with PE. I had a set of replacement barrels for these as well but the plastic ones are fine so I will save the metal ones for later.

The macro lens makes them look rubbish but the look great to the naked eye, and much better than the pure plastic ones in the kit. Eduard also provided a shield for them but looking at my Hood reference I can't see the shields so I left them off.
For the rear mounts I also had to make the actual pedestal they sit on..


A little remeadial bending to be doe but you get the picture. Annealing the brass made it much easier to roll to shape.
And here is a shot of the little structure on the upper deck I built yesterday now in place.

Boy that macro lens makes it look crappy!
That's all form now
Cheers
Warren

Hello again.
Another day another few steps closer to completion.
First up Here is the rudder with a few simple PE bits added. Notice the very subtle etching detail..

Then after I had installed it and painted the hull..

All the subtle etching almost disappears..
I also got around to installing the propeller shafts and supports. The supports had really bad mould lines on them and I almost gave up and made it a waterline model, but the never-say-die attitude prevailed and I got them cleaned up. Lucky really as I have brass props for it..

I also managed to get the boot top painted. I had forgotten about it but masking was relatively easy and it is still masked up. Will remove it tomorrow after giving the matt black 12 hours to dry at least.
I also did quite a bit of detail work and started building the forward mast structure. Got this far today..


That's it for now
Warren

Nicely done so far warren. The only thing I could pick is the the Lower Bridge Superstructure Decks were painted a Red Brown Colour and not Grey. Other than that, nicely done.....Cheers mark

But according to my reference the linoleum may have been removed by the time the Hood was in action and the deck painted dark grey, that is from the HMS Hood society web page.

Anyway, on with the update! Another part replaced by Eduard is this platform on the main mast below the starfish deck..

About 100 times better than the chunky plastic one.
Then we have some kind of rangefinder I believe, this one using the Trumpeter supplied PE which id about 4 times thicker than the Eduard PE..

Next up is the base of the starfish deck on the main mast and the other on the aft mast..

Obviously the unfinished versions, and here are the finished ones..

100% improvement on the plastic one..

Then on top of the platform goes this structure..

Originally this had windows running all the way around it but I filled them with putty, sanded it back and painted it matt black to try and simulate the windows. Then on top of that go the window frames. The rear one has not been installed yet. I will paint around the frames grey and hopefully, fingers crossed, they will look like windows without the huge frames of the plastic ones.
Next up was the funnel caps. Here we have the original kit one..

Not too bad as they go, especially compared to the olden days when there was nothing provided. To attach the nice PE grates first you have to remove the centres of the caps. I do this by drilling right around the perimeter..
3
Then you get your trusty knife and cut the remaining plastic attachment point..

Once you have removed the cap you can use it as a mould to shape the PE parts after you have annealed them to make them much more flexible..
You then glue the PE frame to the PE ring provided then glue the whole shebang to the original plastic funnel tops, and after you paint them black they look a bit like this..

I also painted the insides of the funnels black.
That's it for now. Am going to the 2013 Diecast Convention in Surfer's Paradise for a few nights so no updates for a while.
Cheers all
Warren

Hello everyone.
Got home from the 2013 Diecast Expo in Surfers Paradise and hit the bench after I unpacked a few things. Ended up spending a bit as my lovely Wife said I could.. I might be unemployed but she isn't ..
Anyway, back to the build!
Here is the almost completed rear funnel area. I gave the are where the PE mesh was going a coat of Matt black before installing them to give the area a bit of depth..



The plastic moulded on ladders and some doors were replaced as were the two small aerials on the sides of the little room.
Here is the forward mast area, again almost completed.


And finally the funnels have had their plastic straps removed and PE one installed. What a pain that was as the straps kept wanting to lift for some reason, even afetr I had annealed them..


No paint on them yet.
That's it for now,
Cheers
Warren

Looking good Warren, the Hood was a rather complicated ship with all the dechouses and starfish platforms.
Nice work with the PE,
cheers,
Julian