Dave and Todd,

thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement! Definitely working on my sanding skills with this build...

Todd, that you very much for your kind offer - are you talking about that one here?



Definitiv a great reference and, together withe the 'End of Glory' a highly recommended read that gave me an entirely new perspective on the Mighty Hood!!

Thanks again for your comments!

Cheers,
Jan

Great work Jan,

Your corrections / improvements on the bridge are epic mate.

Hope to get back on the Bismarck Prior to Christmas.

Cheers

Si

Si!!!!

We have missed you, welcome back!!!

Sorry Jan, back to the normally scheduled HMS Hood updates.

Dave

Nice improvisation on those flag lockers Jan!

Lot's of sanding going on here, but it'll pay off in the long run!

Si, Good to see you back mate!

Si, Dave and Russ,

thank you very much for your kind comments!! I truly hope all that sanding will pay off - it is tedious at times, especially when it seems endless, or more correctly, almost every new step call for more filling and sanding...

Dave -




no need to apologise - I am as happy as you to see Si back on line on MSW!!

So Si, I could not agree more with Dave, glad to see you back, you've definitely been missed, mate!!! I hope to see some of your updates soon!

Cheers,
Jan

Wow, it's more than two weeks - and I originally promised another update

Somehow festive mood and obligations took over way earlier than expected, in combination with those nasty work-related real life issues...anyway. I do have a few last pictures for 2016, taken about a week ago but no time to post...

So here we go, some work on the bridge structure, of course another layer of corticene paint required sometime later.





Touch ups on the 4" and muzzles darkened





And the simple flack lockers painted





And now - workers dismissed on Christmas leave...



Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for stopping by here as always and for your patience with my glacier speed of work...

Cheers,
Jan

Merry Christmas & Happy new year to you too Mate.

The twin 4" look excellent, and the bridge structure is coming on really well too.

Cheers

Si

Wow! That bridge is really becoming a work of art Jan!

Merry Christmas mate and a well earned rest I hope til the new year!

Jan,

Amazing work and attention to detail. Looking forward to seeing some more updates.

merry Christmas and Happy New year to you as well my friend.

Dave

Some fine work there Jan!! Your pace is just fine my friend! Love the looks of the bridge! All the best to you and yours for the coming New Year!

Todd, Dave, Russ and Si,

thank you so much for bearing with me and my pace, and thank you for your kind and encouraging comments!! That really helps to keep motivation high!!

And a happy new year and all the best for 2017 to you and all others here on MSW!!

Now, work will be further delayed here for some weeks - that is not to say it will stop entirely, nor that I am running into some kind of 'enthusiasms wall'. It is simply realising and accepting the fact that in no way I will be able to finish my HMS Hood in time for the Bismarck campaign. At least not without compromising quality of work and level of detail that I am trying to achieve. And I decided that it would be wrong to compromise this build only in order to make a timeline. But I definitely want to finish the Bismarck campaign.

So - I will squeeze in a different, quick and almost OOB build; I will post only on the campaign site. And I will try to do some sub-assemblies like PomPoms (Santa brought some North Star octuple and quad ones...) and the like, so stand by for occasional updates here, and in a few weeks, business should be resumed as usual

I hope I can keep your interest in this build, I will definitely finish HMS Hood, and I will continue this build log and the one on the campaign site, regardless whether there are chances for me to finish in time or not.

For now,
Cheers,

Jan

Happy New Year mate! Hope you had a lovely Christmas!

It's been a pleasure to watch you build the 'mighty Hood!' and can totally understand that you want to build her to the standard that you aspire to. This of course takes time (especially with Trumpeter kits ), and sometimes campaigns and real life don't share the same idea of how long these things take.

Take all the time you need my friend, we'll be here watching for new updates when they come and cheering you along!

All right,

since I am not really working here, I had some guys at Shapeways do some work for me. So I got some launches, denton rafts and HACS - really nice quality and amazing detail!! Some boats have some excess material on their bows, but that should not be a major problem to remove.

Here are just some pictures of all the stuff 'as is', I am really curious for myself to see how it looks with some color on and some minor sanding...





























Not really an update, but for the time being, maybe better than nothing...

Cheers,
Jan

Any progress is good progress Jan

Hope you are feeling better soon and you beat the lurgy!

We get some things 3d printed for work so it will be interesting to see how these come up under paint!

Hi Jan,

3d printed gear looks pretty good, as Russ said, will be very interested to see what it looks like under paint.

Cheers

Si

Those little pieces do look good.

I hope they add up to more than you expected.

Slow and steady,
Bryan

Thank you very much, Bryan, Si and Russ, for your patience and for still following and commenting here!!

Slow and steady, you are so right, Bryan!!

And here we go, after several weeks I got my hands back on HMS Hood. Or actually, at one octuple PomPom mount from NorthStar.

Well, this one is not finished yet, and it will not be mounted on board my Hood - it's one of those 'first', that with some kits you need to figure out how it actually works.
Well, those NorthStar PomPoms have potential, much potential - but I would say, they are not meant for the light-heartened. If you don't like building those Master Oerlikons, well, you better look for some other PomPoms.

While their 4"ers and quad .50 cals build up so easily, those mounts are a real challenge and I made a couple mistakes that I can't really hide. Well, I've stocked up quite well with their PomPoms, and four come in a set, three needed for Hood, so no worries.

Just to give you a little impression, this one's about 70% finished I would say. I will finish it to see what else can go wrong ,and then (hopefully) will be able to build three smart ones...













This is origami at it's best, but while following through the steps you realise that the piece becomes strong and solid. However...well, more of that later, I will do my usual step-by-step once I have found out for myself what exactly to do...

Now this thread is back to life, thanks you all for your patience and bearing with me, next update should be up here in a week!!

Cheers,
Jan

Great to see work resume on the Hood Jan

It's been a pleasure to watch so far, and will be great to see you finish her

Your build of U-108 looks exceptional. A little break from time to time helps stoke those fires and get the big builds back on track. Currently I'm taking a little deviation from the Prinz at the mo (to be posted somewhere around here soon) and it's been a fun build, but I'm itching to get back and finish the Prinz now!

Those pom pom's look even more menacing than the Eduard ones! Never an easy job to model pom poms! Looking great so far!

Hi Russ,

thanks mate!!

It feels good to be 'back in business' again!! Not quite sure yet whether these PomPoms are the best possible way to resume work, but hey - even that was some fun yesterday. Should see some progress next weekend!

Cheers,
Jan

To tell the truth, it looks ok to me, but ive never had the pleasure of building a pom pom or orklion or piano (so many instruments on these WWII ships, very confusing), thats one of the advantages of modern ships.

Looking forward to more Hood action.

Bryan

Oh, but you have no idea what you're missing Bryan! So many hours of bench time for one

Nice to see some Progress Jan,

You seem to be having better luck with those pompoms than I did.

Will be watching closely.

Cheers

Si

Thank you very much Bryan and Si!!

I am quite excited myself that things are moving again on HMS Hood. And for the PomPoms, well, those things are quite tiny and fiddly (Si knows what I'm talking about...) and it almost impossible to show on a picture what went wrong, or is not properly aligned (as long as you don't have dedicated camera equipment, which I don't have). I started off with bending one part so that is inside out now, and the cradle doesn't really fit in the base, it's more like forced in with some side effects of bending other stuff. But I have an idea where I need to be more accurate. I hope .

And Russ, you are so right - so many 'joyful' hours for such small parts, you can't get more modelling time for your money...

Cheers,
Jan

Hi all,

to eventually bring this back up to live, I'll start with another kit inside the kit, a step-by-step presentation of the NorthStar's interpretation of the octuple PomPom mount.

I took a whole bunch of pictures while building one over the weekend, and I'll post them in several updates during the coming days - not enough time to do it at once.

The kit is the most complex version of that weapon I've come across, it certainly builds into a nice model, but it has some weaknesses - I would call it over engineered at some points, some steps (or parts) I don't really understand on some suff I left off or even removed since it would not really fit. And the resin parts for the breech and the ammunition boxes are just very slightly too big. But more about that later.

Here's a few impressions on what comes with the kit - and I realise that I did not take a picture of the turned brass barrels, the kit comes with Master brass barrels in two different lengths.



















So starting with the breech block - this part will be the front and market the holes for the barrels, which need to be drilled with a .3 mm drill into the resin block.





The resin block needs some further work - there's a piece provided that should perform as a stand and goes in the middle of the block. But I can't see where it is intended to go, so I decided that the block requires a cut, about half way through.





In addition to that, the block is just a little too wide, so it needs to be sanded down about half a mm on each side, otherwise it does not fit in the cradle, or the cradle will be oddly shaped. I need to work on my skills here to get it really flush, my cradle is a little off, as you can see later on.





Here's the middle 'stand' part and a geared wheel to set the elevation.





In the end, those parts would not really fit when I tried to assemble the cradle. I don't know if I simply got it all wrong - according to the instructions, it's all 'simply' put together, however, this parts are pretty much my biggest critique, I simply don't get it to work. And besides, pretty impossible to see those parts when assembled.

So, office is calling for today. More to follow!

Cheers,
Jan

Holy moley, Jan! Well that's one helluva a way to bring this build back to life!

I think you have nailed it when you say these are 'over engineered'. They make the Eduard kit look like child's play!

Good luck my friend-I am crossing my fingers they turn out well!