Better late than never! This is Airfix's rendition of HMS Hood, built (almost) out of the box. I added some PE guardrails since those provided with the kit are, to be frank, utterly horrendous. There are more pics in my gallery, constructive criticism is welcome, as ever. Thanks.















Skipper - will have the review ready in a day or so - have a couple of thousand words down already but it needs some editing yet.

PS Sorry about the indoor photos but it's been blowing a gale here for the last few days...

Great looking ship. I picked up one of those Warship Pictorial books on her this weekend. With the guy in Colorado selling the Trumpeter kit for $99 , your work on this one, and the book, it gets harder and harder to resist. Shoot, at this point, all I'll need is a job offer and I'll order it.

I'm very tempted by the Trumpeter Hood after building this one, but can't really afford it right now. And anyway I should really work on reducing the stash a little

Good luck with the job-hunting!

Hi Graham!
Great looking Hood, Bro, it turned VERY nice!!
Thanks for taking us through the build with you, it was a nice ride...





Dude, take your time...Rui's on Holiday until the end of May, so nothing new will be posted until he returns...
Looking forward to seeing the full build review, mate!
~Gunny

Thanks for the heads-up Gunny - got plenty of other things to keep me busy in the meantime, like finishing off (well, starting...) my KV1 for the 'Big and Beefy' campaign on that other site :-)

Graham, that looks excellent.
Very nice work.

thanks Dave, I was pleased with how she turned out. Especially after I managed to snap off the mainmast (and all the associated rigging) whilst touching up some paintwork...

Ain't THAT the truth!! That's one of the reasons I waited until the very end to put the individual sections onto the hull.

I had a similar problem on the Missouri when the small IFF antenaes on the top of the two masts broke off when I got the center section too close to my work light/magnifying glass trying to do some touchup!!!

I may wind up getting some goggles so I can move my head around the work rather than trying to move the work around under the light.


Nice job on HMS Hood! I particularly like the paint job and finish. Well done!

Tom

Very nice, as I totally expected from you. They just got in the Airfix kit at the LHS. Talk about jumping on the band wagon, what with the Trumperter Hood also coming in. A guy at a recent meeting sold the Heller kit at auction for $25, along with a P.E. set. After seeing your kit I think the buyer got quite a bargain.

I have only one question, not really a critisism. Your blast bags, are you sure of the color? I've seen both white and black blast bags, but I can't recall them ever being the same color as the rest of the turret. Have you gotten info they were that color from some source?

Hi Rodger, thanks for your comments. I wondered about the blast bags too, but used the HMS Hood Association website as a reference - they have some really good info for this build. I'd recommend it, especially if you go for the Trumpeter kit

NOt holding myself to be any kind of expert on the Hood, but the book I just got is a fairly new publiction and is endorsed by the Hood association. Blast bags were white near the end. And, just to ruin your day. There shoud be no mast above that room at the top of the tripod.There should be 2 radars. This was a late 1940 conversion. Prior to that you would be correct if you added a small room just below the big one at the top.

Oh Christ !!!!!! Now I'm becoming one of them !!!!!

I wonder if anyone will release a backdate set. I kind of like it better with the the extra room and searchlight platforms on the tripod. A late 20's early 30's look

Look in ebay and find one of the Trumpeter Hoods being sold. There are generally some pix of the built Trumpeter kit that you can look at to refer to my previous post.

Thanks for the info Steve. I'll take the hit on the blast bags

I'm sure you're right on the other points too, but in my defence the build was supposed to be OOB, so I must admit I didn't go much further with references than checking on paintwork - and it seems I didn't even get that right! LOL

Mind you I did cheat a little and use PE guardrails - here's why...



I just couldn't bear to use those, sorry

Out of interest, do you know how the Trumpeter Hood matches up for accuracy to your references? IIRC they worked quite closely with the Hood Association when they were producing the kit

I think it looks good. But, I'll get the Tamiya Hood. Trumpeter is too far out of my price range. Besides, if I get a 1/350 BB, it'll be the Bama. My personal favorite.

Gator

Well over on the modelwarship web they are fighting as to the accuracy of the main gun turrets. Someone is saying that the pictures someone drew on it is inaccurate and someone else says the stuff is there. I think as far as accuracy goes the Trumpeter kit stands up pretty well this time. Personally, I think those guys take all the fun out of modeling, but when you need accuate information on a ship, that is the place to go.

That's what I like about this site. Everybody is positive and willing to help. I even though I can log on to those other sites, I find myself staying here. Shoot, I can't even remember my log in name over there. :-) :-) :-)

Gator

I cant imagine why you wouldn't use those. Gee, they are sooo much BIGGER!!! :-) :-)


Tom

Nahh, don't worry Steve! But that IS one of the things you have to consider when building a "unique" item such as a ship which has it's own "identity" if you will.

Not to say that building an armor vehicle doesn't allow or require you to be very specific in your build, such as a certain unit's commander's vehicle as it appeared at a specific period of time.

But ships are each unique in their own way, and they DO go through some noticeable changes in appearance over their lifetime (assuming it's more than a few months).

Look at what you went through doing the Lexington.

And sometimes your ability to get things exactly "right" may be inhibited by a lack of resource information. I know that some photos of US ships from the war occasionally had certain "sensitive" items censored out, and that might keep a modeler from getting things "right". And you just may not be able to find pictures of certain areas that you have to build, just because nobody thought taking a picture of it was particularly important at the time.

But I think the REAL important thing is to have fun in what we do, and as long as the individual MODELER is happy with the level of accuracy and does their best in the attempt, THAT'S what matters!!!

If you WANT to be precise, I'm sure that there are always resources who are more than willing to help. And if it's NOT important to the builder, it shouldn't be important to anyone else. It sure is one of the things I like about THIS site!!

Tom

Yep, you certainly get LOTS of plastic for your money there

I agree entirely with your points on accuracy Tom. I'm not having a dig at anyone here so please don't think that; indeed I admire people who have the patience for super-detailing absolute accuracy to the nth degree. For me it's enough that the finished model should look right. As an example, I was a good way into building Campanula when I found some great reference photos, which showed that I had the placing of the Carley floats wrong - to be accurate I should have torn them off and re-positioned on new mountings, but to be honest I decided that a little over two years was plenty long enough to be spending on one model in any case! Like you say, it should all be about having FUN after all, whether that be researching and building in incredible detail, or throwing a model together and painting it in an afternoon. Each approach has its merits