Mark

I keep coming back to this and seeing more every time. Nothing to add to the above, except the vehicle on the left in the second photo, which is just pure class! It really makes the whole scene complete.

I've just read this and feel compelled to extend my thoughts and condolences to David's family. I have been a customer of Hannants since 1994 and would hate to think of the cash that I could have saved had I not discovered David's business! Back when they used to send out the catologues, many hours were spent scouring through the well-known and not so well-known names of the suppliers therein and it was through Hannants that I discovered both Aeroclub and Flightpath, also, incidentally, run by true gentlemen. It was at my first 'Nats' that I met David and we got talking about a project that I had been asked to do and without hesitation offered his help by way of supplies and even kits in order that the project could be completed. To me, during my years working in South East Asia and then in Dubai, Hannants was not only my only supplier of modelling paraphernalia but on my occasional visits to London, the first thing that I did was grab the tube to Colindale, up the stairs and enter what, to me, was a modelling mecca. The tea was good too! I never did get the opportunity to visit the warehouse in Felixstowe, but it is still on my modelling bucket list. I was looking forward to ScaleModelWorld as usual this year in order to catch up with friends and say hello once more to David. I'll still visit the stand though and say hi. RIP David

Stunning! I really must get one of the new Tamiya F-14s... I'm really quite inspired now!

Hi Paul! I've not gone far! I still spend a lot, probably still too much time reading the forums here but I found that being 'active' meant less time at the bench. I'm hiding over on the maritime forums at the moment! Here

Hi Pete, shame you won't be going to Telford, but I'm sure we'll catch up at another time. So, how are you getting on with your H.M.S. Hood? Cheers, Mark

Hi Paul, I've not been very active on here recently (I've been too busy making models rather than looking at or talking about them!) but this caught my eye and I just wanted to add my praise as I'm a big fan of the Harvard but it's great to see one that is not yellow! Superb job!

I know where I went wrong now Pete! I totally ommitted the quadratic formula... Telford you say? Are you going? It will be good to meet up and pay you the royalties for nicking your ideas! Do you accept currency in the form of bacon butties and tea/coffee?

Totally gust free in the workshop Daryl! But when the masts are up, it will certainly need a steady pair of hands (or two pairs as you suggested!) to avoid hitting anything as she gets covered up again.

Hello Roman and from me in France.

Morning all! I'm slowly catching up with Pete's build of this gargantuan kit, which has attracted some raised eyebrows from friends along with the normal comment of 'Where the heck are you going to put it??' Little do they know that my cunning plan involves moving house... At least I think I'll have to if I want to put her on permanent display when she's finished! A little more work in the man cave yesterday and I've started cleaning up the hull, which has some very prominent scars along the centreline of the hull, remnants from the injected moulding process. These were simply filled with Tamiya putty and are ready to sand smooth. I copied Pete's method of attaching the hull to the base and although I doubt that once she's finished I will never release her from her mooring, this method does allow the hull to be detached if necessary. The mounting 'brackets' were attached to the hull interior with Araldite. And finally, the last piece of work on the base arrived in the post yesterday morning. I'm very pleased with how this turned out! It is solid brass, 40mm x 150mm and 2mm thick and is quite weighty by itself and was supplied with five small brass screws, one spare. I was also pleased with the service with a photo of the plate being emailed to me prior to posting to confirm that it was correct. I'm very happy to recommend them, https://www.engravefast.co.uk Despite drilling locating holes, I managed to shear one of the brass screws and so drilled larger holes to accept them, many thanks for that spare! Finally, for this post, here's the finished dust tent, design ©morty_3333, aka Pete, although I could not find out the finished height of the model, so I guessed, rather generously I think! As far as the final decision on the display case, I probably go for the slotted hardwood rails surrounding glass panels, as suggested by Pete. But that is a loooong way off and maybe the force field technology will exist by then!! So apart from cleaning up the hull and removing the degaussing cable, moulded by Trumpeter along the top of the hull sides but much better represented by etched metal parts in the Pontos set (which will hopefully be waiting for me at Telford!) there's not a lot else I can do until after Telford when, armed with Colorcoats paints and the Pontos set, I can settle down in the cave and hibernate for the winter! I'll have to go back to aeroplanes in the meantime!

Hi Pete, Thanks for the reply and your graciousness in accepting my thread alongside yours. To be honest, I would not have had a clue how to punt the ship on the base without having seen your thread first, so all credit belongs to you there! It will be a long and slow process as I learn new techniques and skills and apply them to this model, as well as trying to figure out exactly what it is that badly needs changing in order to achieve an accurate model of the 'The Mighty Hood' on the day that she was sunk. One question I do have is where on earth will I get a case made for her once she is finished? I need to find an excellent glazier/case maker that can manufacture what is effectively an upside down fish tank with the best quality edges and joins possible. Cheers! Mark

It is with both sincere apologies and heartfelt thanks to Pete (Morty_3333) that I would like to start my 1/200 H.M.S. Hood build and post the progress here. With apologies because it was Pete's original thread that inspired me and I do hope that he is not offended with this 'imposter' coming along and starting another work in progress thread of the Mighty Hood in 1/200th scale. But the thanks is due because it is after having read his initial thread here and been inspired to learn more about the history of H.M.S. Hood and the ultimate sacrifice of 1415 crew members on that fateful day in May, 1941, that I became more and more tempted to spend the most I have ever spent on a plastic model kit. My personal interest in the Royal Navy has been piqued by my son joining the senior service recently as an aircraft technician. I am very much an aircraft modeller, with the occasional foray into cars and motorbikes, but the last ship that I ever built was probably Airfix' 1/600 H.M.S. Fearless around forty years ago! So entering the local model shop recently and leaving with H.M.S. Hood under my arm was both somewhat of a surprise to me and the shop owner! A "30% off everything" sale helped the decision making and with the rear seats of my car folded down, the huge box and I went home. It is my intention to correct as many of the obvious inaccuracies in the original kit and there are many online references that are available. I have found this site, which is a very good review of the model and what to fix to get the finished kit as accurate a s possible. I have also been badgering Jamie at Sovereign Hobbies to keep a Pontos Detail-Up set for me to collect from his their stand at Telford this year. My final thanks must go to my long suffering partner, Zuzana, who has allowed me to indulge in this rather expensive project; I truly hope to do it full justice with the caveat that I haven't built a ship in years! Now, I would never had known where to start had it not been for Pete's thread and once again, many thanks are due to him for his excellent description of where he started and how he approached the build. You will see from the following photos that I have copied his approach and started where I would normally finish with an aircraft build, with the display base. For the base, I have alway had my eye on an oak work surface at the local DIY shop. The original piece was 180x60x2 cm and is made from small sections of solid oak to form a large single sheet. I already had plenty of oak moulding, which will be used to frame the board. So, with an idea in my head, I got to work! The oak work surface was cut into my required size by the DIY shop. I settled on 1400x225 mm which will be almost all occupied by the huge size of the kit, being 1318 x 163 mm. with the outside frame edging adding another 10 mm to both the length and width dimensions. With ever increasing grades of sandpaper, I got to work preparing the board and once happy with the finish, I started cutting the edge pieces from the oak moulding, attached them with a strong wood glue and clamped them in place whilst the glue set. With the base completed, I now went back to the DIY shop to search for an appropriate colour stain. I did not want to varnish the wood as I preferred to have a more natural and matt finish, so I chose a mid-colour oak oil and after carefully building up the finish, I was really very pleased with the final result. After having seen how Pete approached the mounting of the hull to the base, I basically took complete inspiration from his ideas and then duly copied him! The brass pedestals were sourced from eBay and were located in the United States. Here's the link to where you can find them, here. The pedestals are extremely high quality and are made from solid turned brass; they are certainly not lightweight either! The main problem was that the internal diameter of the hole was 10mm and the screws that I had chosen, along with their corresponding captive nuts, were 6mm. After trying to find a similar rubber grout that Pete had used, I settled on a 10mm rawl plug, drilled out with a 6mm drill bit. With "measure twice, cut once" in mind, I measured, measured and measured again ensuring that the placement of the holes in both the base and also the expensive hull, which is, as you can see, a huge single piece moulding, were all accurately marked prior to drilling the first hole. Patience paid off and the hull now sits, perfectly centred, atop the pedestals. And that is where she will sit for the foreseeable future! I will be visiting Sovereign Hobbies in November at Telford to get the Pontos Detail-Up set, along with the correct shades of Colourcoats paints. In the meantime, I will start to build a 'dust tent' similar to Pete's; what a brilliant idea that is! After all, this will not be a weekend build and will take many, many months to get the best from both the kit and the Pontos set and to preserve my sanity I will have to grab an aeroplane or two from the stash to stop me from getting fed up with just one subject on the bench. So, thank you once again to Pete for kick-starting me into starting this project and please don't expect daily updates, they will be very few and far between! Thanks for stopping by to look and please, any comments or advice on what needs to be done and how to achieve it, will all be gratefully received.

But more importantly, I am absolutely in awe of the work completed on this thread so far. My cap is truly doft. Thank you for an amazing build log so far, I really only hope to emulate your skills as much as possible.

Wow!!!! As a modeller I have always preferred the genres of aircraft, cars and motorbikes, in that order and I can honestly says that the last time I built a floaty thing was probably in my very early years as a modeller and was probably an Airfix 1/600 ship. I know I did finish HMS Fearless and HMS Leander, but my main interest was always things that flew. Now, fast forward 40 years. My eldest son has joined the Royal Navy, my youngest son just wants to go on boats, so my interest has piqued a little in all things floaty. Even more so when my local hobby shop had a 30% off everything sale recently! I went along thinking I'll treat myself to something big, after all, 30% off a lot is a bigger saving than 30% off a little! Luckily my better half agreed! But I looked around and there was nothing that really took my fancy until I looked higher and there on the top shelf, there she was! The box was so big that the rear seats of my car had to be folded down, but I am now the proud owner of this! It's huge!!

Thanks guys, that is all brilliant help! So I've as much chance of converting the Lynx to a Wildcat as England has of winning a penalty shoot-out in the World Cup!! Oh, hang on..... But seriously, thank you for the time with all the replies and photographs, it is really appreciated. I'll just wait for either Airfix or Revell to come out with a proper kit now!