HMS Hood upgrades

[redwiper]

I've now got a Trumpeter 1.350 HMS Hood,

I have been looking at the upgrade/wood deck/photoetch for this kit, there seems to be a vast aray of bits available, and I'm a bit confused as what to buy.

As I have never worked with photoetch before, what would be the best way to improve the ship without going the whole hog with photoetch [ I've looked at the Lionroar set and thought "wow" ]

Is a wood deck worthwhile or should I just paint the deck?,

Is the turret/gun barrels upgrade worth it?

I do not want a Museum quality model, just something thats an improvement over the basic kit.

 

Roger.

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Roger. How would you describe your general competence or comfort level with detailing in general and ships in particular?

 

Some of the biggest visual impacts come from railings and ladders. Next would be anti-aircraft weapons maybe? The latter tend to be amongst the fiddliest though.

 

It's oft said that Big Blue Boy's set is the best single set for this specific kit. The kit's main gun turrets are just wrong. There are various resin and 3D printed alternatives. I'd sort the turrets before putting brass barrels on the kit turrets personally.

 

Wooden decks do make life a bit easier. There are many deck snobs around who deride these but most never share photos of their superior skills and of those who do, their paint work is usually inferior to a commercial wooden deck. There are those who genuinely can paint them more convincingly, but they are few and far between.

 

I'd suggest having a quick scroll through my build thread of the same kit here:

You can compare the detaily bits to the kit parts and see for yourself what you think is worth the effort and what is beyond what you're looking for.

 

There are certainly tools and techniques people can share as you get started with photo etched metals to make life easier. It's not hard at all but there are many new skills to develop. Anything to short cut the trial and error process by just picking up things that others can share is a big help

[redwiper]

Hi Jamie,

Up till now I've always built OOB, But as I've always wanted a 1.350 Hood so I thought I would make an effort .

I'm going to get some replacement Turrets [ Which would you recomend ], a wooden deck [ same again as the turrets ] and railings etc.

And I'll take a look at the Big Blue Boys set.

Thanks for the advice.

Roger.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Roger. I could recommend this set. Flyhawk's actual detail set is nice but missing bits (I used White Ensign Models PE3514 to supplement it, correct some errors in the Flyhawk set etc).

 

The castings are nice and quite accurate. All the blast bags were left handed but easy to correct with a sanding stick!

 

If you can get a set from White Ensign Models pro range, they are the "original" corrected turrets and very accurate.

 

There are also good 3D printed ones available from Shapeways.

 

As for the wooden deck, you can't go far wrong with Pontos Model or Artwox. I can vouch for the Pontos Model deck - it fits the kit perfectly. Another plus point for Pontos is that it comes with dry transfer draft markings for the hull and a length of anchor chain (which you can see on mine).