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Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Hood


Sal82

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Right. So this is my first proper build thread. I started this kit in October, but never really got around to taking WIP photos before some of the basic structures were in place, so we begin this thread as they say "in medias res".

After having a lot of fun with Academy's Warspite, I figured I'd have a go at Trumpeter's Hood. It is a very interesting, but also challenging subject as no kits are 100% correct. I therefore set my self the challenge to build a kit that would address some of the most glaring omissions on the original model, but I also wanted to build a visually interesting model, so some details would be left intentionally wrong, such as boats not being covered with canvas, and a few other odds and ends. For reference I decided to use the 1/200 Pontos upgrade set, as I believe this is supposed to be the most accurate set on the market, and Pontos provide many excellent quality pictures on their website.

The parts I am using are so far:
Trumpeter 1/350 Hood
Lionroar PE set (New turrets and upgrades for the superstructure, among other things)
Eduard Photoetch (Excellent detail, and also contains the proper framework for the catapult supports on X-turret)

Wood deck from Pontos

4" guns and bridge equipment sets from North Star Models 
Brass masts and Pom Pom barrels from Master models
3d printed boats from Micro Master

However this has turned out to be a somewhat frustrating build with lots of things not going quite according to plan. 

First of all the fit of the upper and lower hull weren't great. After some sanding and filling I got a reasonably smooth seam. For a bit of extra detailing I decided to try and simulate the layered hull plating on the lower hull using the masking tape and spray paint technique. Not overly succesfully though, as some flaking occured when removing the masking tape. I contemplated sanding everything down again, but opted against it, as I wasn't sure I could get the results I wanted. Instead I decided to try and mask the imperfections during painting and pass it off as weathering.

Another challenge arose from the Lionroar upgrades for the superstructure. Unfortunately the photoetch bulkheads aren't that great a fit, which caused some weird issues when adding the boat deck on top. Some filling and bending resolved most of them, but not all solutions were particularly elegant.

As mentioned I have been using both Lionroar and Eduard photoetch. The Lioroar set is a bit crude in places and the Eduard set have some estremely fine details, which are made from steel rather than brass for enhanced durability. However I have found the railings to be a real pain to work with. They are better scaled than the Lionroar set, but they bend extremely easily when you accidentally touch them and have proven very tricky to bend back into shape. The result is railing that looks rather wobbly in places. Terribly frustrating!

The final challenge so far has been with regards to the main hull color. I mainly use Vallejo acrylic, where Mirage Blue is supposed to be fairly close to the correct dark blueish grey she wore in 1941. After a few tests i found that this color looked too dark on the model to my eye. I wanted something lighter, and slightly less blue, that would give me better contrasts once shading and weathering had been applied and really bring out details. However I have had a hard time finding a color that looked right to my eye. The main issue is that this is a large monochrome model, and if you do not add some color variation it just ends up looking rather dull on the shelf (camo working a bit too well I suppose).  In the end I have been mixing Intermediate Blue and Light Grey in various shades and highlights usind an airbrush. The result looks promising, but it is going to be a real challenge to touch up any painting mistakes later on.


The real fun with this kit has been the scratch building and trying to correct some of the errrors on the kit. After studying the 1/200 Pontos upgrade set I decided to leave the main hull mostly as it is and instead focus on the superstructure. the bridge and conning tower was rebuilt many times during the Hood's long service, and the result is a real mess of weirdly placed platforms, gangways and splinter shields. I omitted some splinter shields, as those would make the model almost impossible to paint and instead tried to get some overall shapes closer to the original. Other issues would require surgery on a level I wasn't confident I could pull off, without destroying the bridge completely, so I left those as they were.
The aft superstructure and pom pom platform saw some significant changes as well. I filled in all the windows, as these were usually covered with canvas, and the Pontos set actually have portholes here instead. I am not sure this is 100% correct, but it looks better than the original. The Pom-Pom platform was lalso owered, which also looks more balanced in my opinion.
Finally the masts were replaced with brass, which I think looks a lot better. 

img_2389.jpgimg_2396.jpgimg_2395.jpgimg_2394.jpgimg_2391.jpgimg_2392.jpg

 

 

First coat of paint on the hull, showing the failed attempt at hull plating, and some weathering experiments to cover up the worst mistakes. A bit of touching up and some oil colors will hopefully improve things somewhat...

hull-plating.jpg

Edited by Sal82
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Thank you rob :)

Just an update picture, showing the base colors and main structures in place, ready for detailing. The colors look a bit too bright at the moment but shading should tone down the blueishness slightly.

img_2451-e1516462306440.jpg

 

 

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Hi Sal82!

Welcome to the forum!

Great work on your Hood, the Atlantic has had a really good go at the paint!:D

I'm doing the 'big brother' to Your kit at this forum at the moment, but quite a way behind You at the moment.

 

 

I know what You mean about getting the right colours, I've been taking My cues from the Hood Association Site:-

http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/models/tips/hoodpaint.htm

 

There is some imformation on there about variations in colours,which will help break the 'monotone' up a bit.

 

Looking forward to following Your build to completion!

 

Keep Sticking!

 

Cheers,   Pete

 

 

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On ‎21‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 1:54 PM, morty_3333 said:

Hi Sal82!

Welcome to the forum!

Great work on your Hood, the Atlantic has had a really good go at the paint!:D

I'm doing the 'big brother' to Your kit at this forum at the moment, but quite a way behind You at the moment.

 

 

I know what You mean about getting the right colours, I've been taking My cues from the Hood Association Site:-

http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/models/tips/hoodpaint.htm

 

There is some imformation on there about variations in colours,which will help break the 'monotone' up a bit.

 

Looking forward to following Your build to completion!

 

Keep Sticking!

 

Cheers,   Pete

 

 

Our latest colour is about to be manufactured. The Hood Association website is indeed up to date with the latest information, at least what is written down. Unfortunately a serious piece of misinformation was created by possibly one individual some 20-30 years ago which has badly warped the general understanding of what Home Fleet Grey looked like.

 

All model paints claiming to be 507B matches are matched to the same source; Snyder & Short's colour chips. John Snyder started Colourcoats for White Ensign Models and everyone else copied them. Unfortunately what John and Randy didn't know was that the samples they were given to match were erroneous in themselves. Quite how the error got in I could only speculate - so I won't - but it is there.

 

That error basically amounts to an assumption that 507B sat mid-way between 507A and 507C. It didn't - it was simply a harder wearing, shinier formulation to make Home Fleet Grey exactly the same colour as 507A and furthermore the sample that Snyder & Short received almost certainly wasn't 507anything - it measures (by spectrophotometer) out such that its light reflectance value is 19% - way, way too light for Home Fleet Grey and way, way too dark for Mediterranean / Foreign Stations Grey.

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Thanks Morty. I will be keeping a keen eye on your build as well! Very inspirational! :)

Regarding weathering. I have been debating this with myself for a long time and ultimately decided on having a moderate ammount of paint chipping. The Atlantic could be quite rough on the paint as seen on this picture of Prinz Eugen just after Rheinübung. Prinz Eugen was painted en route to Norway, so the damage was sustained during the ship's relatively short sortie. Of course the paint on a ship like the Hood would also be constantly maintained, but it had been several months since she left the Dry dock, so I feel some weathering to the anti fouling on the lower hull is quite justified. Of course there might be huge differences in the durability of Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine paints, but I think the main hull would probably get some dinks and scratches quite easily as her hull was beaten and bent by the constant hammering of the north atlantic waves. But I find it difficlt to judge exactly how much would be just enough without overdoing it :)

 

Regarding the exact color tone, I think this is a tough one, which of course opens the classic debate between color accuracy and visual appeal and/or scale effect in a model. It would probably be more correct to paint the ship in a darker, more neutral tone of grey. But I also feel that detail easily get lost if a model becomes too dark. Now of course very skilled modellers can overcome this, as seen on some of the extremely impressive builds of japanese ships out there. But I am not really confident that I would be able to pull it off with a sufficiently good result, so I think I am going with a bit of artistic license on that one :)

 

Kriegsmarine-Cruiser-KMS-Prinz-Eugen-09.

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Got a bit of painting done this weekend. I finished the main turrets, worked a bit on toning the wooden deck (in retrospect I should probably have done this before attaching it to the model :P ) and worked a bit more on the hull itself, by adding some highlights to the scratches. 

 

img_2463.jpgimg_2464.jpg

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Great work :clap:

 

The shading/weathering on the turrets and blast bags are very effective 

 

A third request on how you are weathering the decks, I have an upcoming project and already have the painted the decks but look a little too clean so any tips would be appreciated

 

 

Edited by Brewup
typo
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Certainly :)

In retrospect I would have done a few things differently, but the result would be pretty much the same:

First of all: Paint the deck BEFORE applying to the model. This would have allowed me to use an airbrush for some thing, which again would save some time and allow for slightly more subtle shading.

I started by painting the red-ish shadows using  thinned down Lifecolor's Liquid Pigments Wooden Deck Shadower. As this was done by brush I had to work a bit with the color to get smooth transitions. Once dry the dech was washed with a thinned down mix og grey and green umber oil paint. This is really the tricky part as you just want to tone down the yellowish color of wooden decks, but not have the deck look overly dirty and gritty. It is still a bit of a weird and artificial color, compared to true teak, but the reddish shadows contrast nicely with the blueishtint of the rest of the hull, and adds some visual dynamics. But it would really be amazing if some manufacturer started producing wooden decks in the true reddish brown grey color of teak.



A painting update below, with the superstructure dry fitted to the hull. I've added shading to most of the superstructure. For extra contrast I also chose to add some extra highlights, to make the details pop. It might be slightly overdone in places, but overall I think the result adds a nice variation to the uniform grey. The downside of working a lot with shading and highlighting is, that the proces inevitably damages PE work, and the extremely delicate Eduard railings proved particularly vulnerable. They will need to be bent back into shape when the model is closer to being finished, but for now I leave them like this, as I will most definitely damage them again before the build is finished.

Next up is detailing the main mast and 4" guns.

 

img_2476.jpgimg_2477.jpgimg_2478.jpg

Edited by Sal82
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Thanks for the explanation on weathering the decks :yes:

 

I have some scrap pieces that I will use your method to practice on 

 

Great to see more progress and looking forward to see the finished result :) 

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Thanks :)

Be careful with the oils. You need a lot less paint than you might think, and unfortunately the wood soaks up the paint like a sponge, making it difficult to remove again afterwards. You CAN get some of it off by rubbing with a cotton bud with pure thinner and/or alternatively scrape a bit of the to layer of wood with a knife to lighten it again (I actually did this on the aft deck), but I definitely wouldn't recommend it over a more careful approach, where you add several thinner layers of wash instead.

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Oh, and asking for opinions and thoughts:

Technically all booms for the various boat cranes should probably be painted grey, but I was thinking that it might be interesting to paint them wood instead, to match the stowed booms on the sides of the bridge (which are painted this way to add visual interest).

The Pontos 1/200 upgrade kit also suggests adding a boom on the side of the hull beneath the forward Pom Pom platforms. I will be scratch building those. But would there be any booms further back as well?

Also: Does anyone know if the small cranes near A-turret were always deployed as the kit depicts, or if they could be collapsed - and if so: Where were they stored? I would guess the latter would be the case, as (and the kit dimensions are actually correct!) they would interfere with the turret traverse otherwise. Again the Pontos Kit actually suggests that a second pair of these cranes should be added in front of B-turret as well!

 

A minor detail, but exactly where would the collapsed large accomodation ladders be stored when not in use? It would be kind of nice to include them somewhere on the quarterdeck.

And finally: The Pontos 1/200 Upgrade set suggests that there should be no carley floats above the paravane on the bridge structure. Instead a single carley float should be mounted above the spare booms. Anyone know how correct this is, or if it is just a guesstimate on behalf of the designers (The Kagero Publishing 3d render of the ship actually has all three floats added, although I don't consider this as reliable a source)? Unfortunately scale creep means that I cannot add a float there like the Pontos kit suggests, so I wonder if I should use a bit of artistic license and move it a bit forward instead?

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Thank you :)

Yes indeed. These Are Micro Master's excellent boats. Unfortunately there is no dedicated 1/350 scale Hood boat set yet, so I've ben mixing and matching and will be using some of the spare boats on other kits later on. But I'd definitely recommend these. After a bit of cleaning up, to remove the slight roughness on curved surfaces you still get on Shapeways models - even at their highest resolution, they paint up extremely well.

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A small update (quite litterally). Finished the secondary armament, main mast and ship's cranes. I am particularly impressed with the detail level on the Eduard Vickers guns. A bit fiddly, and the splinter shield isn't 100% correct, but overall I think they very nice! 

Next up: Either doing the rigging for the funnels, building the Pom Poms or start on the boats - oh: Or possibly detailing the bridge.

 

img_2480.jpgimg_2481.jpgimg_2483.jpg

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Another small update. Over the week I've been adding various small details, like binoculars and other bridge equipment from North Star. I found the smaller binoculars a bt too fiddly to do a full assembly, so I did a simplified version and ditched some of the add on PE bits.

Also added boat stands, a few ladders, raillings, and deck winches - again from North Star. These are excellent and really adds some nice and intricate detail to the model. The only downside is, that they don't quite fit the cutouts in the wooden deck. But that is a minor inconvenience I can live with.
I also added a pair of scratch built booms made from brass rod with some copper wire to represent the various brass brackets (I'll get an image next time)

On the to do list, is painting the various boats and launches. I also need to assemble the Pom Poms and the various cable reels. Generally speaking I really like the North Star stuff, but for the latter i purchased their cable reel drum set, and that was a real dissapointment. I am sure the various diameters are correct, but really there is nothing in that set, that cannot be replaced with regular plastic tubing for a fraction of the cost. For my own cable reels I think I am going to do some moulds of small length of guitar and bass strings. These should give me a nice selection of decently looking cable drums.

Finally I think I will revisit the starfish platform and add a few extra details.

img_2497.jpg

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Thank you very much. And agreed: The Hood as built was an extremely beautiful ship! The 1941 version is a bit of a mess aesthetically with all those refits and resulting more or less randomly distributed platforms, openings and splinter shields. A hypothetical 1942/43 refit along the lines of Renown would be an interesting project as well.

HMS_Hood_(51)_-_March_17,_1924.jpg

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More detailing work this weekend. This time Pompoms. I ended up using the Lionroar PR parts for these. The Eduard ones were slightly better detailed, but unfortunately also so delicate, that some parts had been damage while still on the fret. I decided to opt for a bit more robustness, as my painting technique with involves drybrushing is a bit rough on finer details. Since the Lionroar set does not include brass barrels for the Pompoms, I had purchased Master brass barrels for these. However it turned out that they were all of equal length, where the middle four is supposed to be slightly longer. In the end I decided to solve this by adding a bit of plasticard. It may not be 100% accurate, but I felt that it was more important to have the overall contour of the gun looking right. One nice addition with the lionroar set is the very fine ammunition belts. I decided to add those after painting the rest of the pompom, and leave them as pure brass, so they would really stand out.

The bottom pic shows the scratch built boom. Although most (if not all) booms were probably painted grey, I've decided to keep mine in wood and brass to add more visual interest to the model.

I still haven't quite decided where to add the spare carley floats. Most were supposedly moved aft, but I think I might add a few on the funnel housing. If I was to go really overboard, I should probably add some Denton rafts as well, as Hood would have been carrying a bunch of those. However I have found no reliable sources showing where those would be placed. I suppose that will remain one of those late additions I might add when everything else is close to being finished.

img_2499.jpgimg_2500.jpgimg_2501.jpg

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