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1/200 HMS Hood & 1/700 HMS Prince of Wales


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I figured it was time to start recording this one.

 

This is a kit that was diverted from shop stock after posting the big Bismarck kit and deciding we'd rather not have the hassle of sending 1/200 kits again. Sadly, one of the stunningly good Pontos Model detail sets fell off the shelf one day also. Sad when that happens...

 

Anyway, the model is quite big by everyones' standards except the fleet-scale radio control modellers'.

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It's going to take this space in our living room eventually, and shall displace the 1/350 version seen here behind it.

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Whilst it does have the potential to be very nice, it is, afterall, a Trumpeter product and they make bizarre errors for no reason that can be explained. Unlike earlier Trumpeter kits, the parts count of this isn't that high and they have produced some sophisticated toolings to make complex parts in one piece. In the past I have criticised Trumpeter for their 5-piece deck houses. In this case, that might have been better because correcting the daft things wrong with this kit is all the more difficult due to the way things have been manufactured.

 

Prior to starting a thread, I had already hacked out a non-existent bulkhead which Trumpeter moulded in here, which closed off the space behind the conning tower and below the forward Vickers 0.5" quad machine gun platforms. On the real ship this was an open space. I felt that was something I could not live with given the extent of detailing the Pontos set is going to add otherwise. Removing the bulkhead without destroying the kit part was quite difficult, I don't mind admitting. I was also worried about extending the deck before underneath and doing a good enough job of hiding the join. I've spent a good number of manhours on this one piece.

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There is still more surgery required on this part, e.g. at the aft end where that raised solid "handrail" is to be removed and replaced with PE actual handrail. There are many, many accuracy errors like that in the kit, and the Pontos Model set (unlike all other PE sets for this kit) resolves all which can be resolved with brass. The reason for this is that Pontos Model is the only one which posted images of their design in progress and took active feedback from the HMS Hood Association's Frank Allen and a very fastidious expert modeller from the Netherlands by the name of Evert-Jan Foeth who runs the website http://ontheslipway.com/ which contains many excellent images of hard-to-find details about a number of British warships.

 

On to the hull though. I am reluctant to accumulate a large number of fragile detailed sub assemblies without a hull to store them on, and the hull needs work first. It's moulded in one large piece. The degaussing cables are moulded as rectangular section strips and need to be removed. They take a simplified routing over the hause pipes as shown here. On Hood, these were oddly shaped and looked rather "home made". New plating and cables are provided in the Pontos set. A diagram is shown on the Hood Association website near the top of the page here: http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/models/tamiya/tamiyarvw.htm

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Another thing that bothered me was the propeller bosses. These could and often are moulded as separate parts to be glued to the hull, but for whatever reason Trumpeter has integrated them in to the hull moulding. I am not sure whether bad research or a desire to simplify the shape to persist with including them on the hull has driven this, but clearly the mould has been designed to withdraw vertically away from the keel, and the shapes of these bosses are not right.

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As can be seen here of her being built at Clydebank (note that the armour belt has not been fitted yet), these bosses should project at an angle perpendicular to the hull plating.

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So, I made a start by gluing plasticard inside the bosses to add material I could work down to:

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This morning I made a start (there is more slimming down to go) with needle files and Infini Model sanding sponge-sticks at reshaping these to something less obviously wrong.

 

Only starboard outer is started here:

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Both starboard bosses have had a first go here

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Wow, a whopper of a build you've got there!  Will be watching this epic build with interest.

 

Best wishes, Andy👍

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44 minutes ago, BadKarma75 said:

Will be tagging along for the ride as I have the smaller trumpeter in the stash 

 

It's not too bad a kit, the 1/350 that is. It does have a lot of bits but accuracy-wise it's probably better than the bigger, newer one, ironically!

 

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37 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

It's not too bad a kit, the 1/350 that is. It does have a lot of bits but accuracy-wise it's probably better than the bigger, newer one, ironically!

Thanks although it does depend on the acurracy of the modeller as well 🙂

thats a stunning model of the old girl

will have to see if my sausage fingers can get it even halfway as good

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Nice start Jamie will be following to see how it should be done. :popcorn:

 

Nice bright socks by the way hope you got the correct colour match for them :whistle:

 

beefy 

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Hi Jamie, I will be following your build with interest. Yours is now the third concurrent build of the HOOD on Britmodeller.  Thanks for taking the time to show a novice how to do the corrective work.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Jamie!

Nice start on Your 'ood, mine is in hiatus at the moment,got some health problems at the the moment,but I am hoping to pick it up later in the Year.

 

Keep Sticking!

 

Cheers,  Pete

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Hi Jamie,

Could you post a photo of the propeller boss work so this novice can learn? Also thanks for all the information you have provided so far.

 

On the side Pete, take care of yourself and get well soon.

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On 5/22/2019 at 8:37 PM, Jerry L said:

Hi Jamie,

Could you post a photo of the propeller boss work so this novice can learn? Also thanks for all the information you have provided so far.

 

On the side Pete, take care of yourself and get well soon.

 

Hi Jerry,

 

In an ideal world I'd have cut the kit parts right off and made from scratch, but I'm a bit lazy so not an ideal human being! Ironically, Trumpeter's 1/350 kit whilst quite tricky to build due to poor parts fit in many places was more accurate in many respects, and in this particular respect the bosses were separate parts the correct shape. On the 1/200 scale kit they addressed their uncharacteristic accuracy issue by introducing several new mistakes they hadn't made on previous Hood kits in different scales. Someone made the bizarre choice that the bosses had to be moulded onto the large single piece hull, and the only way to get a tool to release is to deliberate make the bosses completely the wrong shape. Go figure!

 

It was just a bit of filing away with needle files and some backing plastic which is shown above, but the following is where I've decided shall suffice here. The photo of the real ship shows more acute angles, but this is a decent improvement on Trumpeter's half-baked effort.

 

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Again for direct comparison, this is how Trumpeter decided to mould them - the "sides" are vertical to allow the tool to be withdrawn away from the keel (i.e. vertically downwards if the hull is the right way up)

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Mind boggling decision...

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Jamie,

Thank you.

I guess the casting department felt that it would be easier and probably less expensive to attach the bosses to the hull than make new molds for the item, which would cascade into new sprue molds, packaging etc.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi Jamie,  are you familiar with the builds over at modelwarships.com?  from the home page go to forums, picture post, works in progress and look for hood. one by EJ Froeth, scratchbuilt in 1/350 is exceptional, and also look for 1/200 by Greenglade. He tackled the prop bosses very nicely. Regards, Pete in RI

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The keel is the spine of the ship, running along the bottom; all the frames, i.e the ribs that make up the shape of the ship, are attached to the keel.  

 

The whole thing below the upper deck is the hull (with everything above that the “superstructure”.

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19 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The keel is the spine of the ship, running along the bottom; all the frames, i.e the ribs that make up the shape of the ship, are attached to the keel.  

 

The whole thing below the upper deck is the hull (with everything above that the “superstructure”.

Thanks, once you explained it ,it all made sense.

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I like posting pictures and having somewhere to refer back to, but I also like to flit back and forth between many different models depending on what takes my fancy on the day. Would I like to be a "one at a time" sort of person? Maybe, but I'm the furthest thing from that.

 

I've decided that the contrast between these two models of ships which served together and were both lost within a matter of months of each other is interesting. Whilst the Hood model is fairly large, the Prince of Wales is going to be a technical challenge for me because it's so small. In fact, I have never yet finished a 1/700 scale ship.

 

This is Flyhawk's HMS Prince of Wales Delux edition. It is beautiful. I've seen Flyhawk kits both praised and damned at the same time, including bizarre statements like they are ruining the hobby. It's true they are incredibly detailed and as a result the parts are many and mostly very small. The Delux Edition has options for full hull and waterline, and comes complete with 3 frets of photo etched brass, turned brass barrels for the 14" main and 5.25" HA batteries as well as a few bags of individual deck ventilators. Yes, you read that right. Each one is in the order of 1 cubic millimeter and the kit comes with an orientation plan showing which face points rearwards. I may wimp out of using those...

 

First up is choosing which bottom to fit. For a change I'm going waterline. The lower hull, rudder and propellers are very nice though.

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The main deck isn't glued on so don't mind the gaps please. I just wanted to show the quality of the moulding.

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Next up on the instructions is X turret. Unlike usual, I have followed the instructions fully then gone ahead and airbrushed the turret a base coat of Colourcoats NARN31 MS4 which, once dried, shall be camouflaged in accordance with our drawing.

 

The quad PomPom has photoetched railings and gun sights. In 1/700... riiiiiiight...

14ml paint tin and Swann Morton No.3 scalpel and 10A blade for scale. With it blown up this big I can see I have a bit of the railing on a bit goofey. I shall attempt to straighten that when refreshed.

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The MS4 is applied. This is a neutral / ever so slightly greenish grey of ~30% Light Reflectance Value, so darker than 507C by some margin.

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Thanks for looking in :)

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