HMS Hood May 1941

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, slow progress with my May 1941 version of HMS Hood, but I guess that's better than no progress at all. The fwd superstructure is pretty much done now.

     The range-finder and HACS are both scratch built. The rangefinder was really just three bits of rod - two visible here and another as a pin to attach it to the deck. The HACS (high angle control system/station) was a little more complex, but at least those on board HMS Hood didn't have radar mounted above them, unlike those I had to make for HMS Jamaica a couple of months ago. You can see here some winches, a paravane, hawser reel, more UP r/u lockers and a set of fairleads, all of them scratchbuilt. Naturally these items are duplicated on the other side. Further aft is a third HACS and more hawser reels and fairleads. The boats you see are now glued on.

     Well, that's it for now. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

Nice work Jeff,

 

Do you stick to 1/600? Odd that it seems to be just Airfix in this scale? 
 

Guy

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guy, and thanks for your comments. Pretty much 1/600 yes, although I've done a few others to different scales. My Bismarck and Scharnhorst are 1/570, which is compatible being only 5% larger. Recently I've done a few 1/700 ships and subs, plus quite a few in the stash. I bought them cheaply at sales, mainly as '3D plans' for scratchbuilding in 1/600. I've also got a few 1/350 ships, also bought cheaply, but not made any of them yet.

     I find that 1/600 seems to suit my average skill level particularly as I don't do aftermarket, and my budget. Also, by staying in one scale each ship can be compared to others accurately. I know it limits me greatly in kit availability. Airfix mainly but a colleague on another forum has built a 1/600 IJN Yamato, Otaki brand. And a few years ago a store here had a 1/600 USS Cleveland cruiser. It was a cheap kit, close to being a toy, I don't remember the brand but to this day I regret not buying it. I only purchase from stores, not online. Yeah, I know, I'm still in the Dark Ages. 😀

     Thanks for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Oh no Jeff, that won't do at all. Go and get yourself 'down' to that famous online store - ibay - I believe it's called; otherwise I can't imagine how you'll find that vintage 1/600 kit? (But also bravo for supporting local shops.)

 

Oods looking good too. And I agree on sticking with a scale, unfortunately 1/350 is too big and 1/600 is ideal but for some reason not popular or something?

 

David

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, thanks David. My two kids (at 30-ish not really kids) buy online, particularly my son, (also named David) and they managed to track down and buy me another 1/570 Revell Scharnhorst. As I've already done one I plan to convert this kit into her sister ship Gneisenau after rearming with 38-cm guns, for the What-if GB if it goes ahead, a stand alone build if it doesn't.

     I don't know what instigated the 1/700 scale many years ago but it's certainly taken over the small model ship range. Oh well . .  . I'm currently bouncing a few ideas around in my head as to how to scratch build 1/600 full hulls. If I can manage that then it opens up the range somewhat for me.

     Again, many thanks. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, the aft superstructure of HMS Hood is almost done, plus I've started the mainmast.

    The searchlight positions on the top of the aft superstructure were sponsoned out slightly, plus you can see the two additional searchlight positions lower down and outboard that I scratch built. Lower again and aft are the positions for the aft quad .50cal machineguns (guns still to be fitted). The searchlights themselves are kit parts that I cleaned up a bit. You can also see the third HACS I mentioned earlier. This was scratchbuilt. The small hole aft of the HACS is for a pompom director, which I still have to make.
     I've also fitted the mainmast tripod. Unlike the foremast tripod I used kit parts here. They seemed about right. But I might make my own main topmast to go above it, hence the maintop starfish isn't fitted yet. If I do make my own topmast then the mounting hole already in the starfish platform will be too large. Plugging and re-drilling will be much easier done before it is fitted.
     The aft superstructure itself needed some work. The cabin under the top platform (where the pompom director will sit) is the aft concentrating position, a kit part. The void space under that (where the Carley floats are) was enclosed in 1936. The kit part didn't have this so it was an addition. The rear face of the whole aft superstructure should extend aft a little more, flush with the aft edge of said concentrating position. But as it was molded to the shelterdeck, and the corners were rounded I decided it was too risky and difficult to do in situ so I filed that job into the 'too hard basket' and left it alone. Yeah, I know, slack! 😀
     I have four quad machineguns from another kit, but I haven't decided whether to use them as is or to tizzy them up a bit - add magazine drums and shields. I could also busy the area up a bit more but I want to finish this soon so I might settle for what I've already done.
     The two derricks abreast the second funnel are done (not visible here) and I'll be fitting them soon, plus I've started painting the roundel on the crown of 'A' turret. On an earlier post I said it was 'B' turret - an error on my part.
     Well that's it for now. Back to the shipyard for me. Thank you for your interest and comments. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[TallBlondJohn]

15 hours ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

Oh no Jeff, that won't do at all. Go and get yourself 'down' to that famous online store - ibay - I believe it's called; otherwise I can't imagine how you'll find that vintage 1/600 kit? (But also bravo for supporting local shops.)

 

Oods looking good too. And I agree on sticking with a scale, unfortunately 1/350 is too big and 1/600 is ideal but for some reason not popular or something?

 

David

 

1/600 is a natural imperial scale, 1 inch = 50 feet, so easy to work off plans. It was chosen by Airfix early on when every manufacturer had their own scale - so Heller, for instance, went for a metric 1/400. US manufacturers tended to go for 'box scale' where it varied to fit standard boxes, so your Lindberg (IIRC) Destroyer Escort and USS New Jersey ended up the same length, and other manufacturers had odd random scales like 1/570. But ship kits were always a niche market so no industry standard emerged.

 

Except in Japan, where the manufacturers teamed up to form the 'Waterline Consortium' in the 1970s to do the entire IJN. 1/700 was chosen simply as it got Yamato into a standard box - and it suited smaller Japanese households. The Consortium branched out beyond Japanese subjects and eventually it became the global norm. 1/350 obviously is just half 1/700.

 

But if you build in 1/600, you soon realise its the ideal scale for ships. 1/700 is just too small and fiddly, 1/400 a bit too large. 1/350 or 1/200 works for big 'display' models but not for a collection, unless you have a mansion. 1/600 is good for the eyes and efficient for shelf space. Unfortunately we will never see a new tool use it - another of those Betamax things I'm afraid.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday TBJ, thanks for that. I had heard of 'box scale' but not actually named that.

     And so 1/700 came about simply to allow a IJN Yamato model to fit a box. I've just done my sums, and found that Yamato in 1/700 and Nagato in 1/600 are very similar length. It's a pity then that the Japanese didn't settle for Nagato - we'd have a world wide scale of 1/600. Damn! 😥 Oh well .  .  . 🙂 Or if the Japanese really wanted to box Yamato models they could have bought Airfix HMS Hood boxes. The two ships are almost the same length. Oh well .  .  . (I seem to say that a lot.)

     And I agree that 1/600 is an ideal scale, for me anyway. Another advantage of it is converting to metric measurements - 2 feet of ship equals 1mm of model.

Anyway, enough of me rattling on. Thanks for the info, I found it interesting. Regards, Jeff.

[Faraway]

Now I understand why there seem to be so many scales for ships.

I find 1/700 too small, although I’ve not looked at Battleships, only Cruisers and Destroyers in that scale. I’ve sort of settled on 1/350, which for me isn’t too small or too big. I did like the 1/144 Corvette and I do have a 1/350 Corvette to build. 
A Battleship, will have to be added to the stash at some point, might need to save up a bit first and make a bigger shelf.

Jon

Edited June 28, 2021 by Faraway

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, I'm nearly there with my May 1941 conversion of HMS Hood. At the time of Hood's sinking she carried three octuple 2lb pompom mounts. The kit comes with two so I planned to requisition one from spares, ie a cannibalized Belfast kit. But I didn't like the kit guns all that much so I decided to try to make my own. I've made quad mounts before but not octuple mounts. After attempting a trial scratch build I decided to give it a go. Here they are.

      The mountings I'll be using are the painted ones in the centre, obviously. I forgot to include a ruler in the photo for scale. The platforms of the mountings are just over 8mm across, the guns themselves are stretched sprue, between 0.3-0.4mm diameter and just under 5mm long. Each mounting contains 27 separate pieces. The white mounting is my trial, a little more basic with only 22 pieces. To the right are the kit parts, rather crude I thought and a single piece each. The barrels are short thick stubs and the gun casing extending way too far to the rearward (not visible in the photo). To the left are the Belfast mountings, two parts each in amongst the flash. The barrels are slightly better, and staggered as they should be, those that aren't missing.
     The paint needs touching up a bit, and I think my barrels may be a smidgeon long, but I'm going to live with them as they are. And at 27 parts each I'm glad I'm not doing the entire RN Pacific Fleet. And before you criticize I know the spent cartridge tray out the front should be two pieces, not one, and I know I've omitted the operating handles and the sights. Maybe next time, eh. 😀
     I'm nearly done with this build now, I hope to finish it soon. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards, Jeff.

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Very impressive scratch building there Jeff. So, Pacific fleet next?

 

David

[Gisbod]

Good stuff Jeff!

 

😀

 

Guy

[beefy66]

Makes a big difference from the kit parts looking good Jeff.  

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, and thank you all. And David, er, no. 😀

[Modelholic]

You must have more pom-poms than the Dallas Cowboys by now!

Lovely work.

Tom

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All. Well, five months after starting, three months since the end of the ATF "Hunt the Bismarck" group build (they usually run for two months) I've decided to call my model of a May 1941 version of HMS Hood done. For better or worse, here she is.

     About the last things I did were to make davits for the whale boats, add magazine drums to the .50cal machine guns (not really obvious in this photo), fit the control (spotting) top to the fwd tripod and fit the main top mast. The mainmast tripod and platform were kit parts but I scratch built the top mast and the radar fitted to it. I also reshaped the whale boats slightly. Those are the boats near the outboard edge of and towards the aft end of the shelterdeck. An aerial photo of HMS Hood taken 22nd May enroute to the Denmark Strait appears to show them swung outboard, but to preserve them I have them inboard. The roundel on the crown of 'A' turret was hand painted. I punched a 7mm hole into masking tape, placed it on the turret crown and painted the blue circle. I then did the same with a smaller punch for the red. I got the blue dead centre but the red is slightly off. I'll leave it as is, if I try to fix it I might make it worse.

 

     Thank you all who've followed the build, and given advice and encouragement, either by comments or 'likes'. I may have made some errors, omitted some further mods, but I think she's close enough for my level of skill. I'll post some more photos in the RFI section soon.

     Stay safe in these times, and regards to all, Jeff.

[Dancona]

Gidday Jeff

 

Very well done, I cant believe that it started life as the Airfix offering, Bravo 👏

What next ?

 

Cheers

 

David

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday David, and thanks. I've got a few projects jostling for position at the head of the queue but I haven't decided yet. Regards, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

Looks great Jeff,

 

I can see you missed one of the .50 cal magazines though 😆

 

Guy

[Faraway]

Jeff.

That looks very good, been a very interesting build to watch.

Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, many thanks. And Guy, it's off having a spring replaced? I guess I asked for that. 😁 Regards, Jeff.

[Aayin1941]

Work of art! Amazing work Jeff! Was one heck of a build, thx for sharing 👍🇬🇧⚓️

[ArnoldAmbrose]

     Gidday and many thanks. I was filing away my plans etc used for the build and I realised I've made some errors with the colours of the masts. I followed Jamie's (of Sovereign Hobbies) colour scheme as best I could while doing the main build but then his diagram got buried under other documents before I did the final mast stuff. According to his colour scheme the fore tripod under the control top and the upper main (aft) tripod should be black, not grey as I have it. Also the main topmast should be white, not grey. Plus a few other bits of white here and there. I'm inclined to leave it as it is though, I don't want to break things trying to touch it up now. Sorry Jamie, the error was mine, and accidental.

    Regards, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

Well, that’s not good enough Jeff, I’d expect it to be taken apart, stripped, repainted, re jigged and rigged at the very least… 😆

 

Guy