1/200 Trumpeter HMS Hood + Pontos Detail Set

[Channell]

Thanks for the support guys! Hopefully this thread encourages some folks to jump into their "Mighty 'Ood" builds and share their experience too.

Here's where I am this week:



I've been bouncing back and forth between the hull and the conning tower; I managed to make some progress on both.

I started with the conning tower mod by cutting it up into several pieces... because that's just what you do with a 350 dollar model.

First I separated the conning tower top from the bridge platform; I cut into the conning tower to leave material that I could use to get a tight fit when they go back together as it is easy to fill the hole in the tower with putty:



Next I chopped the conning tower itself into 3 pieces, trimmed the roof of the tower to shape, then used a heat gun and some bending to reshape the side pieces to the new profile. Finaly I cut and glued stryene strips to recreate the upper band of window slits, glued it all together and slathered it with putty:



After everything dried I trimmed the excess from the inside and sanded it all smooth on the outside. I also opened up the window slits in the top section and opened up the area between the two pieces.





Now I'm in the early stages of integrating the conning tower top with the rest of the tower:



Yeah this took a fair amount of time and most people would never realize it was the wrong shape to begin with but it's the preponderance of little things that truly makes a build special and I intend to take the time to build my Hood as accurate as I am able.

Why? Because it's there!

On to the hull...

I did A LOT of sanding on the hull and gave it the first coat of primer, which of course revealed everything I missed but I was expecting that so it's all good. It's not easy to get a smooth hull out of the mess I made but I'm getting there.



Sometimes (OK, most of the time) I just don't get Trumpeter's kit engineering... taking a beautifully streamlined hull and designing something like this to muck it up:



Luckily, this is an easy fix:



Next on my list (while finally wiping away the kit plating) is to modify the anchor hawsepipes; they are also the wrong shape. It should be fun!

[pascalemod]

Following this with great amount of interest as Im building the same beast in 1/700 scale.

Question - the hawse pipes in the hull - how should they look on the blank anchor? I dont see any good pic of how it looks from close up. How does the hole look like basically??

[Willie]

Hi there Jason and all,

An easy and clever solution for the conning tower. Congrats again. I am following this construction with upmost interest. Keep the pics coming.

Brgds,

Willie.

[europapete]

hi Jason, nice work on the conning tower. Now it's the weekend I am going to figure out a photo host so that I can join in the party. I have tackled the hull in a different way to you, I filled the slots with 10 thou sheet and smoothed with Mr Surfacer. Haven't done the lowest one yet, as I am still debating whether to do a waterline/sea base or not. Just read through the Hood Association's pages again, and they say the " Conning tower itself is very nice " but the photo you posted backs up your mods very nicely. hmmm..... choices, choices. More research me thinks. I have removed the lumps and bumps on the decks as per Pontos' instructions and used the template to modify the hawse holes. Not started the deck undersides yet, or cut a new sheet deck to experiment with, as modelling time has been zero for the last 3 weeks. Regards,Pete in Rhode Island.

[europapete]

I think what bothers me most about doing a full hull model in this scale is the lack of available details on the vents, exhausts, intakes, etc below the waterline.

[pascalemod]

I think what bothers me most about doing a full hull model in this scale is the lack of available details on the vents, exhausts, intakes, etc below the waterline.

Thats easy to scratch build if needed, and the hull is supposed to be all about paint, texture, weathering patterns, harbour salt lines, and all the other cool stuff that make a full hull ship way more interesting than the waterline hulls which I am not a fan of. May be because Im coming from AFVs originally, to me the weathering is most fun part and on a ship its really the hull and deck that you weather. So I would not stress out about some hole openings.

[tko24]

Thanks for the support guys! Hopefully this thread encourages some folks to jump into their "Mighty 'Ood" builds and share their experience too.

Here's where I am this week:



I've been bouncing back and forth between the hull and the conning tower; I managed to make some progress on both.

I started with the conning tower mod by cutting it up into several pieces... because that's just what you do with a 350 dollar model.

First I separated the conning tower top from the bridge platform; I cut into the conning tower to leave material that I could use to get a tight fit when they go back together as it is easy to fill the hole in the tower with putty:



Next I chopped the conning tower itself into 3 pieces, trimmed the roof of the tower to shape, then used a heat gun and some bending to reshape the side pieces to the new profile. Finaly I cut and glued stryene strips to recreate the upper band of window slits, glued it all together and slathered it with putty:



After everything dried I trimmed the excess from the inside and sanded it all smooth on the outside. I also opened up the window slits in the top section and opened up the area between the two pieces.





Now I'm in the early stages of integrating the conning tower top with the rest of the tower:



Yeah this took a fair amount of time and most people would never realize it was the wrong shape to begin with but it's the preponderance of little things that truly makes a build special and I intend to take the time to build my Hood as accurate as I am able.

Why? Because it's there!

On to the hull...

I did A LOT of sanding on the hull and gave it the first coat of primer, which of course revealed everything I missed but I was expecting that so it's all good. It's not easy to get a smooth hull out of the mess I made but I'm getting there.



Sometimes (OK, most of the time) I just don't get Trumpeter's kit engineering... taking a beautifully streamlined hull and designing something like this to muck it up:



Luckily, this is an easy fix:



Next on my list (while finally wiping away the kit plating) is to modify the anchor hawsepipes; they are also the wrong shape. It should be fun!

I envy your courage Jason. I'm not brave enough to practically "destroy" my models in the process of making them more accurate. You do amazing work.

[Channell]

Following this with great amount of interest as Im building the same beast in 1/700 scale.

Question - the hawse pipes in the hull - how should they look on the blank anchor? I dont see any good pic of how it looks from close up. How does the hole look like basically??

There are lots of pics online but basically they are more circular in shape than the kit.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments! I'm still working on smoothing out the hull; I also realized I messed up on the conning tower. For some reason I thought it was a straight tower with a raised band just below the window portion of the tower but the tower top is actually larger in diameter than the rest of the tower, requiring more surgery on the kit. More to come, probably Wednesday (My day off! )

[Mgunns]

Looks like you got your MOJO back Jason. Looks like you are making progress and in the end your efforts will pay off, one tube of putty at a time.
Looking forward to your next update and how manage to correct the conning tower and what the correction is.

[Timhan]

Being retired i have a fair bit of time on my hands and have made good progress on all things
related to the construction of the hull. But - i have a problem that is proving very elusive.
The two frets that make up the Admiral,s quarters have the raised letters "HOOD". The question
is how to highlight the letters. Have tried several methods, but all to no avail. I have tried a soft
lead pencil, a very fine point pen, paint, (disaster!) and even using the method used by my wife
for her porcelain painting - painting the letters dark and then wiping off the paint to reveal the
dark colour underneath. Does someone have a fool proof method ? Finding a decal of the precise
size is also proving elusive. Would welcome any solutions.

[pascalemod]

Being retired i have a fair bit of time on my hands and have made good progress on all things
related to the construction of the hull. But - i have a problem that is proving very elusive.
The two frets that make up the Admiral,s quarters have the raised letters "HOOD". The question
is how to highlight the letters. Have tried several methods, but all to no avail. I have tried a soft
lead pencil, a very fine point pen, paint, (disaster!) and even using the method used by my wife
for her porcelain painting - painting the letters dark and then wiping off the paint to reveal the
dark colour underneath. Does someone have a fool proof method ? Finding a decal of the precise
size is also proving elusive. Would welcome any solutions.

I think dry brushing the edges would make the letters stand out in a uniform manner. So you basically trace the outline. If thats possible - should be ok. I have the same task in 1/700 but there the letters are gray like the main upper works so its just dry brushing in lighter gray color, and much easier I suppose.

[Channell]

Ok, some more in-progress stuff:



First off, I decided on what paint to use:



I've finally got the hull pretty much smoothed up:







To anyone trying this particular mod, be forewarned it's a bit of a PITA as Hood's hull contours are rather complex and filling the molded hull plating requires some careful shaping; it's not just a matter of "filling in the blanks". I managed it with repeated rounds of putty, sanding, auto body filler primer but filling the plating troughs might be better accomplished with styrene strips as was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Next I got a bit carried away on modifying the forward superstructure:



For reference, here's what the conning tower should look like:



I cut the lower section of the conning tower off with a razor saw, reinforced it from behind and reshaped it. I also cut off the quad machinegun platforms so I could open up the area underneath; the original kit piece was just plain solid plastic. I got the idea from Ej's excellent in-progress build (http://ontheslipway.com/) and I will probably borrow A LOT of his ideas. Hope you don't mind EJ!





As it seemed a good time to get access to all the view slits/vents and portholes on forward end of the superstructure I went ahead and opened everything up too. I botched the vents on this side; I melted them with the dremmel and had to replace them with styrene strips:



And a final shot underneath to show what a hack-job this really is:



Still lots more work to do on this section but I'm getting ahead of myself now... I think next I'll clear the moldings off of and glue down the main decks.

Then I need to do something about detailing and attaching the shelter deck. As that area will not be accessible once I glue down that huge main superstructure/boat deck kit piece, I'll have to finish that semi-interior area completely and mask it off. Then I can clear the seams between it and the hull, give it a final primer coat, add the new hull plating with tape+primer, add the hull PE, final paint, ect.

[RichardP]

Awesome...no fear of hacking away to get it right. I too love the smell of green plastic filler in the morning....

[Goodwood]

Ladies and gentlemen, he's got his mojo back!

Excellent work, Jason, you should be proud of the effort you're putting into this kit.

[Blampman66]

Jason,

Fantastic job as usual. With all the putty you been using, a Christmas card from the manufacturer should be on the way this year. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Bill

[Timhan]

Hi Jason. Would be interested to see what you do with the boat deck down the track. I have almost completley
destroyed this piece to the extent it looks like a bombed out block of flats in post WWII Berlin. Having removed
just about every feature to accommodate the Pontos parts, i have dry fitted most of the replacement features
and the transformation is a revelation. The brass splinter shields are a pain to make and need careful handling
afterwards to avoid damage. Have completed the shelter deck but i am biding my time as to when to attach the
the boat deck. One of the biggest challenges with this build is trying to work out how to proceed in the right
order of things. Get ahead of yourself and your in deep doodoo,s. Am watching your build with interest and
will alert anyone to any problems i encounter with my own project.

[europapete]

yup, I agree, the order of build is most important with this ship. Like Jason said, the visible underside area's of the decks will have to be completely finished and protected as the decks are added. Seems like it has to be built from the keel up, and the center out in layers. Haven't had chance to set up the picture hosting thing yet, but I will. Regards, Pete.

[fooesboy]

Hi Jason,

Nice progress! (must confess to checking every day for updates....)

I spent a bit of time over the weekend sorting out my Pontos set, one of the things I have done is make a "Part map" to place in my folder were I am keeping my PE sheets. I figure it will speed up the process of finding the PE parts and that others might benefit from it too.

Chris

[builder]

Very useful "Part map".

Chris, thanks for your input.

[Timhan]

Am working at the moment on the 50 ft. swinging boom. One thing i have noticed from photos of this area
is that the supports when swung out are a "hook" shape (open). Item numbers 345,6 and 7 on the Pontos
fret are "rings" or circles. Not sure if i should nip out a small portion of the "ring" to create a hook, or leave alone as there
may have been some sort of closing clip or similar mechanism. Only a minor issue but would welcome an
opinion.