Calling all HMS "Mighty" Hood fans

[pascalemod]

The best place to look for answers to questions related to HOOD is the Hood Association website at http://www.hmshood.com/. To quote from the "As sunk" section of the "Paint Schemes of H.M.S. Hood, 1920-1941" page on that site, "The main derrick (attached to the main mast) and the booms mounted amidships port & starboard were definitely painted hull colour. There were other booms (located in clusters of 3 on the sides of the forward superstructure) that were indeed plain wood. This has all been proven by the colour wartime footage of Hood from late 1940."

Ahaa, so seems like Nick Doggers Hood is spot on in that regard. Very helpful, thank you. Confusion cleared up.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

I painted mine in the hull color.

[pascalemod]

So a question on boats on Hood, ca May 1941.

From HMS Hood Association website:
" Hood's small motor boats, Admirals Barge and open row boats were usually canvas covered"

Below is how I understood it: All boats covered except one large on that has a smaller one in it, and two large motor boats are also uncovered. So in total, 3 boats will not be covered, but remainder will be, including ones on davits hanging overboard.

Correct, or?

(GREEN - COVERED, BLUE - Uncovered)

[EJFoeth]

The three larger ships most forward were 25ft fast motor boats (FMBs), not open boats. These were sometimes covered, sometimes not. The two outer boats you have marked in blue are the 35ft FMBs, but so is the boat on the portside near the main mast; this was a special version of the 35 ft FMB and was the admirals barge. Images have from April/May 1941 show all of them covered except the port side fwd 35ft FMB (several independent shots over two months; could be fortuitous). The cabin of the 42ft barge is typically covered but I have very little material on this one. That is, barely a decent shot! Note that on either side of the structure between the funnels there are two open 16" boats in cradles; there was also one 16" FMB (The " skimming dish") on deck on starboard between the fwd UP launcher and 4" gun emplacement, even starboard of the large ladder going down. Also covered.

This is one of the areas were I will deliberately fail to be accurate and build my model with all boats in the open. Note that if you are consistent with coverings, you also need to do all the UP launchers, all the cable reels, all the quad Vickers guns... some shots also show the rear of all 4" guns closed by canvas. Rather boring!

[pascalemod]

The three larger ships most forward were 25ft fast motor boats (FMBs), not open boats. These were sometimes covered, sometimes not. The two outer boats you have marked in blue are the 35ft FMBs, but so is the boat on the portside near the main mast; this was a special version of the 35 ft FMB and was the admirals barge. Images have from April/May 1941 show all of them covered except the port side fwd 35ft FMB (several independent shots over two months; could be fortuitous). The cabin of the 42ft barge is typically covered but I have very little material on this one. That is, barely a decent shot! Note that on either side of the structure between the funnels there are two open 16" boats in cradles; there was also one 16" FMB (The " skimming dish") on deck on starboard between the fwd UP launcher and 4" gun emplacement, even starboard of the large ladder going down. Also covered.

This is one of the areas were I will deliberately fail to be accurate and build my model with all boats in the open. Note that if you are consistent with coverings, you also need to do all the UP launchers, all the cable reels, all the quad Vickers guns... some shots also show the rear of all 4" guns closed by canvas. Rather boring!

Wow.... thanks for this. Im gonna fail with accuracy here too and only have few covered and bunch open since I use PE and with PE lifeboats look pretty cool. And really no interest in covering guns, its supposed to look as it went to battle, not in port or smth.

The pic above is from Hood website but I agree that some boats are wrong in that pic, go figure!

[Guest]

I am both beyond annoyed that these images have probably been on the IWM site for some time now and have not been properly marked as HMS Hood (pics of HMS Prince of Wales similarly well hidden) as well as quite excited that image #2 may be the first half-decent shot of the rear of the spotting top after the type 284 gunnery radar was fitted. I've been on the lookout for such pics for many years. Unfortunately the IWM no longer supports user comments, so other discoveries will soon be lost, again...

Great detective work EJFoeth :-)

We learned many years ago we also had to search through photos of visits by dignitaries to often unnamed warships for onboard shots. Good to see that new information is still becoming available.
Congratulations,
maurice

[MartinJQuinn]

I am both beyond annoyed that these images have probably been on the IWM site for some time now and have not been properly marked as HMS Hood

Great photos, but also very sobering. All those men, who didn't know they had less than 3 months to live.

[EJFoeth]

There should be more material. I checked a lot of videos of Royal visits to British Pathe and so forth and you find clips like these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBektmDIeZU

that contain some frames that are now the IWM shots (if you image search: King Rosyth 1941). Other clips also show HMS Hood, such as this one at 26 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSTeMxfVYxU

Spending too much time searching I guess

Incidentally, the IWM shot didn't have enough contrast in the mast area to show anything new.

[Bill Livingston]

Another huge thank you for that posting EJ.

When watching the second film, just at around 18 to 20 seconds while the cameraman was running with the camera, I noticed he was running along Hood and did a frame by frame search.

Look what I found... a better sense of the size of the platform from X-Turret to the bandstand, but further confirmation of my observation the other day that the platform actually ended short of level with the end of the turret and the rear supports were removed at the same time.

This seems conclusive to me now... but I see only the remnants of the rear supporting plates are still in place, probably welded on and to which the supporting plates were then bolted.

Here is a crop with a touch more contrast to see the shapes of the support braces...

The end of the first section is interesting... it seems it�s not a complete panel and it appears there is the remnants of the final supporting bracket for this section. A frame or two before this still is confirmation that the front three sections are still in place.

The platform from the rear of Turret X to the bandstand (or should that be the other way round!?)is quite interesting...it is longer than I thought (and longer than the Pontos platform in the update set... and has greater support. That�s another area to modify

But my main thing is this platform... thanks for the clip EJ... (and maybe you can pull a better still from it than I can?) Virtually the last frame before the change to the cheering workers (at 21 seconds).

BTW... EJ, have you got any better (higher resolution) of the short little protrusions on the front corner of each turret (they look like short aerials with a ball top - but are almost certainly not))... and the one with the elongated ball in the front centre? (I have no idea what these are...!).

I have a decent photo of the awning support bracket on Y Turret, so thats fine... other than that, I think I have most of what I need to finish off my Hood turrets.

[EJFoeth]

Do you mean these?

Chesneau002.jpg

Nothing better that this. The one in the middle is an awning hook, the outer ones? I only see them on the lower turrets.

[Bill Livingston]

Yep... exactly these.

Thanks EJ... thats a much better photo than any I have...

[EJFoeth]

[Bill Livingston]

SO much of real interest in that film...!

(I handnt realised just how much time battleships spend virtually submerged...! Jeez... I wouldn't want to be riding into a heavy sea at speed on one of those!!!)

Looks like another frame by frame search... even just viewing the film quickly has answered a lot of questions - and raised a few more!

Thank you EJ.

What a fabulous resource!!!

[EJFoeth]

Don't post any more frames that force me to cut off pieces of my model

[Bill Livingston]

Don't post any more frames that force me to cut off pieces of my model

I'l try to resist!

[greenglade]

hi guys

I would assume that you have seen this colour footage from 1939, some great close ups of Hood....just in case anyone missed it, here it is again.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAthCvk5Gro

Pete

edit: this one two which was posted by a player of the World of Warships naval game which i've been playing since 'Alpha'.. oh and yes i have the 'Hood' in port...... the film stock is of a better quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMuESfggOnw

[EJFoeth]

Indeed, the colour footage of that clip is better

[greenglade]

http://www.scotlandsimages.com/Respages ... hms%20hood

Hi EJ

this link no longer works do you have another please sir...I'm working my way through the information that's easily available for 'Hood' before looking deeper..

cheers

Pete

[EJFoeth]

Unfortunately not... I noticed the link went dead a few years ago. I did save a lof of these images to a DVD; I'll see if I can find them. Most of the images are those also shown in Ian Johnston's book; the image quality in the book is far superior.

[greenglade]

Unfortunately not... I noticed the link went dead a few years ago. I did save a lof of these images to a DVD; I'll see if I can find them. Most of the images are those also shown in Ian Johnston's book; the image quality in the book is far superior.

Thanks' EJ, any help from your vast experience on this beautiful ship would be very much appreciated..

cheers

Pete